[Music] in the name of the Father the Son the Holy Ghost amen one of the hallmarks of a good priest is a devotion to Our Lady on more than one occasion people have noted to me that the priest of the of the priestly fraternity of st. Peter have a strong devotion to Our Lady and they've noticed it this devotion must be rooted in an understanding of the priests dependence on her in all matters of his priesthood and we know this because of the fact that she is the immediate ryx of all graves which means that the gratia gratia is data that is the gratuitous gift of the grace of his priesthood that is the very vocation that he received was given through her the priest would not even have a vocation had she not given him that grace as media tricks all the graces he received to get through the seminary the graces to develop a prayer life the graces to be faithful to his obligations as a seminarian and now as a priest the graces to help him grow in virtue all came from her and will come from her what he is spiritually for the good removing his lack of advancement due to the infidelity of the grace given by her and sin but anything that is spiritually good in him is because of her in his priesthood she shall give him the grace to perform his duties and not neglect them she will give him the grace to advance even greater in virtue and holiness that does not relieve our responsibility to continue to pray for priests when we wonder why priests are not leading good lives today we have to look at upon ourselves to see if it's because we have lacked praying sufficiently for them she will give him the grace to deny himself when it is necessary for the sake of those under his pastoral care she will give him the grace to exhaust himself for the good of his flock like Christ exhausted himself he carried the cross and died for us in the end she will give the priests the ability to sacrifice himself and to die to himself so that when he stands before God he shall do so without blemish our lady teaches the priests to be like herself to love God above all and to love none except for God saved if he is to be a priest in all of these matters he will know his complete dependence upon her why Christ consigned the care of Our Lady to st. John the Apostle that represents not just the church but every priest who will stay close to Christ on the cross especially as he offers mass 1 or an ad was taken care of st.
John the consignment goes both ways our lady who also would help and take care of st. John because as garlic you LeBrons points out this is thy mother these words Gehrig lagron says of the dying Savior like the words used in the sacraments produce what they signify in Mary's soul they produced an increase in maternal love for John and for all who would be sanctified to the sacrifice of the Cross in John soul they produced a profound filial love for the mother of God the priest must have that filial love for our lady his spiritual mother filial mean is that of a devoted son Our Lady is the spiritual mother of the priesthood consigned by Christ to care for nurture protect like any good mother his very priesthood the priest who firmly roots himself in the devotion to Mary establishes a mirror to that relationship which st. John and Mary had and so God is pleased and wants all priests to mirror that relationship in fact when one considers the true attributes of a mother Our Lady is more the priests mother than his own biological mother in this sense we recognize how dependent the priest is on our and so we must agree with st.
Bonaventure that quote he that neglects her will die in his sins unquote while this applies to all of us how much more will it apply to the priest whose life is fraught with the complexities of the spiritual battle and the difficulties and obstacles of the priesthood in the modern world which unfortunately Vatican 2 embraced and now he's imposed on all the priests seen in Psalm said it is impossible to be saved if we turn away from the Oh Mary even more so for the priests who because of his charge will be held to a much stricter accounting before God many saints have observed that Our Lady is quasi omnipotent st. Louis Imam for being one of the greatest the more confidence the priest has in her the more she will give in fact lack of confidence is the same as telling her that you do not believe that she can do what you ask or that you do not believe that she will do what you ask the first is a sin against faith but the second is a sin against charity for a mother is a better mother than any earthly mother and she would never deny something that was good for us this is why we cannot recommend enough the total consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary according to the mind of st. Louis Marie de Montfort especially for the priest the lady noticed they noticed the difference in the priest who has a profound love for our Lady because that's what he's supposed to have whereas when the priest doesn't they noticed there's something missing in the very priesthood of the priest st.
John one of the Apostles first bishops and a priest was given care of our lady as a sign of the priests care of the church Nakula grants out that st.
