By Justin McLellan, Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The path of priestly formation resembles a Eucharistic procession, shaped by a spirit of closeness and devotion, Pope Francis said.
Speaking to seminarians from the province of Toledo, Spain, the pope stressed four “types” of closeness that seminarians should put into practice on their way to the priesthood: closeness to God, to the bishops, to fellow priests and to the people of God.
“A priest who is not close to his bishop is debilitated, he lacks something,” the pope said at the Nov. 7 meeting, adding that the closeness of priests to one another “already begins in the seminary.”
Pope Francis noted the upcoming “reservado” procession — a Eucharistic procession commemorating the first time the Eucharist was housed in the seminary’s chapel — and explained how the stages of the traditional procession “serve to remind us of the fundamental elements of the priesthood for which you are preparing.”
The celebration begins with a Mass, he said, reminding the seminarians that it is in the Eucharistic celebration that “Jesus comes to our lives to give us the greatest proof of love.”
In Mass, Jesus “summons us, as a church, to make him present in the priesthood and in the people, in the sacrament and in the word,” he said. “May having him on earth absorb your lives and hearts.”
The pope then referenced the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, which takes place in the seminary chapel throughout the day leading up to the “reservado” procession. He explained that this time offers seminarians a chance to be alone with Jesus, “to hear his voice in silence, through the word, and through the faith of those praying beside us.”
“Only a person-to-person meeting, a loving encounter, with Jesus can illuminate, nourish and sustain the course of our earthly journey,” he said. “Let us hope that this encounter will be a truly effective catalyst that will transform our existence.”
Lastly, Jesus in the Eucharist is carried in procession, “because we receive him to carry him,” Pope Francis said.
“Our ministry is to accompany Christ toward his people, and the people toward Christ,” he said. “Let us hope that, without taking our eyes off who guides us, we may learn to walk together in the hope of the encounter that we already experience here in a sacramental form.”
Earlier in the day, Pope Francis welcomed another group from Spain: Augustinian nuns from San Ildefonso Monastery in Talavera de la Reina and a group of priests and laypeople making a pilgrimage to Rome with them.
The pope asked the priests and the nuns “to always have the needs of others at heart.”
“When someone complains that he or she has a lot of work to do, think of those who have no work,” he said. “There are people who cannot pay the rent and are going to be evicted, so when you enter the convent or the rectory think how ‘I have it for free.’ When in your rectory or convent on snowy or rainy days you are warm, think about the people who sleep in the open air, under nothing. “
Pope Francis also asked them to “not lose your joy, do not lose your sense of humor.”
“When a Christian, even more so a man or woman religious, loses their sense of humor, they ‘turn sour,’ and it is so sad to see a priest, a religious, a nun, ‘turn sour,'” he said, encouraging them to ask God for a sense of humor as St. Thomas More did.
“A sad saint is a poor saint,” the pope said.
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