Covid lockdown accelerated Church decline in numbers and outreach. Focusing on the ontological reality of the priesthood helps. With gratitude to God, priests discover the immense dignity of their sacramental configuration to Christ. Priests deserve praise and honour for such a dignity bestowed upon them by God who called them as friends.

Hierarchy of beings. Everything that exists is endowed with distinctive features combined within a given nature or principle of growth. The nature of a thing determines its fulfilment or calling. As beings who are created, human, baptised and ordained, priests are fulfilled as sacrificers (standing at the altar) and reconcilers (seating in the confessional).

Sin is a radical disordination of the human race in relation to its Creator, in Whom only souls can find everlasting happiness. Through the original sin, we lost habitual grace (justice) and the four preternatural gifts (integrity, immortality, infused knowledge and impassibility). But we can still cooperate with divine grace and be truly redeemed.

In the burning bush, God revealed Himself to Moses as the One whose essence is existing. Moses was to lead the people out of Egypt to sacrifice to the One Who is. True worship is essentially a connection with being. The law of God is our map to navigate moral reality. Abiding by God's law unites us with God. Sin, and lie in particular, estrange us from reality. Being and good are convertible, as two sides of reality. Against the virus of philosophical idealism, philosophical realism secures a genuine relationship with God.

The Christian truth was undermined in the modern era in particular by Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud, about whom Paul Ricoeur coined the expression "Masters of suspicion." Notably, now that their anti-Christian narrative has become the new doxa in militant secularism and political correctness, it tolerates no opposition and discredits alternative narratives as "conspiracy theories." More on the evil of philosophical idealism: no creature, but God only can say that things exist according as He thinks them. Idealism threatens human persons. Distinguishing "human" acts and acts "of man." The desire among those in power for always more control knows no bounds, since disconnected from the law of God and the true knowledge of being. The Beatitudes sum up the New Law, fulfilling the Law of Sinai revealed through Moses.

Both world and Church wish humanity to improve but the means selected differ. The world refuses to see further than natural reality, whereby it ignores the meaning and proper use even of natural things, while missing supernatural ones. Holy Church makes the only proper use of natural things, namely, to receive them as gifts from God to learn about Him and progress toward Him. Grace is supernatural, God's gratuitous gift, a sharing in divine life radically outside of man's reach. Grace is necessary to see God, hence, to man's supernatural fulfilment. Thus, the circumstances and mode of the bestowing of grace by God are of utmost importance. Those are the Passion and death of the Lord on the Cross, and the sevenfold channel designed by God to apply grace securely to our souls: the seven sacraments, of which Holy Mass is the centre, whose ministers are the priests. Prayer is key.

Our relationship to God determines our relationships with fellow men and with the world, as well as the harmonious work within our inner faculties. Sin destroyed our relationship to God, thus damaging all our subordinate relationships with created things, like a tree whose branches cannot hold in the air once the trunk is cut down. The Cross is the new tree of life, its vertical part symbolising our filial relationship to God, restored through Christ's sacrifice; while its horizontal parts represent our brotherly relationships to created beings. Traditionally, Holy Mass focuses on the primary relationship with God, hence on sacrifice; and secondarily on the fraternal outreach. The New Mass inverts the emphases, promoting togetherness while subduing sacrifice. Traditional Mass-goers are like the Hebrews in the desert, on their way toward the Promised Land, following Moses (the priest celebrant), looking at the Brazen Serpent (the prominent altar crucifix); whereas New Mass-goers are made to feel as if they had already crossed the Jordan and possessed the Land flowing with milk and honey.

Priests must be in love with God Who is truth. Are we not influenced by Arianism, practically minimising the enormity of the statement "Jesus is God"? Since Jesus is God indeed, we must exhibit a radical confidence in the power of God's grace in our ministry. We must trust radically in the power of prayer, but also in the truth of God's revelation, expounded for us in the magisterium of the Church. Let us check that we make active use of the time-proofed means of sanctification: monthly confession (at least), Holy Rosary, spiritual direction, spiritual reading and sound theology, clerical dress, priestly fraternity. Even Our Lady grew in grace during her life, so must we, we the priests of Her Son.

The traditional vesting prayers of the priest before Holy Mass express the putting on of Christ by his minister, about to act at the altar in Persona Christi. The seven years spent at seminary preparing for priestly ordination entail the reception of seven holy orders, whereby the Levite participates more and more into the priesthood of Christ. Daily in the sacristy while vesting, the ordained priest goes through the same process of putting on Christ. Each of the eight prayers reminds him of the virtues of Christ which he must imitate. When walking out of the sacristy into the nave and to the sanctuary, the priest follows in the footsteps of Christ who first left the virginal womb of Our Lady where as the Word Eternal He had ‘put on’ our humanity, leading to His hidden life of thirty years, and finally to his public life culminating in His Passion and sacrificial death. The priest must be in state of grace to offer Holy Mass. This purity of soul (and body) must be reflected by the neatness of the sacred vessels and linens. Priests can rely on a love of predilection from Our Blessed Lady, who cherishes their sacramental configuration to Her beloved Son.

We reflect on the practical consequences of Eucharistic unity. Unity of worship has always allowed a diversity of liturgical rites. St Paul urged the early Christians of Corinth to foster unity within the mystical Body of Christ, the Church. Since the Church stems from the Holy Eucharist, then this latter sacrament must secure the integrity of Christ. But after consecration, the sacred Host on the paten is separated from the Precious Blood in the chalice. Is Christ divided then? No: Christ being present under the Eucharistic species as risen, He must be present with all the four components of His incarnate Person, namely, His Body, Blood, Soul and divinity. Thus, the first transubstantiation is from the bread to the Body, which calls to itself the Blood, Soul and divinity. Conversely, the second transubstantiation is from the wine to the Blood, which calls to itself the Body, Soul and divinity. Only if Mass had been offered on Holy Saturday, while the Soul and Body of the Lord were separated, would communion under both kinds have been necessary. Since Easter, the entire Christ is present on the paten and also in the chalice. The doctrine of concomitance naturally leads to assessing the Eucharistic presence under the fragments of consecrated Host. Size is accidental to the substance, so that, as long as human eyes can detect a fragment without technical apparatus, the divine presence abides, even in a very small whitish particle. This explains the liturgical precautions taken by Holy Church to avoid the loss of Eucharistic matter. These rubrics reflect a doctrine stressed by all Catholic catechisms, inspired by the very command of the Lord to His apostles to gather the fragments of mere bread at the miracles of the multiplication of the loaves. Care for Eucharistic fragments expresses an accountability of love.

Since priests are ordained chiefly to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, priestly unity is to be sought in particular in the Holy Eucharist. Over the past decades, concelebration has been the main attempt to foster priestly unity. However, based on The Holy Eucharist, Salvation of the World, by Fr Joseph de Sainte-Marie OCD, sacramental concelebration appears a novelty in the Church, especially in the absence of the bishop. Ceremonial concelebration is the traditional way for clerics of any of the eight orders (four minor and four major ones) to celebrate together the Eucharistic Sacrifice according to their rank and competence. Regardless of the number of concelebrants, one single Mass is offered during a sacramental concelebration. Since the saving merits of Christ, once acquired on the Cross, need applying to the needs of souls at every Holy Mass, reducing the number of Masses without a serious reason undermines the economy of redemption. Notwithstanding the legitimacy of concelebration in principle, one must admit that its implementation over the past half century has often been abusive and detrimental to the priestly identity. In some cases, concelebrating is insisted upon as a defective sign covering up the loss of actual priestly unity – in sound Eucharistic faith and lawful worship. One wonders if, as happened in the past, many concelebrants have not in fact shifted from a sacramental to a ceremonial concelebration.

The scandal of sexual sins committed by clergy gravely undermines the Church’s mission, because the cases of shepherds turned predators casts suspicion on countless good priests and seemingly undermines the apostolic discipline of clerical celibacy. Whereas the homosexual nature of most of those sins makes them graver, any deliberate sexual act would be sinful, not only for celibate priests, but for anyone else as well, unless occurring with one’s lawful spouse and with a view to procreating new human lives if God grants it. The sacrament of matrimony gives a right to the body of the spouse for those acts conducive to procreation. Analogically, priests surrender their bodies and souls to Christ, acting in His Person, and receive in return the gift of Christ’s bodily presence under the Eucharistic species. Therefore, the problem of abusive clerics is not that they clang to a body, but that they sought fulfilment through handling the wrong body, namely, that of creatures instead of the Creator’s Eucharistic Body entrusted to their care. The more priests will share and express the Eucharistic faith of the Church, the less likely they will be to devour the sheep, instead of nourishing them with the immaculate Flesh of the Lamb, Who takes away the sins of the world.

It is an indelible mark impressed upon the soul of the priestly candidate by God through His Church in the rite of priestly ordination. The two other characters of baptism and confirmation do not empower us to perform sacraments. The priestly character empowers the priest to perform divine actions, essentially to absolve from sin and to offer Mass. However, only the latter is valid regardless of its lawfulness. Hence, the priestly character is irrevocably activated in the offering of Holy Mass. Whereas the priestly character remains forever the same, the grace specific to the priesthood should increase in us daily, but can also sadly be lost. As the human nature of Our Lord reveals the invisible godhead, priests acting in persona Christi reveal Christ. When Adam described Eve as ‘bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh’, he prefigured the New Adam, Christ, calling the Eucharistic species ‘his own body and blood’, as elements whence His Mystical Bride the Church would be built. Priests further this building of the Mystical Bride of Christ supremely when uttering the words of consecration and communicating the faithful at Holy Mass.

The person of Christ is the Word Eternal, Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. There is no human person in Christ, but there is a human nature, directly controlled by the divine nature under one single self, which is God the Son. Cardinal Ratzinger says that priestly authority or power is needed to consecrate the Eucharistic species. Every man, and every Christian in particular, is called to act in the Person of Christ. This does not undermine our uniqueness as persons, but fulfils it. Indeed, being relative to another person expresses our human nature, as creatures made after the image and likeness of God. The God we mirror is Himself a triple relationship where the three divine Persons are relative to each other, although equal in might and dignity. The complete expression is ‘In Persona Christi Capitis’, that is, ‘In the Person of Christ the Head’. Any head calls for its own body which it controls and with which it forms one single being. Christ is the Head of His Mystical Body the Church. The priest acts in the Person of Christ the Head as facilitator of the shaping of Christ’s mystical Body, the Church. During the nine months of her pregnancy, Our Lady literally embodied our calling to have the Person of Christ live within us.

The presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist is not neutral. It is offered within the specific context of the redemption wrought by the Saviour of men through His Passion and death on the Cross. The Eucharistic presence is sacrificial in its essence and purpose. Men can benefit from it inasmuch as they acknowledge its sacrificial nature. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the unbloody re-enactment of the Sacrifice of the Cross. Christ’s sacrifice restored the relationship between men and God. Consequently, the relationship among men could also be healed. The religious relationship between man on earth and God on high can be termed vertical. The brotherly relationship among human beings spread across the earth can be termed horizontal. Such human brotherliness can only be healed in dependence of the vertical relationship. This even shows in the shape of the Cross, whose vertical post supports the horizontal beam. Like Calvary, Holy Mass points primarily to the vertical relationship, whose restoration conditions the horizontal relationship of brotherly love. But the modern Mass seems to have put brotherliness first and left the sacrifice in the background. The rite of exchange of the sign of peace illustrates this swap; as does the new way of referring to the main structure of the Mass. The traditional Catholic view is not unduly concerned with sin. Rather, it recognises that the only problem is sin, to which the only remedy is grace. But sin was taken away through Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross, made present again at Holy Mass. The more the rite of Mass manifests this truth, the better both priest and laity can adhere to it through faith and have Christ’s saving merits applied to their wounded souls.

What do we mean by ‘presence’ generally speaking? It applies to things and to persons. A presence can be indifferent, hostile or favourable. Adam and Eve were created in the presence of God. Their intellect knew God as the truth and their will sought Him as the good. Sin led them away from God’s presence. The process of redemption consists of bringing men back into God’s presence. This will be fulfilled and secured in heaven. It is offered already here on earth as we seek God’s presence in His creation, in his faithful, in his Gospel proclaimed. But God’s presence is supreme in the Holy Eucharist. There He awaits us to bestow every healing grace on the wounds of our souls, our sins. In the Holy Eucharist, God shows Himself as truly Emmanuel, God with us, our loving Saviour.

As the Word became flesh, Christ was ordained a priest. Marked indelibly with the priestly character of her Son, priests are ontologically entitled to Our Lady’s assistance. Hence, priests have a greater duty to bear fruit of grace. Non-priests can be more holy though, if they love more. Mary was granted priestly powers once, but priests have them at their constant disposal. Mary will seek her Son’s priests, not resting until She sees them secure in grace, forever in heaven. Priests respond to her zeal by becoming her sons.

As the New Eve, Our Lady is also the Virginal Bride of Christ, the New Adam. She appears at Cana and on Golgotha as ‘The Woman’. With and through Her, the divine Bridegroom fosters a spiritual progeny. Guided by St Joseph, priests may prudently enter into this sponsal companionship. Priestly celibacy is a treasure for the world, as a striking sign of the power of divine grace working through ordinary men. Priests sacrifice to God the great good of biological fatherhood. This makes them even more apt to protect unborn children, images of the Saviour in the earliest stage of His redemptive Incarnation

Judas is the type of the fallen priest. Our Lady invites him to come back to the divine Father. Any fallen priest must hope in her intercession, even when engrossed in ungodly business. She can reshape in him the priestly features of her Son even when distorted through betrayal. Filiation to Mary secures life, but filiation to the devil leads to death.

The Visitation prolongs the Annunciation. Our Lady acts as heavenly midwife to St John the Baptist, the Precursor of the Sovereign High Priest. She forwards to him the Holy Ghost to graft him into the mystical Body of her Son, while carrying Jesus as the Head of the same Body. The devotion to ‘Mary Undoer of Knots’ illustrates this truth. All further members must be connected to their Head through Mary. Despising her spiritual motherhood binds one to the Father of Lies instead, as no middle path is offered.

Our Lady wishes to be a mother to all humans, in fulfilment of the Redemption wrought by her Son. Those marked with the sacramental characters of Holy Baptism and Confirmation bear a particular resemblance to her Son Jesus. But in priests only does She find embedded a permanent capacity for imparting divine life, even after some of them may have lost God’s grace. Our Lady watches all the more lovingly over them, until they reach heaven.

Our Lady is the Mother of God, because her Son is divine as a Person. The human nature He assumed from Her belongs immediately to Him as Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity. Until Jesus, no child was ever conceived by a sinless mother; and that first Child of grace is a priest. Our Lady loves priests as formally sharing in the distinctive feature of her Son, His priesthood.

The Incarnation of the Logos in Our Lady’s virginal womb is explained as triple eclipse. A mineral and cosmic eclipse of the sun by the moon. An organic and microcosmic eclipse of Our Lady’s eye (symbolising her soul) by the ovum. In between, a spiritual eclipse (or superimposition) of God’s loving will by Our Lady’s created will, humbly and joyfully responsive.

Spending five days in a monastery is arduous – but worth it, as an investment in our spiritual life. Life is about packing what we will need for an eternal ‘holy day’. So many great things have been written already about Our Lady and the Sacred Priesthood. But we need to make such truths ours, hence the time we take meditating on them. With knowledge comes responsibility. Our Lady will help us become saints, as our priesthood calls us to. The interior life of Our Lady is where it all begun. On her Annunciation, Our Lady knew all that She needed to know about the mission of the Messiah her Son, and about us, her spiritual posterity.

Bearing witness is a work of every day and night. When we die in state of grace, then we will be freed from pride and lust. We must reaffirm that what our five senses reach is very limited. Reality spreads far beyond our sensorial experience. There are things which our senses cannot reach but are very much real, such as the existence of God and the economy of salvation. When we go back as priests to the Lord’s vineyard, let us make good resolutions, learning and deepening our knowledge of the truth and theology. In particular, let us be zealous in the supreme prayer of Holy Mother Church - the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Having seen the dangers against the vocation of the priest, we now look at the remedies to overcome these temptations. In the First Book of Kings (17: 40), we read of the fight of David against Goliath. Jesus, Son of David, triumphs over Satan with five stones. The same will help us overcome the devil, the world and the flesh and to sanctify ourselves through grace. We must correspond to God’s grace and put ‘the old man to death’. What are these five stones we take from the brook and carry in our shepherd’s bag, that is, in our ministry? Where is our heart and where do we find our comfort and security? This place where our heart finds its rest must be our church. This is the ‘awesome’ place where God dwells. This is our first stone. Listen to find the other four stones.

There are dangers associated with the priesthood. We will always bear the priestly character, even in eternity. We reflect on the means to protect our priesthood in order to make it bear much fruit. We suggest an analogy between the recent film ‘Silence’ situated in 17th Century Japan, and the priestly crisis over the past half century. Priests must perform with sanctity all the simple daily actions in order to edify their sheep. The priest must be a man of prayer, especially in connection with Holy Mass. Our Lady will guide him. He should pray daily the Most Holy Rosary. Wherever the priest exercises his gift from God as a priest, he must give witness as a minister of Christ.

St. John the Baptist is the ‘Precursor’ Our Lord Jesus Christ. His immediate family was close to the Holy Family. Like St. John, we must seek to detach ourselves from the spirit and the comforts of the world. The purity of the flesh and clarity of mind are interrelated. They help us grasp the truth. As a finger indicating the way to God, the Baptist perhaps frightens us a bit. He is a man of penance and austerity. He inspires us to give witness to the truth and not to compromise with the world in our priestly vocation. St John the Baptist is a another great sign sent by God.

Witness in a literal sense means ‘martyr’. Through bearing witness to God, the martyr is made ‘sign’ literally. All that he is refers to Christ, to Whom he bears witness. Martyrdom implies death inflicted out of hatred for the Catholic faith. To die a martyr in a strict sense, one must die in communion with the Church established by Christ. The heart of the martyr should burn with the virtue of charity, even towards his executioners.

God uses the word ‘sign’ in Isaiah 7:14, in the plan of Redemption. A sign is used by God as a means of communicating an important truth. Jesus in the New Testament speaks many times also about signs, as in St Matthew’s Gospel, speaking of the signs of the times. According to the Book of Wisdom, creation itself is a sign. The miracles by Jesus are signs: e.g. at Cana, the change of water into wine by the Lord manifested his glory.

The verbs ‘to listen’ and ‘to obey’ have a similar origin. To obey is to listen to the signs and guidance of someone greater than us. We must listen to the right voice – that of the Prince of Peace, whose words are true. God is passionate for us, His creatures and He died on the cross for us. God does speak but do we listen to Him?

We must be animated with the Love of God - The English Martyrs gave up their lives in the most horrific and heroic way for love of Jesus. The hymn of the "Te Deum" sounded out supernaturally from the hearts of the faithful on hearing of the martyrs’ death. What about us today? The martyrs had prudence and charity, and we must have a deep desire to bear witness to the truth with fortitude.