Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests

CHAPTER 6: PASTORAL FORMATION | 89

whom his pastoral activity is made effective. 204 He may work to develop the habit of a daily examen to discern God’s hand at work in his ministry and express gratitude for that grace. Saintly priests through the ages testify as well to the power of a priest’s ascetical practices in his pastoral work. 205 Every day the priest approaches the altar of God and kisses the place of Christ’s sacrifice. Doing this reminds him that he is called to live out that sacrifice in his own life as both priest and victim, in union with the High Priest. “Loving the Cross in a hedonistic society is a scandal,” the DMLP observes, “but from a perspective of faith it is the fount of interior life. The priest must preach the redemptive value of the cross with his style of life.” 206 As the bishop exhorts the ordinands in the Rite of Ordination, “Understand what you will do, imitate what you will celebrate, and conform your life to the mystery of the Lord’s Cross.” 207 For personal sacrifices to enrich his pastoral work, a priest needs to make some practical resolutions. At times, and with the approval of his spir itual director, he may wish to employ more demanding ascetical practices, as St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “I do not fight as if I were shadow boxing. No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified” (1 Cor 9:26-27). 208 Such sacri fices, in addition to their potential benefit to the priest himself, may be the best way to advance his pastoral work. To a priest who complained that his apostolic zeal was bearing no fruit, St. John Vianney suggested, “You have offered humble prayers to God, you have wept, you have groaned, you have sighed. Have you added fasts, vigils, sleeping on the floor, castigation of your body? Until you have done all of these, do not think that you have tried everything.” 209 226. 227. 204 “Born of these prayers and called to renew in a sacramental and bloodless manner a Sacrifice inseparable from them, priests will keep their ministry alive with a spiritual life, to which they will give absolute pre-eminence, avoiding any neglect due to other activities.” DMLP, no. 49. 205 As leaders of the community, priests “ideally cultivate the asceticism proper to a pastor of souls, renounc ing their own conveniences, seeking what is profitable for the many and not for themselves, so that the many may be saved. They are always going to greater lengths to fulfill their pastoral duties more adequately. Where there is need, they are ready to undertake new pastoral approaches under the lead of the loving Spirit who breathes where He will.” PO, no. 13. 206 DMLP, no. 67. 207 Roman Pontifical, Ordination of a Bishop, of Priests, and of Deacons , no. 135. 208 The Greek word for “drive” here refers to severe, even harsh, discipline, such as that used by a boxer preparing for a match. 209 St. John Vianney, quoted in St. John XXIII, Sacerdotii Nostri Primordia , no. 72.