CAPG's Blog 

The Bishop is the principal teacher in the faith community. As such, he must be devoted to preaching the Gospel constantly. That preaching aims at illuminating to the faithful what they must believe and put into practice, while steering them away from every error that is life-threatening to the spirit.

Source: The Duties of the Bishop, Most Rev. Robert James Carlson

"(...) The bad or careless confessor, who is ignorant, imprudent, lazy, and negligent, is a plague in Christ's  Holy Church. He is not an emissary of God, but an agent of the devil. He is not a doctor of heaven but of hell, for as God has his patriarchs so the devil has heresiarchs. As God has His prophets, apostles and martyrs, so , too the devil has his prophets, apostles and martyrs.

The unworthy confessor is not a divine judge, but another Pilate, pronouncing sentence upon Christ and the souls that the Son of God died to redeem. He is not a mediator for God, but for the devil, not a dispenser of heavenly blessings but a profaner of divine mysteries and sacraments. In a word, instead of being another Christ, he is a very devil.

No tongue can tell the evil the bad confessor commits. He does great harm to the Church, persecuting it more cruelly than Nero, Diocletian, and the tyrants of history. Would to God that all priests who administer the Sacrament of Penance might meditate seriously on these truth! Would to God  that they might consider the inestimable good that they would accomplish if they were animated with the same spirit an if they followed the same maxims! They would completely overthrow the devil's tyranny and snatch souls from perdition. Would they might open their ears to the words of the Holy Spirit: "Take heed what you do; for you exercise not the judgment of man, but of the Lord." (2 Par. 19,6) Take heed in very truth for what you do  is not temporary, but eternal. What you perform does not concern an earthly kingdom, but the kingdom of God. You handle the treasure of heaven; you are responsible for the salvation or the damnation of souls. Remember to bring to your task the care and application demanded; have the necessary qualifications. Otherwise, the absolution you give may become so many damnation for you. Never forget that when you say the words: Ego to Absolvo, the eternal judge may reply, if you are unworthy, Ego te condemno."

Source: The Priest his dignities and obligations, St. John Eudes

"The first duty of the flock is to defend itself. The true children of Holy Church, at such times, are those who walk by the light of their Baptism, not the cowardly souls who, under the specious pretext of submission to the powers that be, delay their opposition to the enemy in the hope of receiving instructions which are neither necessary nor desirable."

Source: Dom Prosper Guéranger, The Liturgical Year

"Pray, pray for your priests; every nation, every diocese gets the clergy it deserves.
We priests are only earthen vessels, you know for yourselves many of the shortcomings, hasty temper and slovenly habits and so on, by which we often disgrace the livery we wear. But, when you observe such things, you merely shrug your shoulders, and say, "Pity Father So-and-so isn't more like poor Canon So-and-so". You should be on your knees,this next week, praying for the clergy everywhere, from the Holy Father himself down to the new priests [...]; praying for the seminaries too, the factories where the tools of Christ are made. God protect His Church in the anxious, bewildered days that are coming; and give us supply of good priests to work as the martyrs worked, to live as the martyrs lived, and if need be to die as the martyrs died, to the glory of His Holy Name."

Source: Monsignor Ronald Knox, Priesthood, Pastoral Sermons and Occasional Sermons

"From the commencement of the fifth century, the number of disorderly Christians were so great, that St. Augustine believed himself obliged to warn those pagans of it who wished to become converts, that they might be less surprised and scandalized. The general laxity had crept even among the clergy. St. Jerome says of the ecclesiastics of Rome: " There are among them those who solicit the priesthood or deaconship that they may be able to approach women more freely; all their care consists in adorning their persons with costly and elegant apparel; they use perfumes and curl their hair with irons; rings glitter on their fingers, they walk with an affected gait; you would think them young bridegrooms rather than clergymen."

Source: The United States Catholic Magazine and Monthly Review, Volume 3

Incense, which ever mounts in clouds of perfume up to heaven, is symbolical of prayer: "Let my prayer, O Lord, be directed as incense in Thy sight." The fire, without which incense cannot be used, is the symbol of the Holy Ghost, of Jesus Christ, without whom we cannot pray and gain access to God. The altar is incensed because it represents the divinity of Jesus Christ; and the priest, the ecclesiastics, and the congregation are incensed to honor Jesus Christ, who dwells within the members of His Church in order to render them participants in His eternal life; and the priests are incensed a second time to honor also the Divine Priesthood of Our Lord, in which they share by their sacred character. During this time all should recollect themselves, and renew their resolutions to be ever worthy of their holy vocation. 

Traditional Latin Mass, Sacred Heart Raleigh NC

"All the ancient sacrifices, by which God was so much honored, were but shadows and figures of our sacrifice of the altar. All the honor that angels by their adorations and men by their good works, austerities, and even martyrdroms, have ever rendered or will ever render to God, never could, and never will, give Him so much glory as one single Mass; for, while the honor of all creatures is only finite, that which accrues to God from the holy Sacrifice of the Altar is infinite, inasmuch as the victim which is offered is of infinite value.

The Mass, therefore, offers to God the greatest honor that can be given Him; subdues most triumphantly the powers of hell; affords the greatest relief to the suffering souls in purgatory; appeases most efficaciously the wrath of God against sinners, and brings down the greatest blessings on mankind."

Source: Sacerdos sanctificatus; or, Discourses on the Mass and Office by St. Alphonsus Liguori

"Oh, my friends, let us pray much, and let obtain many prayers from others, for the poor dead; the good God will render us back the good we do to them a hundredfold. Ah! if every one knew how useful this devotion to the holy souls in purgatory is to those who practice it, they would not be forgotten so often; the good God regards all that we do for them as if it were done to Himself."
-- St. John Mary Vianney (Blessed Sacrament Book, Fr. Francis X. Lasance)

" but how many Priests belong entirely to Jesus Christ! Oh God, who do the greater part love their Savior who has so loved and exalted them? Oh God, how many poor laborers or shepherds love Jesus Christ better than many Priests love him! Alas! What will be the anguish of a Priest lost in hell, when he shall find himself for ever at a distance from, and deprived of Jesus Christ, who on earth has been so near to him - entirely his!"

Source: Sacerdos sanctificatus; or, Discourses on the Mass and Office

" If Priests and Religious did all recite the Office as it ought to be recited, the Church would not behold herself in the miserable state to which she is reduced. How many sinners would be delivered from the slavery of the devil, and how many souls would love God with much greater fervor! And how would priests themselves not find themselves ever the same, imperfect, irritable, jealous, attached to their own interests, and led away by vanities! Our Lord has promised to hear every one who prays to him. (Luke xi. 10).

And how comes it that a priest offering up so many prayers in a day, were it only in the Office which he recites, is yet never heard? He is always the same, as weak and prone as ever to fall not only into slight sins (to which he is habituated, and takes neither pains nor care to correct himself of them,) but into grievous sins against charity, justice, or chastity; hence when he recites the Office, he pronounces sentence of condemnation against himself, in these words: Maledicti qui declinant a mandatis tuis. And what is still worse, he feels little remorse, excusing himself as being of the same flesh and blood as other men, and not able to restrain himself.

But if he said the Office with fewer distractions and less negligence, accompanying with his heart the many prayers which he offers to God in reciting it, he certainly would not be so weak but would acquire fortitude and strength to resist all temptations, and to lead a holy life, such as becometh a Priest of God."

Source: Sacerdos sanctificatus; or, Discourses on the Mass and Office by Saint Alphonse de Liguori