Have you prayed for your priest today?

Yesterday morning I awoke with the beginning of a cold, which seems to have settled in by the time I awoke this morning.

Knowing how long it takes my already weakened immune system to defeat a cold - and not havinig a lot on the agenda today - I have spent the day napping, resting and reading. One of the books I picked is the Sermons of the Cure of Ars, Saint John Marie Vianney, patron of this Year for Priests proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI.

In the first sermon collected in the book, Saint John said to his people:

...I am going to show you this [the dreadful state of a lukewarm soul] so clearly that perhaps many among you will be hurt by it. But that will matter little to me, for I am always going to what I ought to tell you, and then you will do what you wish about it...

The man of God says this not because of a callous spirit, but because of his zeal for souls. He knows that he, a priest of Jesus Christ, must proclaim the truth to his people, that he must call them to a life of repentance and conversion. To do so he must point to sin wherever he finds it, thus calling people to change their lives.

It is this pointing out of sin, this demand to turn away from sinful living, that causes people pain because admitting our failures is never easy.

Ultimately, he knows that his duty is to preach to the truth, but that he cannot force anyone to accept it and live by it. Nevertheless, he is duty bound.

I often wonder if too few priests preach in clear and simple terms for fear of offending their hearers. The patron saint of priests never feared offending people; he feared, rather, allowing them to continue living in sin.

Let us pray for all priests, that following the example of the Cure of Ars, that they will realize more and more the great duty that is theirs and always speak what ought to be spoken.

Let us pray, too, that we will heed their words and do what we ought to do.

That said, in just a few minutes I will head north to Chatham to have dinner with a few priests and then hear confessions. Upon my return to Virden, I'll finish up a bit of paperwork and head to bed.