cs failed to comprehend the Divinity of
Christ, and that all power was given to Him in heaven and on earth.
And His power to remit sins has descended to the priest, in the
imposition of hands. At Christ's will lepers were cleansed, and once
more felt the pulsation of health tingling through their veins; but
more wondrous still the word of the priest which causes the scales of
the leprosy of sin to fall from the stricken soul, and restores to it
the pristine vigor and beauty of sanctifying grace. As keeper of the
keys, the priest stands warder of heaven, locking or unlocking its
doors to the dust-begrimed pilgrims of earth.

Sublime, then, is the priestly dignity, even beyond human
comprehension. But one thing we realize, and the saints with clearer
vision perceive, that high virtue is demanded of him whose life is
spent in the antechamber of heaven. St. Catharine of Sienna, in a
letter to one newly ordained, tells him, "The ministers whom the
Sovereign Goodness has chosen to be His Christs ought to be angels,
not men . . . they in truth discharge the office of angels." "What
purity," says a Father of the Church, "what piety shall we require of
a priest? Think what those hands ought to be which perform such a
ministry; what that tongue which pronounces those words." No sanctity
or purity of soul, then, is beyond the aspirations of one whose
heaven-born privilege it is to enter the Holy of Holies, to dispense
the mysteries of faith, and exercise the "ministry of reconciliation."

A most important function of the ministry is the care of souls.
Christ's mission was to save; He was the Good Shepherd, who traveled
about preaching to the people, who were like "sheep without a
shepherd." And to His Apostles and their successors He gave the solemn
charge "to feed His lambs." And this injunction of the Divine Master
has been held sacred by the Church throughout its existence. Wherever
in the world to-day dwell true believers, there are to be found
priests to care for them.

The priest is truly the father of the people committed to him. He must
become all things to all men, rejoicing with the joyful, and weeping
with the sorrowful. The infants he must receive into the Church,
generating in them the life of grace, guarding them as they grow up,
and instructing them in doctrine and discipline. To him the bridal
couple come for the nuptial benediction; and when sickness and trouble
and want invade the household it is to their fath