The Sacred Heart and the Priesthood

Mother Louise Margaret Claret de la Touche

• Publisher: TAN Books
• Year: 2009
• eBook ISBN: 9781618905567
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

"My priest is My other self; I love him, but he must be holy." Mother Louise Margaret Claret de la Touche (1868-1915), a Visitation sister, was commissioned first by Our Lord, then by her religious superiors to write THE SACRED HEART AND THE PRIESTHOOD based on her lifetime conversations with the Divine Master. Its purpose is to strengthen the souls of priests in the love of their sublime vocation and unite them more than ever to Jesus Christ, the eternal Priest and to give the faithful a Greater confidence in an more religious and filial respect for the orders of the sacred hierarchy. (p. xxxii) The Holy See has declared her writings to be in conformity with the teachings of the Church and has sanctioned the organization of priests, which she had drawn up under the name of The Priests Universal Union of the Friends of the Sacred Heart. A gift for seminarians, priests and anyone who wishes to deepen their understanding of this vocation. Impr. 224 pgs. "To do My work, to extend the reign of love, priests must be full of it themselves, and it is to My Heart that they must come to draw it." Christ to Mother Louise Margaret Claret de la Touche

PART I

The Priest, the Creation of Infinite Love

CHAPTER I

FIRST LECTURE

The Priest, the Creation of Infinite Love

ALMIGHTY GOD reigned from all eternity in the peaceful possession of His sovereign happiness; but feeling Infinite Love overflow from His being, He willed to create. After drawing incomparable marvels from nothing by the power of His Word, He formed man, the king and centre of creation.

Who will ever be able to enumerate the myriad graces which the Eternal Being, conferred on this privileged creature? Infinite Love assumed all forms; it was liberal and magnificent like the love of God; it was tender, delicate and profound like the love of a mother; it was provident and wise, like the love of a father. Man was enriched with all gifts, with all graces, with all kinds of beauty. But Infinite Love did not stop there. It continued to flow with inexaustible profusion on all creation. In different circumstances it got different names, but it was all these things at the same time: thus it was a restoring, preserving, vivifying love, a protecting, pardoning, patient love: a love which redeems, purifies and saves.

And behold! after long ages, the Word of the Father, Incarnate Love, the Redeemer of the world, Jesus Christ, came on earth. Living the life of man, He experienced the weakness of man, understood his wants and restored the work of creation; but above all He loved. He passionately loved this fallen humanity to which He had intimately united Himself.

And, one day, He felt Infinite Love overflow from His Heart; and, wishing to create a being who could continue His work, came to the relief of man in all his wants; a being who could help man, sustain him, enlighten him and bring him nearer to God—He created the priest.

To the priest, the creation of the Infinite Love of His heart, Jesus gave a participation in His power; He infused into his heart the devotdness, zeal, goodness and mercy which filled His own. He poured into it humility and purity; He filled it with love; finally, He confided to him four great functions corresponding to the four great needs of the human creature.

1) Man is profoundly ignorant. Even after the grace of Baptism, the shadows of original sin still darken his intellect; his personal sins daily intensify these shadows; and his unenlightened mind, plunged in darkness and uncertainty, rushes, almost without noticing it, to eternal perdition. And the priest teaches. He gives truth to the human intellect; he shows the way which leads to God; he reveals to souls the luminous horizons of the Faith; his mission is to dispel darkness and to display in all their splendor to every eye these lofty and divine truths which are, with love, the life of the human soul.

2) Man is a sinner. The fall of our first parents has left in his nature indelible marks and a strong tendency towards evil; a sort of weakness which makes itself increasingly felt both in his intellectual faculties and in his senses, and in spite of the grace which raises him up, and Infinite Love which draws him from on high, he nevertheless sins again. Being constantly sullied, he has need of being purified again. And the priest absolves. Trustee of the Blood of Jesus Christ, the priest applies this divine remedy to the wounds caused by sin; he draws from the infinite treasure of the merits of Jesus Christ, and gives to the purified soul new strength and new help.

3) Man is unfortunate. Banished from Heaven, he passes his days on earth in labor and sorrow; suffering presses upon him from every side. Today his body is broken by sickness; tomorrow his heart is rent by treachery or the loss of loved ones; and how often is his soul shaken by fear, remorse or doubt! But the priest is the consoler. He makes known to souls the value of suffering; he makes man hope for an eternity of happiness in return for passing sorrow (2 Cor. 4:17); he opens the abysses of Infinite Love to afflicted and abandoned hearts; he raises up despairing souls by revealing to them the divine mercies, and, spreading light and love over the earth; he consoles all sorrow and dispels all fear.

4) Finally, Man cannot do without God. His weakness must lean on divine strength; his poverty cries out for the treasures of Heaven; his nothingness has constant need of getting near to the source of all being. And nevertheless, sinner that he is, he shrinks away from divine holiness; God is so great, so pure, so exalted in the inaccessible heights of truth and of justice! A mediator between God and man is needed; that Mediator is Christ, but between Christ and man, so great is man’s misery, another mediator is necessary, and that mediator is the priest.

And the priest offers sacrifice. He takes the divine Victim in his consecrated hands; he raises Him to Heaven, and God, at this sight, inclines towards the earth; mercy descends; Infinite Love gushes forth more abundantly from the bosom of the Eternal Being. The Creator and His creature are brought together; they have embraced in Christ; they have become united in love.

These are the august functions which the priest exercises for the benefit of man; he teaches, he absolves, he consoles, he offers sacrifice. Jesus, the eternal Priest, had exercised them before him, and with what sublime perfection! He would have wished, if it were possible, to continue exercising them directly by Himself. Nevertheless, it was fitting that Christ, after passing through suffering, should enter into His glory.³ In His loving mercy He then formed the priest in whom He perpetuates Himself and lives again unceasingly His life of love for men, His brethren. It is by the priest that He continues to instruct, to purify, to console and to bring back again to God all the generations of men that succeed one another on this earth.

In the painful phase through which the world is now passing, poor deluded humanity lured away from God feels more than ever its immense needs. More than ever it demands to be nourished by truth, to be delivered from evil, to be consoled in its sadness, to be brought back to God, and to be warmed by His love.

Jesus Christ should, it would seem, return once more to this earth. But no; His risen Humanity can remain in its glory. He has provided for all the needs of man; He has left him the Blessed Eucharist and His priesthood.

By the Blessed Eucharist, man can nourish his soul on eternal Truth and infinite Love, and, in a manner, divinize his weak flesh and his senses inclined to sin. In the priesthood, he can find those helps which are continually necessary for him in the course of his life of misery and trials.

Though in the Blessed Eucharist Jesus is always the same, eternally living, in the priest, His divine life varies in intensity, not that He does not give Himself with equal abundance to all, but because the priest draws more or less from this abundance. In order that Jesus may live again in the priest, it is necessary that the priest live by Jesus.

Infinite Love pouring itself forth from the divine Being created man; this same love, issuing from the Heart of Jesus, has created the priest; and just as man can find his true life and perfection only by returning to God, his eternal principle, so it is only by going to the Heart of Jesus that the priest can attain to the plenitude of life and the perfection of his sacerdotal being. That is the reason why, at this hour when the holy functions of the priesthood are so necessary to the world, Jesus calls His priests to His Heart. It is in order that they may draw new graces from this divine source and, by immersing themselves again in this ocean from which they have come forth, they may find a renewal and an increase of sacerdotal life.

Oh, let the priest go to Jesus, let him keep near Him; the priest whose mission is so great and whose action can be so fruitful! Let him consider the actions of this divine model, let him listen to His words, let him penetrate into His thoughts, let him follow Him step-by-step in the holy Gospel, let him learn from this adorable Master how to perform worthily the sacred functions of the priesthood. Jesus has exercised these functions before him; the priest has only to follow His divine footprints. To be clothed with Christ means to imitate Christ, to reproduce His adorable virtue, His holy actions, even His divine gestures. And if anyone ought to be clothed with Christ, is it not above all the priest whose duty it is to give Christ to the world?

PRAYER FOR PRIESTS

O, Jesus eternal High Priest, divine Offerer of Sacrifice, Who, in an incomparable transport of love for men, Thy brethren, didst allow the Christian priesthood to issue from Thy Sacred Heart, deign to continue to pour out on Thy priests the life-giving streams of Infinite Love.

Live Thou in them, transform them into Thyself; render them by Thy grace the instruments of Thy mercies; act in them and through them, and grant, that, having been completely clothed with Thee by the faithful imitation of Thy adorable virtues, they may perform in Thy Name and by the strength of Thy Spirit, the works which Thou Thyself hast accomplished for the salvation of the world.

Divine Redeemer of souls, see how great is the multitude of those who still sleep in the darkness of error; count the number of those unfaithful sheep that are walking on the edge of the eternal abyss; consider the crowds of the poor, the hungry, the ignorant and the weak, who are groaning in their state of abandonment. Return to us by Thy priests, live again in very truth in them; act through them and pass again through the world teaching, pardoning, consoling, offering sacrifice, renewing the sacred bonds of love between the Heart of God and the hearts of men. Amen.⁴

CHAPTER II

SECOND LECTURE

Jesus Teaching

AFTER a long and silent preparation of thirty years Jesus began to teach. He possessed in Himself the plenitude of all knowledge; His human intellect, expanded and perfected by its union with the divine intellect, embraced the vast expanse of the most sublime knowledge, and penetrated into the heart of things in their minutest detail. The marvellous harmony of the faculties of His soul and of the sentiments of His Heart, the perfect equilibrium which reigned in His whole being, regulated the course of His thoughts, and, without having need of working to instruct Himself like other men, He possessed, without effort, knowledge in His intellect, as He had, without limit, love stored up in His Heart.

Though the world was awaiting the lessons from His divine lips in order to be born again to life and light, nevertheless Jesus allowed thirty years to pass by without manifesting His sublime wisdom. Why this long wait? Why deprive humanity so long of the celestial lights which were to dispel the darkness of its ignorance? Let us not forget that Jesus is our model. He knew that man requires long work and painful efforts to acquire those treasures of knowledge necessary for the instruction of souls, and He wished to give His priests an example of a slow and serious preparation.

If it is question of profane teaching, it suffices to have knowledge and to know how to teach. But when it is necessary to give God to souls and to give souls to God, the cultivation of the intellect will no longer suffice. The entire man must be transformed; he himself must pass through a succession of trials, and at least begin to acquire this experimental knowledge of suffering, of weakness, and of the miseries of humanity which he must possess to instruct and enlighten his brethren.

Doubtless, before his thirtieth year the priest may occupy himself with this first function of his ministry. But then, he will require to have prudence, distrust in himself and humble recourse to others for light and guidance. It is above all to his divine Master that the priest should go to receive instruction. Let him then study this sublime Teacher of souls, let him train himself to speak like Him, and teach like Him.

When Jesus, leaving the seclusion of His hidden life, began to reveal the treasures of knowledge which He bore within Himself, the whole world was plunged in the darkness of error. Paganism and the crimes which it engenders flourished everywhere, and even among the chosen people, truth began to be enveloped in a pall of darkness. The Jews, who, up to that time had kept intact the deposit of divine truth, seemed on the point of losing it. The Synagogue was being rent asunder into numerous sects; love of riches and ambition for honors had little by little broken down the wall which separated Israel from the idolatrous nations surrounding her. By the perfidious insinuations of a lying philosophy, under the pressure of enervating sensualism and by giving free rein to the passions, the sons of Abraham felt their faith totter and saw the light being extinguished in their hands.

At that precise moment Jesus appeared. He, the Uncreated Word, the Light of light, ‘True God of True God, came to bring Truth to the earth, absolute Truth without mixture, without shadow, such as it is in God and in His eternal day, in its divine clearness, in its sovereign exactness. He came to rekindle the torch of Justice and Truth, without which humanity can only go astray in the march through time. He came, with all the authority of His divine Wisdom, to teach the rights of God and the duties of man, the mercies of God and the miseries of man; in fine, to restore order in the human intellect deranged by the errors of paganism.

The sinful woman of Samaria was, one day, to say to Jesus Himself: “I know that the Messias cometh (who is called Christ): therefore, when He is come, He will tell us all things.” (John 4:25). This was indeed the great mission of the Saviour; to instruct souls! His teaching was universal. On all subjects, in all matters, He brought the light of truth. He combated all the errors of that time, and refuted, in advance, those which the disordered activity of human thought was to give birth to in the future. By the example of His life, and afterwards by His words, He taught what man could know about God. He revealed Him as the powerful Creator, infinitely holy and sovereignly just; but above all He revealed Him as a Father ineffably good and infinitely merciful.

Dogma, moral principles, the relations of man with God and with his fellow-man; the great principles which should rule the family and society, and direct the human conscience on the shadowy path of this earthly life, were all lighted by the brilliant rays of the truth of Jesus. He neglected no occasion to instruct the people: “All were mute with admiration at His teaching, for He spoke as one having authority.” (Matt. 7:28–29, Mark 1:22, Luke 4:32).

Indeed how many times did not this adorable Master, so sober and so measured in His words, repeat: “Verily, verily I say to you.” “We speak what we know and We give testimony of what We have seen” (John 3:11), declares He. He is indeed the Master, the infallible teacher of truth. Thus, raising His voice under the porticoes of the Temple, could He justly cry: “I am the way, the truth and the life,” “he that followeth Me, walketh not in darkness.” (John 14:6, 8:12). Later, on the day of His sorrowful Passion, standing in the middle of the Pretorium, He replied to Pilate with incomparable majesty: “For this was I born and for this came I into the world: that I should give testimony to the truth. Everyone that is of truth, heareth My voice.” (John 18:37). This voice of Jesus, so humble and so sweet, reso...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Declaration
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Life of Mother Louise Margaret Claret de la Touche
• Letters of Approbation
• Preface
• Prayer to Jesus, the Eternal Priest
• Introduction
• FIRST PART—THE PRIEST, THE CREATION OF INFINITE LOVE
• SECOND PART—THE SACERDOTAL VIRTUES OF THE HEART OF JESUS
• THIRD PART—THE LOVE OF THE WORD INCARNATE FOR HIS PRIESTS
• FOURTH PART—MEDITATIONS ON INFINITE LOVE AND THE PRIESTHOOD
• Appendix
• Collection of Classic Artwork
• Devotion to the Sacred Heart
• Tan Classics
• Become a Tan Missionary!
• Share the Faith with Tan Books!
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