Easter Tuesday--Being a Priest

Motto for our priests' retreat

To be a good priest,
you first of all have to be men,
to feel what men feel.
Live the relationship
with everything that becomes present.
Live the truth of your humanity.
Cry because you need to cry --
or you are afraid,
because the problem is difficult
and you feel the inadequacy
of your strength.
Be human; live your humanity
as an aspiration,
as a sensitivity to the problems,
as a risk to face,
as a faithfulness
to what God makes urgent in your soul.
In this way, reality will appear
to your eyes in a true way. --Don Luigi Giussani

Last night we viewed a powerful video on the life and teaching of the founder of what became Communion and Liberation, a movement to revitalize the Church by attracting youth (and not-so-young) to Christ, as Jesus drew Andrew and his friends to Our Lord in the first chapter of John's gospel. Father Giussani believed that the quest for happiness unites all us human beings. And that to discover Christ is the true happiness, an encounter with the One who is Truth, Beauty and Goodness. Or in the words Jesus himself uses in the Fourth Gosepel: the Way, the Truth and the Life.
During our retreat we are exploring more profoundly what this means for us as priests, those who help the people in our day to come to this encounter. We can only do so if we are convinced ourselves. This is the reality that our retreat master, Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete (author of God at the Ritz) is helping us live now in these days apart with Our Lord.
Pray for us.