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As the years pass, one priest leaves the altar and another follows in his footsteps to offer the Holy Sacrifice. The priest is called to preach, and to care for the flock: yet the greatest work of all takes place at the altar.

As the years pass, one priest leaves the altar and another follows in his footsteps to offer the Holy Sacrifice. The priest is called to preach, and to care for the flock: yet the greatest work of all takes place at the altar.

Some priests need much help. They are unwilling or afraid to teach the whole truth that they were called to preach and teach. Their work will be as unsuccessful as the work of an artist who, claiming to draw a camel, draws only three camel's legs, and one leg of a horse. The creature, if it could walk, would give an uncomfortable ride.

It is no small matter, in Christ's sight, that many Christians don't complete their Christian initiation because their leaders have invalid Orders, and so children who have been baptised are not confirmed and do not receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.

Those men called to the Priesthood who surrender family life with reluctance, as a sacrifice wrung from them by circumstance, are never as happy as those who are overwhelmed by the knowledge of God's love for them and see beauty and freedom in this total self-giving to God and His Will in imitation of Christ.

Those men called to the Priesthood who surrender family life with reluctance, as a sacrifice wrung from them by circumstance, are never as happy as those who are overwhelmed by the knowledge of God's love for them and see beauty and freedom in this total self-giving to God and His Will in imitation of Christ.

Christ is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament. We please and honour God when we kneel to thank Him for allowing us to do His work on earth - especially priests.

Christ is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament. We please and honour God when we kneel to thank Him for allowing us to do His work on earth - especially priests.

At the 'Edge' of Heaven: I saw that Christ and His mother, with all the saints and angels, crowded forward to congratulate our priest.

It's as if the Father's hand reaches out across those places where confessions are heard. The Father is truly reaching out to help us though His priests, acting in and through them as they forgive sins in Jesus' name.

Just as a priest receives more honour when a perfect gift is carefully presented to him, not just thrown in front of him; so God our Father receives greater honour when the perfect sacrifice of Christ is offered by the members of the Church with reverence, than with haste or carelessness.

When a priest is holding the monstrance with the Sacred Host, and blesses us with it, Christ Himself is blessing us, even though we do not see Him. It's as if He stands there in front of us, holding up His right hand in blessing, glad to be with those who love Him.

When we pray for one sick person, then for 'all the sick'; or when we pray for a priest, and then 'for all the priests in the world', it's as if we have sent out, all at once, thousands of prayers - just as when an invitation composed on a computer can be sent in a moment to a large number of friends. The Holy Spirit prompts us to make a charitable thought, then to multiply our prayer by a single phrase.

A surgeon who gives a serious diagnosis sometimes has little hope of a cure. A priest who has to 'diagnose' serious sin can offer, as a cure, complete forgiveness and peace to those who sincerely repent!

A surgeon who gives a serious diagnosis sometimes has little hope of a cure. A priest who has to 'diagnose' serious sin can offer, as a cure, complete forgiveness and peace to those who sincerely repent!

Priests should be like Christ, Who invited people to repent of their sins. It is not for priests to act solely as counsellors and comforters, without also speaking the truth about the serious sins which can entrap us.

Catholic priests should indeed give us good advice. Yet their principle purpose in the confessional, in the sacrament of Penance, is to forgive our sins. They are not ordained to be like secular counsellors.

Everything in a priest's life should pale into insignificance when set beside the supreme task of saving souls and leading them towards an everlasting Easter. No personal or private ambition or scheme must intrude.

God sees, in looking at each of His priests, a man configured to Christ by the sacrament of Orders: a man whose very being is now changed. Each priest should recognise the immense dignity of the state to which the Lord has raised him, and accept the honour paid to him by those who are grateful for his ministry.

In the eyes of Christ, each Catholic priest around the world is like a visible, embodied Christ, in a particular place; chosen and made ready to be a Christ to a certain flock, or to preach to those who do not yet know Him.