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CONCLUSIONS
"New
evangelization needs new evangelizers and these are the priests who are serious
about living their priesthood as a specific path toward holiness". (111)
To accomplish this it is fundamentally important that every priest rediscover
the absolute need for personal sanctity. "Before purifying others, they
must purify themselves; to instruct others they must be instructed; they have
to become light in order to illuminate and become close to God in order to
bring others closer to Him; they have to be sanctified in order to
sanctify".(112) This commitment is made concrete in a profound unity
of life which leads the priest to be and live as another Christ in
all the circumstances of his life.
The
faithful in the parish and those who collaborate in various pastoral activities
see, observe, feel, and listen not only when the Word of God is preached but
also when the liturgy is celebrated, especially the Mass, when they are
received in the parochial office (which should be comfortable and welcoming )(113);
when the priest eats and when he rests and they are edified by his temperance
and sobriety; when they visit his home and they rejoice in his simplicity and
priestly poverty; (114) when they talk with him and discuss common
interests and are comforted by his spiritual outlook, his courtesy and his
behaviour in treating humble people with priestly nobility. "The grace and
charity of the Altar are diffused at the ambo, in the confessional, in the
parish archive, in the schools and oratories, in the homes of the faithful, in
the streets and at the hospitals, on public transport and in the media. The
priest has an opportunity to fulfill his role as Pastor everywhere. In every
instance it is his Mass which is diffused. His spiritual union with Christ,
Priest and Host, causes him to be the grain of God that is to become the true
bread of Christ — as St. Ignatius of Antioch says (Epist. ad Romanos, IV,
1) — for the good of the brethren". (115)
Thus the
priest of the Third Millennium will be able to repeat again the reaction of the
disciples at Emaus, who, having heard Jesus, the Divine Teacher, explain the
Scriptures, could not but ask themselves "did not our hearts burn within
us as he talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?" (Lk
24, 32). We pastors should entrust ourselves to Mary, Queen and Mother of
the Church, so that, united with the Vicar of Christ, we may discover new ways
to evince a sincere desire for renewal among the Church's priests in their
tasks as teachers of the Word, ministers of the Sacraments and leaders of the
community. Let us ask the Queen of Evangelization for the Church to discover
anew the path which the mercy of God, in Christ and through the Holy Spirit,
has prepared from all eternity to draw all men, including our own
generation,into communion with Him.
Rome, at
the Palace of the Congregations, 19 March 1999, Solemnity of St. Joesph, Patron
of the universal Church.
Darío Card. Castrillón Hoyos
Prefect
Csaba Ternyák
Titular Archbishop of Eminenziana
Secretary
PRAYER TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
MARY,
Star of the New Evangelization,
who from the outset gladdened and renewed the hearts of the apostles and their
helpers in their spreading the Gospel, at the dawn of the third millennium,
cause to grow in priests an increasing realization that they are primarily responsible
for new evangelization.
MARY,
First of the evangelized and first evangelizer,
who with incomparable faith, hope and charity responded to the Angel, intercede
for those configured to your Son, Christ the Priest, so that they too may
respond in the same spirit to the Holy Father's urgent call made to them in the
Father's name on the occasion of the great Jubilee.
MARY,
Teacher of lived faith, who accepted the divine Word in total availability,
teach priests to know the Word in prayer and to devote themselves to his
service in humility and love, so that the same Word may continue to exercise
his all saving power in the third millennium.
MARY,
Full of grace and Mother of grace, protect your priestly sons who, like you,
are called to be collaborators of the Spirit who causes Jesus to be born in the
hearts of the faithful. Teach them to be faithful dispensers of the mysteries
of God during this anniversary of the birth of your Son, so that with your help
they may open the way of reconciliation to sinners, make the Eucharist the
summit of their lives and of the lives of those entrusted to them.
MARY,
Morning Star of the Third Millennium,
continue to guide the priests of Jesus Christ in following your example of love
of God and love of neighbour. May they know how to be true pastors. May they
guide the footsteps of all men to your Son, true light enlightening all men (John
1, 9). May priests and through them, all God's people, listen lovingly to
his call on the eve of a new millennium in the history of salvation: "Do
what he tells you" (John 2, 5). The Vicar of Christ tells us that
"with renewed force, the year 2000 should echo the proclamation of the
truth: Ecce natus est nobis Salvator Mundi".
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