On Priests

JMJ. This is the Year of the Priest, as proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI.

I try to have as much to do with priests as possible. After all, the sacrifice they make in answering Christ's vocation is an awesome one. Jesus has set them apart, made them holy, and has given them His own powers of life and death.

It was recently the ninty-second anniversary of the final apparition of Our Lady of Fatima to the three peasant children in Fatima, Portugal. In passing a priest of my acquaintance at work on October twelfth I said, "Happy day before Fatima, Father." Imagine my surprise when he (a middle-aged man) answered that he didn't pay any attention to such things!

Not pay attention to a church-approved appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a fashion truly miraculous? Let me see--the earth in Fatima that day was completely sodden from several days of constant rain. Some 70,000 people had assembled at the site to witness Our Lady's final appearance. The sun was seen to break through the clouds, descend from the heavens, to spin wildly, and to throw off many-coloured arms of light.

At the same time, the earth completely dried up. Physicists have calculated that for that much water to completley disappear instantaneously would require the energy of an atomic weapon. The antics of the sun were witnessed over an area of 50 square miles. Although Our Lady appeared only to the three peasant children, it was witnessed by all that they were obviously conversing with someone unseen. Many Masons, atheists, and communists assembled there hoping to debunk this miracle were converted that day.

And a consecrated priest of Jesus Christ doesn't pay any attention to that sort of thing? In addition to celebrating our priests we must pray for them. We owe it to them.