CAPG's Blog 

O thou, to whom were committed the most precious talents of the priesthood! Fear lest like the useless servant thou be cast out into exterior darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Where is he, my son, where is Judas? Where are the other priests who imitated him and who like him died in their sins? 

Where? They are buried in hell, where they lie the deeper down, the higher the place they should have occupied in heaven.

There they are filled with shame, who on earth enjoyed a high degree of honor.

There they are despised, mocked and trampled upon by Satan, who on earth were revered by men and angels.

There they drink of the gall of vipers and of the poison of asps, who received my blood unworthily at the altar.

There they are stung and tormented by the old serpent, who should have triumphed over him by their sacred ministry.

There they are poor and naked, who on earth enjoyed unearned luxuries.

There they are prodded with burning goads, who by their cowardice and sloth allowed my sheep to perish.

There they are covered with fetid pitch and sulfur who, in their highly spiritual and holy state, lived according to the flesh.

There their ears are wearied by horrible noises, who were unwilling to listen to penitents in the tribunal of mercy.

There they are in desolation, who refused to console my sorrowing people.

There they suffer bitter pain, who neither sympathized with nor aided those in trouble.

There their bodies are lacerated, who by their scandals were the murderers of souls.

There their cry is unheeded, who on earth neglected prayer and performed their duties carelessly.

There, in fine, they shall suffer the rigorous scourge of my justice, who have not kept my commandments which they announced to the people, and thereby resisted more than others the Holy Spirit.

So it is, my son, they were my chosen ones, my friends, my ministers, endowed and enriched with my graces; and they rebelled against me and betrayed me, outraged my Holy Spirit and trampled me, their Savior, under foot.

Source: An epitome of the priestly life, Fr. Claude Arvisenet

"When you see a priest offering the sacrifice", he ( St. John Chrysostom) says, "do no think as if it were he that is doing this; it is the hand of Christ, invisibly stretched forth." The hand of Christ invisibly stretched forth, that is the image we must conjure up if we are to think of the Mass as what it really is. The philosopher Aristotle, in defining the position of a slave, uses the words, "A slave is a living tool". And that is what a priest is, a living tool of Jesus Christ. He lends his hands to be Christ's thoughts; there is, there should be, nothing of himself in it from first to last, except where the Church graciously permits him to dwell for a moment in silence on his own special intentions, for the good estate of the living and the dead. Those who are not of our religion are puzzled sometimes, or even scandalized, by witnessing the ceremonies of the Mass; it is all, they say, so mechanical. But you see, it ought to be mechanical. They are watching, not a man, but a living tool; it turns this way and that, bends, straightens itself, gesticulates, all in obedience to a preconceived order, Christ's order, not ours. The Mass is best said, we Catholics know it, when it is said so that you do not notice how it is said; we do not expect eccentricities from a tool, the tool of Christ.

Source: Pastoral Sermons and Occasional Sermons, The Eucharist, Fr. Ronald Knox

When He had rested on the seventh day after the stupendous achievement of the natural creation, God made man to be its priest. When He rose on the third day after resting from the labors of His Passion, Incarnated God set the crown on his work of redemption by instituting the Christian priesthood. It was a fresh act of creation, no less amazing in its results than that other; for the powers which the Christian priesthood enjoys exceed the natural powers of man no less significantly than man's natural powers exceed those of the brute beasts. The world, fallen and redeemed, was to be reconciled to God by the ministry of the priest, a representative man, chosen out among his fellows to be their spokesman and God's ambassador. Sanctified by his office, he was to intercede for his sinful brethren, to come between them and God's anger, offering sacrifice in their name.

 True, there was nothing unheard of in that. For centuries before our Lord came, priests had been offering sacrifice to God; among the Jews, in obedience to the light of an imperfect revelation, among the Gentiles, from a sort of blind instinct which warned them that atonement for sin, could it only be achieved, was the first step towards communion with God, But all those old sacrifices were no better than a frantic appeal, a despairing gesture. The blood of bulls and goats could not take ways sin; and the priests who offered them were themselves encompassed with infirmities; sinful men themselves, they could not bear the petitions of the people into God's presence as having the right to enter it. Our Lord came, to be at once a sinless Victim and a sinless Priest. Priest and Victim, he offered his own death to be the sufficient atonement for a world's transgressions. When the first Adam received the breath of life, this material universe was elevated into a fresh state of communion with God. When the second Adam gave back that same breath of life into his Father's hands, our guilty race was restored to the divine favor. Ruined long since by Adam's fault, the word could cry once more, HABEMUS PONTIFICEM.

Source: The Divine Sacrifice, (Pastoral Sermons and Occasional Sermons, Fr. Ronald Knox. 1940)

Thou art of the gods and of the sons of the Most High, 
Human is the dignity of a king; divine that of a priest. 

When a king dies, honors and power forsake him;
 when a priest dies, his priesthood remains forever, 

A king commands men, a priest God himself; 
a powerful king conquers his enemies; 
 a true priest overcomes the world. 

A king can imprison the body or otherwise punish it; 
 a priest can bind the soul itself. 

A king can free captives from bodily chains; 
 a priest can free souls from the tyranny of the devil 
 and the snares of sin. 

A king can do nothing save on earth; 
 a priest is powerful in heaven itself. 

A king may possess the treasures of the world ; 
 a priest holds those of heaven. 

A king may send gifts to kings;
 a priest holds aloft sacrifice to the God of heaven; 

A king offers gold;
 a priest offers God himself. 

His voice penetrates the heavens whence he draws graces;
there he appeases and moves God; there he exercises judgment over men. 

In very truth his sentence precedes the sentence of God; 
whatsoever he loosens or binds is loosened or bound in heaven. 

 Source: An Epitome of the Priestly Life,