Priests are a gift from the Heart of Christ, Pope Benedict says

CNA ^ | 6/13/2010

[markomalley]

Vatican City, Jun 13, 2010 / 10:58 am (CNA/EWTN News).- 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.

[Quix]

Evidently . . .

only for those who

REFUSE to think or ponder or dwell on

my obvious and true meaning

and SEEMINGLY prefer to dwell in EVIDENTLY other places associated with various terms.

OR, PUT ANOTHER WAY . . .

TO THE PURE ALL THINGS ARE PURE . . . AS SCRIPTURE SAYS . . .

IT SIMILARLY FOLLOWS . . .

TO THE IMPURE, ALL THINGS ARE IMPURE.

TO THE CREEPY, ALL THINGS ARE CREEPY.

Many Proddys are not at all surprised to OBSERVE which side the rabid clique RC’s tend to line up on on the above scores.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

I was advised by the RM that guesses were acceptable because it was an indication of what I was thinking.

For you to say I am being "willful out of envy" is not supposition nor a "guess" on your part. It is a declarative phrase which is against the rules of Free Republic Religion Forum.

And according to the RM's caution to you not to skirt the rules, if I said "I guess you are an ax murderer and I guess you haven't paid taxes in 20 years," that would be a clear violation of the rules.

Try harder to post within the rules.

[MarkBsnr]

The evidence shows that the Church evangelized the "least of these". That's the reason for disparity in wealth.

Or the more likely answer, Rome raped many of the poor countries and their riches are now squirreled away in the Vatican while the Protestant work ethic built countries like America.

Oh, I just know that there are all kinds of data out that that prove and that you'd be willing to share it with us all...

[Quix]

Your post triggered a little research I’ve been meaning to do again for sometime.

Joya helped me. We both counted the RC threads in the first 3 pages of the listing of threads in the RELIGION FORUM.

We did not count RC topic threads posted by non-RC’s nor RC threads that seemed to be strictly about abortion, homosexuality etc. more or less devoid of major trumpeting of RC dogma.

We came up with slightly different counts and I averaged them for a total of 49 threads out of 150 threads for a 33% of the RELIGION FORUM threads being clearly and overtly Roman Catholic. I think sometimes it runs closer to 50%. That’s not a big deal. There are likely more RC’s and they are certainly more prolific.

However, it does show that their wailing about all their “poor attacked me” stuff is unmitigated hogwash. They flood the system with RC dogma 24/7.

They have NO LEGITIMATE GROUNDS WHATSOEVER

to wail about Proddys standing up and being counted for what Proddys believe about the issues the RC’s pontificate so relentlessly and exhaustively about 24/7.

[Judith Anne]

UNMITIGATED NONSENSE

IF

The protestant SECTS and all their sub-sects believed in Gospel Inerrancy,

THEY WOULD NOT HAVE PLASTERED 100S OF !!!!CRAZED INERPRETATIONS!!!! of men and the doctrines of demons on top of the Gospels and pretended before God and everyone that doing so was kosher.

What unmitigated brazen balderdash! It's amazing that folks can speak and type with straight faces and fingers. Sheesh!

Buncha freaking demon-infested looneytoons!

[MarkBsnr]

You guys know so little about the scriptures...

Paul was not a bishop...Paul was an Apostle...Paul was THE Apostle of the adoption...That doesn't sound primary to you???

Since we wrote them, we know something of them. Paul was a bishop. Not the first bishop; James, Peter, Thomas and so on had their flocks even before Paul was converted. Paul was never Pope. Primary in what way?

The church wasn't mentioned by Jesus til Matthew 16...And then Jesus spoke of it as a future operation...

I see. So the Church being taught by Jesus was not a valid teaching? Interesting. Good thing Paul came along and corrected things.

That's why the Reformation took place...You guys are telling the same stories that your religion told before the scriptures were revealed to the common people...

I don't have a religion. I follow Jesus the Christ in the Church that He Created and the Holy Spirit commissioned at Pentecost. The Scriptures were revealed to the common people from the beginning; the NT was put together about 398 AD. You have an interesting grasp of history.

[Quix]

Jealousy is NOT a fruit of The Spirit.

[MarkBsnr]

You know a lot of Lenin quotes???

I know this one. It applies to a lot of people that I debate.

Was Lenin a Catholic???

Don't know. Was he?

[MarkBsnr]

If we can't find the Trinity in the scriptures, there is no Trinity...But since we can and do find the Trinity in the scriptures, we know the Trinity exists...

Where? You have not shown me the Nicene formula of the Trinity and neither has anyone else. Produce it if you can.

Well name names...I don't know anyone here who regards the Apostle Paul as a God...

Really? 5 point Calvinists do. Just ask them.

And then we concentrated on the message of the Risen Savior that was revealed to and then by the Apostle Paul...The Resurrected Jesus revealed Himself to Paul and told Paul that He would offer Salvation, thru Grace by Faith, without works lest any man should boast, to the Gentiles... Jesus put it on the Apostle Paul to give the layout of the churches...You wouldn't know to call yourself a Christian were it not for the epistles of Paul...No one during the ministry of Jesus called himself or others a Christian...

Got it. You are a Paulian. Why are you hanging around Christian threads? We get it. We believe you.

[Quix]

UHHHHHHHHHHHHH . . . NO!

That's a description of such as this on the part of the Vatican INSTITUTION:

Y'ALL INSIST THAT
"FULL OF GRACE"
EQUALS
"QUEEN OF HEAVEN,"
"DISPENSER OF
ALL
GRACES,"
"!MEDIATRIX!"
"!RULER OF HELL!"
"!THE TREE OF LIFE!"
{!WHAT BLASPHEMY!}
"SPOUSE OF HOLY SPIRIT,"
"!COMPLEMENT OF THE MOST AUGUST TRINITY!"
{!WHAT BLASPHEMY!}
"THE DAWN OF GOD,"
"!VANQUISHER OF SIN!"
{!WHAT BLASPHEMY!}
"THE !ONLY 'AVENUE' TO GOD!"
{!WHAT BLASPHEMY!}
'SALVATION CONDUIT'
{!WHAT BLASPHEMY!}
"SAVIOR OF SOULS"
{!WHAT BLASPHEMY!}
"'PARTICIPATOR' IN THE
INFINITE SANCTITY OF GOD!"
{!WHAT BLASPHEMY!}

I can't think of a single example of such a stinking pile of horrific blasphemous heresies in all of Proddyland.

[MarkBsnr]

"Or are you relying on the mythical ex failed Catholic husband who is such a wealth of Catholic knowledge?"

There, fixed it for you.

[Natural Law]

"Try harder to post within the rules.

You are the last person I would take advice from on following rules of any kind. That is NOT a guess.

This should help with that thin skin problem: Tuf Skin

[count-your-change]

I don't know what your view of Paul is beyond the few words spoken so far.
No Paul is not God but as an apostle he was chosen by Christ and he is no less than any other apostle in speaking under divine inspiration.
But I can understand why he might not be beloved as a person as was John say, Paul was blunt, passionate, fearless and as hearty a preacher as he was a persecutor.

Peter had no problem saying what Paul wrote was hard to understand, maybe that's why some would object to referring to his words as definitive. But are his writings LESS God's word than Luke's or John's or any other writer? I think not.

I don't understand how the Gospels would be “moved to the back” when they and Paul's writings are equally part of Scripture. How? By quoting Paul? By saying he teaches something different than what is spoken in the Gospels?
Or....What? Ought NOT we believe what Paul wrote?

(Please don't try to choose my “comrades” for me, I agree with whom I agree and disagree with whom I disagree.)

[Judith Anne]

Oh, I see you are Pinging the Persnickety Protestant Posse again! Scared?

[stfassisi]

“”When low and behold, while Rome collected indulgence money to build a grand place for the pope.. the Protestants under Calvin were taking care of the poor the sick and educating the children””

First of all ,dear sister, there were only a small amount of people who did not follow Church teaching regarding indulgences and many of them were excommunicated.

Secondly, calvin only cared about political gain in his hatred of the church ,thus building a hospital and things like this was only a means to gain power and wealth for him.

If you really want to look for acts of kindness built on humility with no expectations there are many saints throughout the ages.

Here is one of those saints during the reformation time period(there are many,many more) that was humble ,unlike calvin

St. John of God
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08472c.htm
Excerpt..

For some time he was alone in his charitable work soliciting by night the needful supplies, and by day attending scrupulously to the needs of his patients and the rare of the hospital; but he soon received the co-operation of charitable priests and physicians. Many beautiful stories are related of the heavenly guests who visited him during the early days of herculean tasks, which were lightened at times by St.Raphael in person. To put a stop to the saint’s habit of exchanging his cloak with any beggar he chanced to meet, Don Sebastian Ramirez, Bishop of Tuy, had made for him a habit, which was later adopted in all its essentials as the religious garb of his followers, and he imposed on him for all time the name given him by the Infant Jesus, John of God. The saint’s first two companions, Antonio Martin and Pedro Velasco, once bitter enemies who had scandalised all Granada with their quarrels and dissipations, were converted through his prayers and formed the nucleus of a flourishing congregation. The former advanced so far on the way of perfection that the saint on his death-bed commended him to his followers as his successor in the government of the order. The latter, Peter the Sinner, as he called himself, became a model of humility and charity.

[Quix]

Not in the least. Am actually falling asleep.

Evietnly you forget that I often ping my buddies for humor, their opinions, their interest etc.

I’ve heard that ginko baloba is good for memory problems.

[annalex]

the corrupt papacy, indulgences, money grubbing....

Some impulses behind the reformation were valid; it was certainly worthwhile to discern the proper biblical doctrine of justification in the face of Luther's queries. But the true reform occurred thanks to the council of Trent.

As to the Church's occasional failings, it is an institution made up by people. We see tha Apostles failing in the Primitive Church, we see bishops failing today. That is neither here or there as far as our theological dispute goes.

[annalex]

Many writers, myself included, use the word “gospel” collectively in reference to the entirety of the New Testament.

[MarkBsnr]

With respect, you guys don't know the Gospel.

Which one?

The Gospel of Jesus which is written in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

We differ considerably.

Only because you're standing on the wrong side of the Cross. You can join us any time.

Negative. I will kneel before Christ. Literally. As I do at least once per day. Glad to see that you lot have such a personal relationship that such formalities as the acknowledge of Created to Creator can be dispensed with.

If you want to reject Scripture that's your choice.

I think if you see a conflict between the books Paul wrote and other books the problem isn't in the Scriptures. The problem is in the lens your reading them through.

I don't think that there is a problem. I think that non Church sects pick up on those differences and wander off on crazy tangents.

[small voice in the wilderness]

...and Preparation H is good for hemorrhoids. Pesky flareups that aren't to be taken seriously, but DO annoy when they decide to appear...