Priests need continuing conversion

EVERYBODY, of course, needs it, but we, priests, especially need this continuing renewal of commitment and conversion of heart. We cannot overemphasize this.

I was happy to hear from priests-friends who just came from the National Congress for the Clergy gushing over the results of that 5-day event. “There’s going to be a transformation among the clergy and the Church in general,” everyone I talked to remarked, saying it with an air of confidence.

I was not able to attend the meeting but my heart was all there. I followed it closely in the internet. Seeing the images and hearing the reports were enough to convince me that the Holy Spirit was busy inspiring the priests from all over the country.

There’s magic when a big number of priests congregate, driven by a unity of purpose. It moved me to see the juices of piety flowing clearly on the faces and in the behavior of my brother priests. These made me burst in thanksgiving.

All of a sudden, priests were acting like those old women in churches, touching the relics, sighing and even with tears emerging in the eyes, waving hankies as they sang hymn to our Lady… It’s nice to see their hearts melt with love, both human and Christian.

Kudos should be given to those who organized and ran the event. There must have been long and tedious preparations made, and all of it paid off. They also invited speakers who were clearly gifted and who served as good instruments of the Spirit. Thanks be to God!

All these convince me that this kind of activity should be made an ongoing program. True, it’s just an instrument and the attendance to it should never be mistaken as the very substance of priestly holiness.

But it’s a wonderful and effective instrument. It’s good to hear that the bishops are thinking of making it a regular event for the priests. May it be turned into a reality!

What is really important is that the continuing activities of priestly formation and spiritual assistance should vitally and organically blossom from formal and planned congresses like the recent one.

In this regard, we can think of an abiding program of both personal and collective formation that can include a plan of acts of piety assumed with a sense of commitment, like mental prayer, Holy Mass and Communion, spiritual reading, examination of conscience, confession, Rosary, retreats, recollections, etc.

That delicate and indispensable practice of spiritual direction, where one bares his heart and soul to another priest with vast experience and the grace of state as spiritual director in order to receive guidance, should be promoted.

Sadly, this is hardly done. To me, it’s here where the nitty-gritty of nourishing one’s spiritual life and ministry, of correcting and healing certain spiritual ailments afflicting us, and even of resurrecting already necrotic parts of one’s spiritual life are made. These should be done regularly and promptly.

We, priests, should understand that we have to lead the way to sanctification. This requires nothing less than continuing conversion. We have to go beyond the human conditions of our character, temperament, culture, etc., to be able to attune ourselves closely to the will and ways of God.

This is always possible, and this is actually necessary. It’s true that we are conditioned by many human factors, but we have to go beyond them. We should not rely simply on our natural talents and endowments. We have to be actuated by nothing less than God’s grace, achieved through living union with Christ.

This is in order to avoid turning our subjectivity as persons into arbitrary subjectivism, our activity into activism deprived of divine character. This is to make sure we are doing God’s work truly, and not just our work.

Priests have to enter into the very mind and heart of Christ. In fact, we have to live the very life of Christ, complete with the unavoidable suffering and personal holocaust.

For this, we need to study and pray always, to convert ourselves into authentic contemplative souls even if we find ourselves in the hustle and bustle of daily life. This should be our default page. We have to be wary of the tendency to be swallowed up by an on-the-go lifestyle that kills prayer life.

We have to spread the doctrine and the truths of faith with gift of tongue and with abiding and consistent witnessing. We have to avoid just giving a performance and show out of our priestly ministry.

For all this, priests have to realize we need conversion always.