Be Bold! Love Your Priests! Share This Reflection With Them!

What follows is a magnificent exhortation to our priests. It originated on Vultus Christi, a site you must visit regularly.  I have taken the liberty of posting this here since Father Mark has allowed me to do so in the past and because I am convinced it must be disseminated as widely as possible.

I am asking three things of those who read this post:

(1) Ponder this powerful profound reflection.  Revisit and read it from time to time;

(2) Copy and paste this reflection, add a personal note of gratitude and a promise of prayerful support to it, then give the copy to your pastor and all other priests whom you know. Never stop praying for them and their sanctification; and

(3) Consider going to the Silverstream Monastery icon in the right column and making a contribution to the work of this unique and vital religious community.

Now the reflection: 

Nothing of What I See Escapes the Reach of My Mercy

Every priest of Mine is in passage from this world to the Father. Know this and let it direct the course of your life.

Those who are My own, those whom I leave in the world,those whom I love and to whom I give the uttermost proof of My Love, are My priests.

It is into their hands that I entrust the mysteries of My Body and Blood for the life of the world. Never doubt of My love for you, My priests.

You hold the proof, the testimony of My love for you in your hands each day: My very Self given to you, given for you and given by your hands to My Bride, the Church. You who hold Me in your hands, how can you doubt of My love for you?
Let Me wash you, and wash you frequently, that you may live in My companionship and grow in the gift of My Divine Friendship.

Come to Me that I may wash you in the Blood and in the Water that ever flow from My open Heart.

Come to the inexhaustible torrent that gushes from My Side. Come, and other souls will follow you there.

I wait to purify My priests, to heal their wounds, and to wash away every trace of uncleanness from their souls.He who remains in the torrent that ever flows from My Heart will be pure as I am pure,for such is the power of My Precious Blood.My Precious Blood is offered to My Father and given to souls for their refreshment and for their life in the mystery of the Eucharist.

It is applied most efficaciously to souls in all the sacraments, but in Eucharistic adoration the soul remains plunged, as it were, in My Blood. The effects of this, though ordinarily invisible, are lasting and they are deep. Seek to remain immersed in the inexhaustible torrent of My Blood when you approach My Open Heart in the Sacrament of My Love.

I know who are the men I have chosen. Do you think that there are things hidden from My eyes? Do you think that there are things I do not see? I know My priests.  I know them through and through. As deep and searching is My knowledge of them, so too is My Merciful Love. I see all things, and nothing of what I see escapes the reach of My mercy, save that which is deliberately withdrawn and wilfully hidden from Me. Even that I see, and in seeing it, I grieve, because the desire of My Heart is to extend My mercy to every weakness, to take away every shame, to wash clean every soul defiled by sin.

Submit to My all-seeing grace, and present to My mercy all that I see in you.Believe Me when I tell you this: the man who welcomes one whom I send — My priest — welcomes Me; and the man who welcomes Me, welcomes him who sent Me. Let this be your rule:  always present yourself as My priest. Always and everywhere be My priest. Thus will you carry My presence and that of My Father and our blessing, that is, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the sweet fragrance of our charity, wheresoever you go.

The priest is the sacrament of My presence. I do not want this sacrament of Mine to be concealed. Display your priesthood. Let your first and only identification be with Me — and I will bless you in all your goings and comings. The world needs now more than ever the visible presence of My priests.The world must know that I have not abandoned My little flock, nor have I forsaken those who trust in My love.

Be My priest in all circumstances and I will fill your heart to overflowing with the sweetness of My own Sacred Heart. It is the fragrance of this sweetness that will draw souls to Me through you who are but the vessel containing it, the vessel by means of which I desire to spread it in every place.

My priests do well to honor the poverty and discipline of the ecclesiastical dress. It is at once a protection for them and a sign of hope given to the world.

Enough vanity.  Enough extravagance.

Be instead pure mirrors of My Holy Face in the world.

(From In Sinu Iesu, The Journal of a Priest)