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".