Humility or undignified impropriety ?

Priesthood ^ | late 19th century | Poe Saint Pius X

[Vermont Crank]

Dignity and Propriety

In order never to be guilty of any disedifying act, the priest must regulate his actions, his movements and his habits in harmony with the sublimity of his vocation. He who on the altar almost ceases to be mortal and takes on a Divine form, remains always the same even when he comes down from the holy hill and leaves the temple of the Lord.

Wherever he is, wherever he goes, he never ceases to be a priest and the serious reasons which compel him always to be grave and becoming accompany him with his dignity everywhere.

Hence he must have that gravity which will ensure that his words, his bearing and his way of working arouse love, win authority and excite reverence, because the very reasons which oblige him to be holy make it a duty for him to show it by his outward acts in order to edify all those with whom he is obliged to come into contact. A composed and dignified exterior is a sort of powerful eloquence which wins souls in a much more efficacious manner than persuasive sermons. Nothing inspires greater confidence than an ecclesiastic who, never forgetting the dignity of his state, demonstrates in every situation that gravity which attracts and wins universal homage. If on the contrary he forgets, the holiness of the sacred character which he bears indelibly impressed and engraved on his soul, and if he fail to show in his outward conduct a gravity superior to that of certain men of the world, he causes his ministry and religion itself to be despised, because when gravity is wanting in the leaders the people lose respect and veneration for them.