August 4th - A Day to Honor Our Priest

There has been a lot of good news in the Church about the priesthood as of recent. Vocations in many dioceses are on the way up and many young men are making the sacrifices to become these heroic role models that the world needs. FOCUS has seen, as one of our great fruits, many of its students go off to study for the priesthood. We have seen 162 men from our Bible studies in the past 11 years join the seminary and start their studies for the priesthood. I personally have worked with 8 men that are now studying to be priest.

August 4th marks the Great Feast day of St John Vianney, the first parish priest to be canonized a saint. This year happens to be the year of the priest because the Church is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the death of the great saint. Now, when I say celebrating death, it really means life, because death to a saint is really a birth into eternal life with Jesus Christ.

The Vatican has announced tomorrow to be a day where we can receive a plenary indulgence for praying for priest to the High Priest Jesus Christ. A plenary indulgence is grace granted by God for those who have total contrition for their sins, go to Mass, and to Confession and finally pray for the Holy Father's intentions, where all that person's temporal punishment due to sin would be forgotten. Click here for more information on indulgences.

Even for us that are not ordained priest should rejoice in this day and during this year. It is the priest that brings us Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, that Jesus uses as His ambassador to forgive our sins and save our souls in Confession. It is the priest that can give a person anointing and Viaticum on their death beds and send a soul to God. Yes, the priesthood is part of God's plan for salvation from the beginning. We see this in the Garden of Eden when Adam is asks to "shamar" the garden. You might have read this as "keep" in Genesis 2:15, but the word shamar is the same word used for the duties of the Levites in the book of Leviticus. Yes, the Old Man Adam was a priest, and so was Jesus Christ, the New Adam.

But there was a three-fold priesthood in the Old-Testament that was fulfilled in Christ. The Levites had three levels of the priesthood. The Levitical people being the broadest level, then the ministerial priesthood, which were the ones that offered the sacrifices in the Temple, and then the High Priest, who was the only one allowed to go into what they called the Holy of Holies. This has been fulfilled in the Three-fold priesthood of the New Testament: The priesthood of every person, what we theologians (I use that term lightly in accounts to me) call the baptismal priesthood - This is the priesthood of every believer in Jesus Christ, because we are all called to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to the Lord (Romans 12:1). Then there is the ministerial priesthood today. These are the ordained priest, like John Vianney, who offer the sacrifice of the Holy Mass, and finally there is the High Priest, Jesus Christ!

Please pray for Priest this day and wish your local priest a Happy Feast Day!