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"The Dignity and Duties of the Priest" (excerpt)

St. Alphonsus Liguori

I
The Idea of the Priestly Dignity

In his epistle to the Christians of Smyrna, St. Ignatius, Martyr, says that the priesthood is the most sublime of all created dignities: “The apex of dignities is the priesthood.” St. Ephrem calls it an infinite dignity: “The priesthood is an astounding miracle, great, immense, and infinite.” St. John Chrysostom says, that though its functions are performed on earth, the priesthood should be numbered among the things of Heaven." According to Cassian, the priest of God is exalted above all earthly sovereignties, and above all celestial heights-----he is inferior only to God. Innocent III says that the priest is placed between God and man; inferior to God, but superior to man. St. Denis calls the priest a Divine man. Hence he has called the priesthood a Divine dignity. In fine, St. Ephrem says that the gift of the sacerdotal dignity surpasses all understanding. For us it is enough to know, that Jesus Christ has said that we should treat his priests as we would his own person: “He tkat heareth you, heareth Me; he tkat despiseth you, desptseth Me.” Hence St. John Chrysostom says, that “he who honors a priest, honors Christ, and he who insults a priest, insults Christ.” Through respect for the sacerdotal dignity, St. Mary of Oignies used to kiss the ground on which a priest had walked.
 
II

Importance of the Priestly Office

The dignity of the priest is estimated from the exalted nature of his offices. Priests are chosen by God to manage on earth all his concerns and interests. " Divine," says St. Cyril of Alexandria, “are the offices confided to priests.” St. Ambrose has called the priestly office a Divine profession. A priest is a minister destined by God to be a public ambassador of the whole Church, to honor Him, and to obtain His graces for all the faithful. The entire Church cannot give to God as much honor, nor obtain so many graces, as a single priest by celebrating a single Mass; for the greatest honor that the whole Church without priests could give to God would consist in offering to Him in sacrifice the lives of all men. But of what value are the lives of all men compared with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which is a sacrifice of infinite value? What are all men before God but a little dust? As a drop of a bucket, as a little dust. They are but a mere nothing in His sight: All nations are before Him as if they had no being at all. Thus, by the celebration of a single Mass, in which he offers Jesus Christ in sacrifice, a priest gives greater honor to the Lord, than if all men by dying for God offered to Him the sacrifice of their lives. By a single Mass, he gives greater honor to God than all the Angels and Saints, along with the Blessed Virgin Mary, have given or shall give to Him; for their worship cannot be of infinite value, like that which the priest celebrating on the altar offers to God. Moreover, in the holy Mass, the priest offers to God an adequate thanksgiving for all the graces bestowed even on the Blessed in Paradise; but such a thanksgiving all the Saints together are incapable of offering to Him. Hence it is, that on this account also the priestly dignity is superior even to all celestial dignities. Besides, the priest, says St. John Chrysostom, is an ambassador of the whole world, to intercede with God and to obtain graces for all creatures… The priest, according to St. Ephrem, “treats familiarly with God.” To priests every door is open. Jesus has died to institute the priesthood. It was not necessary for the Redeemer to die in order to save the world; a drop of His Blood, a single tear, or prayer, was sufficient to procure salvation for all; for such a prayer, being of infinite value, should be sufficient to save not one but a thousand worlds. But to institute the priesthood, the death of Jesus Christ has been necessary. Had he not died, where should we find the victim that the priests of the New Law now offer? a victim altogether holy and immaculate, capable of giving to God an honor worthy of God. As has been already said, all the lives of men and Angels are not capable of giving to God an infinite honor like that which a priest offers to Him by a single Mass.
 
I’m all for it, I’m tired of being discriminated all because of a liturgical preference.
 
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Teresa9:
Dear friend

What on earth was that???

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
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Theresa, that was the exact same reaction I had when I saw it!
 
Dear friends

Well I have never seen anything like it in my life and I never want to see anything like that or worse ever again. What was the Priest trying to achieve with this twirling and dancing? Mass is a solemn offering of THANKSGIVING, not for dancing holding Sacred Scripture. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I saw that. I watched it again twice over so my eyes could believe what they were seeing and then I did cry, this is terrible what is happening and it should STOP now.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
 
I agree Teresa,

I am trying to do that Teresa. And I am getting a certain reputation on this site. I wonder what would become of me if I stood up and took a stand in my own parish. How long would I last? But this is happening in many places and much worse. Can we allow these kinds of abuses to continue in the name of charity? There are priests and bishops in the CCR who do this and much worse. Are we to remain silent? We are accused of divisiveness, lacking in love and are ordered to take out the splinter from our own eyes. I would say… when it comes to such abuses… we are talking about logs that are the size of an old growth forest.
 
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Teresa9:
Dear friends

Well I have never seen anything like it in my life and I never want to see anything like that or worse ever again. What was the Priest trying to achieve with this twirling and dancing? Mass is a solemn offering of THANKSGIVING, not for dancing holding Sacred Scripture. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I saw that. I watched it again twice over so my eyes could believe what they were seeing and then I did cry, this is terrible what is happening and it should STOP now.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
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Teresa,
It is enough to make a person cry. I have thought on occasion that it might be an idea to have an internet prayer group, informal, yet connected world-wide, with the express purpose of asking, pleading, imploring our Lord to raise up orthodox leaders; priests, bishops, cardinals, etc. that will take on the forces of heresy, new age, liberalism, and the mentality of experience over knowledge that seems to permeate the CCR and ALPHA. And also to raise up catechists to teach the orthodox Catholic faith.

Everyone would commit to a certain amount of time in prayer, wherever, home, work, the church. If there were enough people, the times themselves could be “signed up for” so that worldwide conceivably every hour of the day would be covered, say in half hour alotments.

Can you imagine the power of that? If there were enough involved it could be 24/7/365. Particularly if we were to enlist the aid of St. John the Evangelist, St. Peter our first Pope, St. Paul the teacher, preacher and author of so much of our New Testament, and of course Our Lady, mother of our Lord. Obviously, the list of saints we could ask for help goes vastly beyond that, as well as the angels.

I’m sure most of us do this anyway, but combined and focussed…

Practically, we would need some way of web-hosting and some kind of bulletin board set-up. Private e-mail, piggy-back CA?

Any thoughts? This has been percolating in my mind for some time now. Downsides? As far as the technical side, I can use a computer, but that’s about it.

Maybe this is already happening and somebody knows about it.
 
beng said:
Put to shame the liturgical dance scandal. (need to instal quicktime).

It’s in Evanston, IL btw.
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Oh my! I am laughing hysterically! A priest dancing in circles, alter boys dancing while holding lit candles, just alter boys dancing in front of strangers in enough, then a big procession around the church to end in the Holy Book being held up high with roaring applause from the audience oops congregation!

Lord, help us!
Jen
 
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tru_dvotion:
we are talking about logs that are the size of an old growth forest.
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:rotfl:

Oh, I am having a good laugh today. I know you are being serious but that was funny!

Jen
 
Les Richardson:
Any thoughts? This has been percolating in my mind for some time now. Downsides? As far as the technical side, I can use a computer, but that’s about it.

Maybe this is already happening and somebody knows about it.
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Well I don’t know if it’s happening elsewhere. Actually it reminds me of a holy orders group. Like these nuns pray for vocations, these monks pray for this…Doesn’t it?

I’m for it. Don’t know how. I’m not that computer savy. Maybe Augustine, he has a thread right now called Apostolates. He is an orthodox Catholic and he works with computers…

Jen
 
Thanks for the link on seminarians, Tru. Very good article indeed! I am not much for some of the other material you have posted here. The print is too small! I have very bad eyesight!
 
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Dunmoose:
Thanks for the link on seminarians, Tru. Very good article indeed! I am not much for some of the other material you have posted here. The print is too small! I have very bad eyesight!
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I have a vision problem also.

Maria
 
Just a comment on the video:

Though I find such “dancing” distasteful, is a little swaying around such a big deal? Enough to make you cry? I would expect such reactions if a priest was denying the divinity of Christ–or espousing any other overt heresy–during the homily, but for a little swaying and a twirl or two during the procession? Why is this treated as such an abomination? Again, I’m not supporting the practice. I just don’t see why it calls fr such outcry.
  • JP
 
Dear Les

A fine idea, let’s do it! I don’t know how it would work and I don’t know how to do computer programming etc, so my first prayer is for some kind soul to help us in this and post on this thread and get involved and help us to get organised and show us how we can come together as a group and set up Les’s fine idea…Dear Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and help us in this. Amen.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
 
I agree friends, it would be a splendid idea. If it is God’s will, it will happen.

Dear Dunmoose and Maria,

I try to avoid posting in large and heavy lettering because in internet language it means I am shouting. But there is a way you can increase the size of the print: On the top left hand corner click on “View”. A window will drop down. Click on “Text Size” and adjust it to a larger text you feel comfortable with. God bless.
 
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j_arden:
Just a comment on the video:

Though I find such “dancing” distasteful, is a little swaying around such a big deal? Enough to make you cry? I would expect such reactions if a priest was denying the divinity of Christ–or espousing any other overt heresy–during the homily, but for a little swaying and a twirl or two during the procession? Why is this treated as such an abomination? Again, I’m not supporting the practice. I just don’t see why it calls fr such outcry.
  • JP
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The Mass is the pure, ultimate act of Worship. Worship is what we owe to God. The sacrilege is beyond belief. By doing such horendeous act I would think that the priest already hold some heretical beliefs.
 
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