Program of Priestly Formation (Ascension)

PPF 42

The Life of Priests

“life,” called to witness in a fundamental way to the “radicalism of the Gospel.” 62

For priests, the specific arena in which their spiritual life unfolds is their exercise of ministry in fulfillment of their mission. 63 The life of priests in the Spirit means their continuous transformation and conversion of heart centered on the integration or linking of their identity as configured to Christ, Head and Shepherd, Servant and Spouse, with their ministry of Word, Sacrament, and pastoral governance (leadership). 64 “ In contemplating the Lord, who offered His life for others, he will be able to give himself generously and with self-sacrifice for the People of God.” 65 He will more closely imitate Jesus, who came to serve and not to be served. The ministry itself, by which the priest brings Christ’s redemptive gifts to his people, transforms the priest’s own life. In a particular way, the celebrations of the sacraments lead the priest to a holy encounter with God’s all-transforming, merciful love. When the priest’s identity as sacramentally configured to Christ culminates in his ministry on behalf of Christ, which is called amoris officium (a work of love), he finds his unity of life in pastoral charity. “Priests will achieve the unity of their lives by joining themselves with Christ in the recognition of the Father’s will and in the gift of themselves to the flock entrusted to them. In this way, by adopting the role of the good shepherd they will find in the practice of pastoral charity itself the bond of priestly perfection which will reduce to unity their life and activity.” 66

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Pastores Dabo Vobis , no. 20.

63 See Pastores Dabo Vobis , no. 24; Presbyterorum Ordinis , no. 12; Synod of Bishops, The Ministerial Priesthood and Justice in the World (1971), part 2, I, iii. 64 See Pastores Dabo Vobis , nos. 24-26. 65 Ratio Fundamentalis , no. 41. 66 Presbyterorum Ordinis , no. 14.

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