Our Church faces a crisis and at the heart of it is

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MariaChristi

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The title of this thread is taken in part from a description by Ignatius Press, which I’m posting in part below:
The Catholic Church faces a major crisis and the turmoil in priestly ministry is at the heart of it. “The priesthood is going through a dark time,” write Pope Emeritus Benedict and Cardinal Robert Sarah. “Wounded by the revelation of so many scandals, disconcerted by the constant questioning of their consecrated celibacy, many priests are tempted by the thought of giving up and abandoning everything.”
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You can read more HERE This is a book whose crucial message is for clergy and laity alike. Below is a quote from an interview with Cardinal Sarah in the Catholic Register concerning this book:
You return several times in this book to the necessity of radical evangelism. Do you believe we are facing a lessening of apostolic fervor, that the Church has lost her salt?

I’m glad you asked that question. It is certainly the most important aspect of this book, but no one has noted or commented on it. We are content with secondary and sterile polemics. I think we’ve been overwhelmed by lukewarmness and mediocrity. We must aspire to holiness. Benedict XVI, with prophetic courage, dares to affirm that “without the renunciation of material goods, there can be no priesthood. The call to follow Jesus is not possible without this sign of freedom and renunciation of all compromises.” He thus lays the foundations for a true reform of the clergy. He calls for a radical change in the daily life of priests as he continues: “Celibacy cannot attain its full meaning if we conform to the rules of property and the attitudes of life commonly practiced today.” I am convinced that in truth it is the radicality of this call to holiness which is disturbing and which we do not want to hear. This book is disturbing because the pope emeritus offers a demanding and prophetic perspective.

For my part, I have tried to develop this call by emphasizing that priests must find concrete ways to live the evangelical counsels. Bishops must reflect on this, for themselves and for priests: We must concretely put God at the center of our lives. The life of priests cannot be a life according to the world. “No one can serve two masters.” The West is out of breath. The West is old, with all its renunciations and resignations. It waits, without perhaps being aware of it, for youth, for the rawness of the Gospel’s demand for holiness. So it waits for priests who are radically saints.
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If I may, I would add, God waits also not only for priests but lay persons who are also radically saints! In yesterday’s Gospel, we heard these words:
Jesus said to His disciples:
“You are the salt of the earth.
But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?
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Come Holy Spirit, kindle in us the Fire of Your Love! Mary, Mother of the Church pray for us.
 
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Thanks, dear Camehomeforjn6,

I was editing my post when I saw your “heart”, so hopefully you will reread the words I added in the lines just above my quote from yesterday’s Gospel. 🙂 Truly we are all called to holiness - Clergy and Laity alike!
 
Dear Greenfields and silentwitness,

Thank you both for your “hearts” which let me know you also liked what you read. My husband and are are intending to order this book and yesterday I was thinking of how perfect the title of it is: “From the Depths of our Hearts”! How truly both Cardinal Sarah and Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI have written the Truth in Love which can only come from the depth of one’s heart given totally to God.

I"ve read works by both of these authors and reread many of Pope Benedict’s words over several years. Recently my husband and I read two of Cardinal Sarah’s books: “The Power of Silence” and “The Day is Now Far Spent” – both are excellent. We are definitly going to purchase this one by these two holy priests. I hope many will read their words and listen to what God is saying to us through them.
 
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Dear Cham and commenter,

Thanks so much for your “hearts” !

And to all I ask forgiveness for my typos!!! I’m in too much of a hurry to edit or add… I need to slow down and be more like our Mother Mary…seriously!
 
This is a powerful thread, MariaChristi - and an encouragement to my heart to hear such zeal from persons of their positions in the hierarchy. I have heard the words “we are all called to holiness” from time to time for decades now. But this time, in this darkening time for the Church and for the world - for humanity itself, maybe - this time I “hear” an unction in these words even in the mere printed version of them. And I am encouraged.

This is a time when, I believe, all the holy souls in the Church must pray, and do whatever is in one’s power to do, that His Life is made manifest with clarity and simplicity - and without mixture with the leaven of this world. The world does not need mixed messages, from mixed hearts - the “double-minded” of whom James wrote:
Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Jas 4:8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you men of double mind.
Jas 4:9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to dejection.
Jas 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.
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Dear fide,

Thanks so much for your reply. I too have heard an unction in Cardinal Sarah’s words, just as in times past I’ve been blessed reading the words of Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI in his books and addresses given as Pope. Hopefully many will read the book these two very prayerful shepherds of the Church have written.

This is a very difficult time for the Church, and I agree whole-heartedly, with you that we all must pray “and do whatever is in ones’ power to do” that the Life of Jesus is made manifest with clarity and simplicity – without mixture with the leaven of this world.

Thanks also for the quote from the Letter of James – so important for us all. By God’s Grace may we listen as Mary did and ponder all in our hearts, that we may hear the Truth and do the Truth we hear!
 
Dear KBS, patricius, and Stephie,

Thanks so much to you all – for your “hearts” – letting us know that you liked what you read on today’s thread. Please let us continue to pray for the Church, for one another and for all those in most need of God’s Mercy.
 
ENCYCLICAL LETTER
ECCLESIA DE EUCHARISTIA OF HIS HOLINESS
POPE JOHN PAUL II
TO THE BISHOPS
PRIESTS AND DEACONS
MEN AND WOMEN
IN THE CONSECRATED LIFE
AND ALL THE LAY FAITHFUL
ON THE EUCHARIST
IN ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE CHURCH
  1. If the Eucharist is the centre and summit of the Church’s life, it is likewise the centre and summit of priestly ministry. For this reason, with a heart filled with gratitude to our Lord Jesus
    Christ, I repeat that the Eucharist “is the principal and central raison d’être of the sacrament of priesthood, which effectively came into being at the moment of the institution of the Eucharist”.63
Jesus Christ Is Our Father’s Simple Plan For salvation Since Before Time Began!

Peace
 
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Dear hazcompat,

Thanks for your reply and the link to Pope St. JPII’s encyclical “On the Eucharist and its Relationship to the Church”. I was especially blessed in reading paragraph 6, this morning:
  1. I would like to rekindle this Eucharistic “amazement” by the present Encyclical Letter, in continuity with the Jubilee heritage which I have left to the Church in the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte and its Marian crowning, Rosarium Virginis Mariae . To contemplate the face of Christ, and to contemplate it with Mary, is the “programme” which I have set before the Church at the dawn of the third millennium, summoning her to put out into the deep on the sea of history with the enthusiasm of the new evangelization. To contemplate Christ involves being able to recognize him wherever he manifests himself, in his many forms of presence, but above all in the living sacrament of his body and his blood. The Church draws her life from Christ in the Eucharist ; by him she is fed and by him she is enlightened. The Eucharist is both a mystery of faith and a “mystery of light”. Whenever the Church celebrates the Eucharist, the faithful can in some way relive the experience of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus: “their eyes were opened and they recognized him” ( Lk 24:31).
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It seems to me there is – in this crisis we are facing – not only the lukewarmness and mediocrity of many priests but also of many among the laity – manifested in their irreverence for both Eucharist and for Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother, who by the power of the Holy Spirit brought Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God, into the world at His First Coming.

Pope St. John Paul II set before us in the two other documents he mentions in paragraph 6 :
his apostolic Letters: “On the Beginning of the New Millenium” and “On the Rosary of the Virgin Mary” the beautiful call to holiness and the power of pondering with Mary the Mysteries not only of His Gift of Eucharist but the other Mysteries of Light.

Yes, The Eucharist is truly the “Source and Summit” of all our lives, and I agree with the “programme” Pope St. JPII set before the Church of which Mary is the Mother and Model:
To contemplate the face of Christ, and to contemplate it with Mary, is the “programme” which I have set before the Church at the dawn of the third millennium, summoning her to put out into the deep on the sea of history with the enthusiasm of the new evangelization.
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