Posted on 06/13/2010 12:16:24 PM PDT by markomalley
.- Thousands of pilgrims and faithful gathered at noon Sunday in St. Peter’s Square to pray the Angelus with the Holy Father. Before the prayer, he said that the fruits of the recently ended Year for Priests could never be measured, but are already visible and will continue to be ever more so.
“The priest is a gift from the heart of Christ, a gift for the Church and for the world. From the heart of the Son of God, overflowing with love, all the goods of the Church spring forth,” proclaimed Pope Benedict XVI. “One of those goods is the vocations of those men who, conquered by the Lord Jesus, leave everything behind to dedicate themselves completely to the Christian community, following the example of the Good Shepherd.”
The Holy Father described the priest as having been formed by “the same charity of Christ, that love which compelled him to give his life for his friends and to forgive his enemies.”
“Therefore,” he continued, “priests are the primary builders of the civilization of love.”
Benedict XVI exhorted priests to always seek the intercession of St. John Marie Vianney, whose prayer, the “Act of Love,” was prayed frequently during the Year for Priests, and “continues to fuel our dialogue with God.”
The pontiff also spoke about the close of the Year for Priests, which took place this past week and culminated with the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He emphasized “the unforgettable days in the presence of more than 15,000 priests from around the world.”
The feast of the Sacred Heart is traditionally a “day of priestly holiness,” but this time it was especially so, Benedict XVI remarked.
Pope Benedict concluded his comments by noting that, in contemplating history, “one observes so many pages of authentic social and spiritual renewal which have been written by the decisive contribution of Catholic priests.” These were inspired “only by their passion for the Gospel and for mankind, for his true civil and religious freedom.”
“So many initiatives that promote the entire human being have begun with the intuition of a priestly heart,” he exclaimed.
The Pope then prayed the Angelus, greeted those present in various languages, and imparted his apostolic blessing.
There is no priesthood roll in the NT church ... The last Priest died on the cross and rose from the dead.. He is offering continual sacrifices for us in heaven
Exactly. Most Protestants with whom I've conversed do not understand the bolded part.
And it is Christ that offers the sacrifice of the Mass. And it is Christ who forgives sins.
Apparently you understand the doctrine of "In Persona Christi Capitis" very well.
Good job!!! (no sarcasm)
“The priest is a gift from the heart of Christ”
More like they must be breaking his heart.
I have to say that, as a child, all of my experiences with priests were highly positive. Almost, to the point of attending a Seminary.
So are you saying that you don’t believe in the priest acting in place of Christ during the Mass??
Alter Christus??
Please do some checking on that.
Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Catholic Discussion Ping List.
There is no roll of Priest in the NT church .. the positions given are elder , bishop ( overseer) and deacon
There is no priest in the NT church because the jewish priesthood was a type of Christ which He fulfilled on the cross..
May God bless and protect our beloved (and seemingly tireless) Pope Benedict. I worry about the toll his workload is taking on him.
Except mark there is no priesthood, no roll for a priest in the NT church. There are elders and Bishops and deacons, but no priesthood no more need for sacrifices ...God eliminated the priesthood as Christ had fulfilled the type.
If God had intended a priesthood it would have been outlined in the NT
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A Father and Son Swim the Tiber and become Priests [Ecumenical]
Cardinal Arinze discusses the priestly vows of obedience, poverty and chastity (Catholic Caucus)
Pope Gives Key to Being Highly Effective Priests [Ecumenical]
Priests: Ordinary Men Made Extraordinary by Grace [Holy Orders/Chrism Mass]
7 Reasons To Be a Priest
The Nature of Priestly Ordination: Theological Background and Some Present Concerns
The Priesthood of Jesus Christ - Body and Blood (Confessional ... Consecration ... and Calvary)
What You [Catholics] Need to Know: Priesthood (Holy Orders) [Catholic-Orthodox Caucus]
What You {Catholics} Need to Know: Celibacy [Catholic/Orthodox Caucus]
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Number of new priests expected to rise in 2007
Father, Mother, Sister, Brother [Part One of a series on Celibacy] -- Catholic Caucus
It Takes a Village of Vocations [Part Two of a series on Celibacy] -- Catholic Caucus
Living Single and Celibate in God’s Service [Part Three of a series on Celibacy] -- Catholic Caucus
Brothers and Sisters in Christ [Part Four of a series on Celibacy] -- Catholic Caucus
The Adventure of the Priesthood [Part Five of a series on Celibacy] -- Catholic Caucus
This Is the Body of Christ [Part Six of a series on Celibacy and Vocations] -- Catholic Caucus
14 men are ordained into the priesthood (at St. Patrick's Cathedral NYC)
To Know, To Love, To Lead (Pope Benedict XVI ordains 22 new priests)
The Indispensable Priesthood -- Holy Thursday, [Catholic/Orthodox Caucus]
Why Does the Catholic Church Ordain Only Men to the Priesthood? Part Three[Cath/Orth/Angl Caucus]
Why Does the Catholic Church Ordain Only Men to the Priesthood? Part Two
Why Does the Catholic Church Ordain Only Men to the Priesthood? Part One [Catholic/Orthodox Caucus]
Vatican Said (Again!) Not Revising Celibacy Rule
Ordinatio Sacerdotalis
First of all I think you mean role.
Secondly — The Gospels and the Letters of St. Paul cite ordinations/laying on of hands.
Strange Bible you have.
Christ breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit, who sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them, whose sins you shall retain they are retained.”
Sounds like the priesthood to me. The Twelve Apostles were the first Bishops and they passed the faith on to others through their actions.
Then what about Pentecost?
Elders are ordained by the laying on of hands as is scripturally indicated..that does not make elders priests.
It may sound like a “priesthood “ to you.. but the ROLE (thanks) of one that offers sacrifices is not anywhere taught in the new church .. Just as there is NO apostolic succession taught in the NT
There were elders in the OT, that was a very separate calling than priest .
the greek word for elder is different than the greek words for priest.. archiereus which translates into “High Priest” and hiereus which translates one that OFFERS SACRIFICES.
The role of the priesthood in scripture was to offer sacrifices.. That is what a priest does in scripture.. God set aside one tribe to be priests, they were not granted any land as God was their inheritance .
The greek have a couple words for priest
hiereus
1) a priest, one who offers sacrifices and in general in busied with sacred rites
a) referring to priests of Gentiles or the Jews,
2) metaph. of Christians, because, purified by the blood of Christ and brought into close intercourse with God, they devote their life to him alone and to Christ
and archiereus
Outline of Biblical Usage
1) chief priest, high priest
2) the high priests, these comprise in addition to one holding the high priestly office, both those who had previously discharged it and although disposed, continued to have great power in the State, as well as the members of the families from which high priest were created, provided that they had much influence in public affairs.
3) Used of Christ because by undergoing a bloody death he offered himself as an expiatory sacrifice to God, and has entered into the heavenly sanctuary where he continually intercedes on our behalf.
Neither role is given in scripture for the new church ..
Christ fulfilled the role of Priest on the cross.. there is no more sacrifice for sin
He is now our High Priest..
The word for elder is presbyteros here is the GREEK definition
1) elder, of age,
a) the elder of two people
b) advanced in life, an elder, a senior
1) forefathers
2) a term of rank or office
a) among the Jews
1) members of the great council or Sanhedrin (because in early times the rulers of the people, judges, etc., were selected from elderly men)
2) of those who in separate cities managed public affairs and administered justice
b) among the Christians, those who presided over the assemblies (or churches) The NT uses the term bishop, elders, and presbyters interchangeably
c) the twenty four members of the heavenly Sanhedrin or court seated on thrones around the throne of God
Now the Holy Spirit knows the difference in the greek words.. there is no priesthood provided for in the NT church.
There was no priests in the new church.it was about 300 AD before the first priesthood appeared..
Greg Dues has written Catholic Customs & Traditions, a popular guide (New London: Twenty Third Publications, 2007). On page 166 he states,
“Priesthood as we know it in the Catholic church was unheard of during the first generation of Christianity, because at that time priesthood was still associated with animal sacrifices in both the Jewish and pagan religions.”
“A clearly defined local leadership in the form of elders, or presbyteroi, became still more important when the original apostles and disciples of Jesus died. The chief elder in each community was often called the episkopos (Greek, ‘overseer’). In English this came to be translated as ‘bishop’ (Latin, episcopus). Ordinarily he presided over the community’s Eucharistic assembly.”
“When the Eucharist came to be regarded as a sacrifice, the role of the bishop took on a priestly dimension. By the third century bishops were considered priests. Presbyters or elders sometimes substituted for the bishop at the Eucharist. By the end of the third century people all over were using the title ‘priest’ (hierus in Greek and sacerdos in Latin) for whoever presided at the Eucharist.”
Garry Wills, Professor of History Emeritus, Northwestern U.,
Pulitzer Prize Winner
author of WHY I AM A CATHOLIC, wrote the following in his
Best Seller WHAT JESUS MEANT page 81.
senior moment
A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
The WORD priest evolved from the word presbyter. In the Catholic Church priests are often called presbyters, for example in some canons.
The Old Testament priesthood was fulfilled in Christ. I agree there.
However, you do not understand what we say about the priesthood, and so you speak of it as if it were essentially distinct from the eternal priesthood of Christ.
The false polemicists of your side love few things as much as they enjoy getting the vapors and twisted knicker syndrome over the idea of the Catholic presbyter being “another Christ.”
But their loud and cherished consternation looks as ridiculous and as false as most of their arguments and charges because they do not take the trouble to understand that with which they are disagreeing.
This is not mind-reading. It is a conclusion from the arguments made. As usual they are arguments not against what we hold but against what we do not hold.
You see, at least here on FR, the basic Protestant and anti-Catholic maneuver is to shift attack and shift defense. Argument is not used as a tool to find or uncover the truth. It is used rather as a kind of weapon to discomfit the other side. Since discomfiture rather than truth is the goal, when a refutation is made of some anti-catholic argument, the usual response is to change the subject. Thus, the anti-Catholics make the same arguments over and over again and never learn from them.
So, go ahead and cite Garry Wills. His iffy relationship with the Church makes sense in the context of his superficial understanding of her teaching. And the same for the other guy.
The argument, however, is circular. The assumption implicit in citing them is that the ‘true’ church somehow ceased about a generation after the death of John. And this assumption requires that the promised gift of the spirit was kind of a dud. In the protestant view it took the Holy Spirit about 1500 years to get his act together enough to make a successful stand against those awful, stupid, and superstitious successors of the Apostles. The martyrs of Rome and of the various persecutions might be worthy of a little respect, but they were just SO wrong about what really mattered.
So when Jesus promised the 12 that they would be led into all truth, he left out the part about “in 1450 years give or take.” That's what we are expected to believe. And the people who expect us to believe it repeat the same arguments over and over again like machines, while rarely demonstrating a willingness, to say nothing of ability, to understand what it is they are arguing against.
WHATever.
“He is offering continual sacrifices for us in heaven”
Hebrews 7:
“26For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.”
and 9:
“24For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”
There are different types of sacrifices, and the sacrifices of praise and obedience are offerings we are still to make, but the atoning sacrifice of Jesus is finished.
“The WORD priest evolved from the word presbyter.”
Emphasis on EVOLVED. Evolution involves a gradual change from one thing to another. It suggests the role of priest in the Catholic Church differs from the role of presbyter in the early church...
It does not matter what the Catholic church calls presbyters.. what matters is what GOD CALLS THEM..and it was God that chose greek as the language for the NT
The word presbyteros has a SPECIFIC meaning AND IT IS NOT PRIEST.
1) elder, of age,
a) the elder of two people b) advanced in life, an elder, a senior
1) forefathers
a term of rank or office
a) among the Jews
1) members of the great council or Sanhedrin (because in early times the rulers of the people, judges, etc., were selected from elderly men)
2) of those who in separate cities managed public affairs and administered justice
b) among the Christians, those who presided over the assemblies (or churches) The NT uses the term bishop, elders, and presbyters interchangeably
c) the twenty four members of the heavenly Sanhedrin or court seated on thrones around the throne of God
If God had intended a priesthood in the new church, He would have said so ..using the greek words for priest
archiereus which translates into "High Priest" and hiereus which translates one that OFFERS SACRIFICES.
God did not use those words because the Jewish priesthood was a type of Christ which was fulfilled on the cross..
In AD 70, God put an exclamation point on that by destroying the Jewish priesthood as well..The type was fulfilled on the cross
Mad Dog you can go on and on..but scripture speaks for itself.. NO priesthood in the new testament church .
During Constantine's rule the church was corrupted and a part of that corruption was a return to the priesthood
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