Reflections on the Priesthood (11)

By "Anne," A Lay Apostle

Truly, God's desire to renew the priesthood is passionate.

When one feels passionate about something, one very often gives to a degree that appears to exceed common thinking and expectation.

I believe God is passionately committed to a renewal of holiness in His priests. Today's priests must be equally passionate about abandoning themselves to the cause of the Church. They must be as committed as the first apostles.

The combination of God's passionate desire to renew the priesthood with the priest's passionate commitment to proclaiming Christ will draw the renewal down into the world like nothing else.

Rejoice in God's presence. Proclaim His presence to the world.

Mary, our mother, is available to us in each moment. She serves faithfully with Jesus, calling out most particularly to priests. She watches, ever vigilant, for every opportunity to protect and defend each priest. She, in her feminine way, makes available to each priest an example of gentle nurturing, the same nurturing that she uses with each of her children.

It seems to me that Our Lady was granted union with God here on earth and as such there was no wrenching process necessary for her to move from humanity to eternity. This was a sublime graciousness on the part of God. He bestowed all that heaven had to offer on her. For Our Lady, the heavenly union was achieved, through her willingness and cooperation and through God's great graciousness, on earth. We all experience union with Christ in heaven in the same way that Our Lady experiences union with Christ in heaven but she is different.

I am not saying Our Lady is divine. For clarity let me say that I see this as a vision. Our Lady was conceived mystically in the heart of the Father. From that heart, she proceeded into the world. Her heart never separated from God's heart. When it was time, He glanced at her. She knew Him immediately in this mystical way and accepted His Son, God, into her body as a human mother but also into her soul as one who experiences union in heaven. So at the moment of the Lord's physical conception, the Incarnation, Our Lady became like one who enters heaven. She achieved union, through necessity and desire on God's part, and willingness and longing on her part, like the saint who is taken up into permanent residence in heaven. Only she remained on earth. As a concession and reward and as a way of making her stand out as God's human temple, God brought her into heaven at the end of her life just the way she was, in this perpetual spiritual union.

I don't know how to clarify this except to say that Our Lady stands out as God's chosen Queen of heaven and earth. This is huge. Who is above her? Only the Trinity. Her role will never be repeated. As such, she would merit very close study.

Every time I talk about Our Lady, I come to the priesthood. It is like an intellectual cul de sac for me. I think I am trying to distinguish between Our Lady's union with God and God's presence in the priesthood.

Our Lady had perfect purity. Priests serving in their humanity do not. God's giving the priest a share of His divinity at ordination is something different from what Our Lady experienced and yet I believe it is comparable in many ways. I see a similarity between what happened to Mary at the Incarnation and what happens to a priest at Ordination.

I believe it was very important for God to show us how to live. It was for this reason He sent Christ. He sent Christ as the ideal for humanity in male form. I believe Our Lady is the ideal for humanity in female form. While she was not perfect as God is perfect, she perfectly represents God's presence in a woman. Just as we all, both men and women, should strive to be like Jesus in character and behavior, we should also strive to be like Mary in character and behavior.

I believe Mary must be God's most favored servant. She is the Saint among Saints, the epitome of the servant of God. Many saints have bestowed upon them by God high levels of unity or even union while they remain on earth.

I believe with great certainty that none compare to Mary. A priest who studies the gentleness and obedience of Mary will make great gains in the authentic representation of her Son.

Almighty God,
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
to You I pledge my allegiance
and the service of my entire life.
Grant me the help of Your Spirit
to live like Mary, my Mother,
in perfect obedience to Your holy will.
Amen.

(Prayer written by a priest for priests.)

For further information regarding the Lay Apostolate of Jesus Christ the Returning King, or to purchase Heaven Speaks booklets, please contact Direction for Our Times on the Web at www.directionforourtimes.com , or mail inquiries to the following address: 9000 West 81st St., Justice, IL  60458, U.S.A.