new graces and blessings.
They celebrate the most sublime mystery of the New Law, and daily offer up to die Eternal Father the immaculate Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, in expiation of their own sins, and those of mankind, and for the obtaining of innumerable graces and blessings.
They are God's coadjutors (i Cor. iii. 9); they are the ambassadors of Christ (2 Cor. v. 20); they are the dispensers of the mysteries of Christ (1 Cor. iv. 1).
They are saviours of souls.
To save souls! O sublime work! O work most acceptable and glorious to God, God's own work!
O heart of the priest, large as the universe, high as the heavens, restless as fire, glowing with the love of the apostles, thirsting like the Saviour's heart - who can conceive thy longing desires, hopes, sufferings, joys, struggles, and triumphs!
By reason of his vocation, the priest is obliged to a much higher degree of perfection than the rest of the faithful.
As he excels the latter in dignity, so it is becoming that he should by far excel them in nobility of soul and in sanctity of life.
He is the salt of the earth. Woe to the salt, if it lose its savor (Matt. v. 13), for then it is unfit for seasoning.
He is a light. Woe to the light that proves
