Blessed Schuster’s Daily Thoughts on the Rule: Ember Saturday in Lent

Ember Saturday in Lent
Station at St Peter’s

Ecclesiastical Vocations

1. Today the station is at the tomb of St Peter in the Vatican, where on the following night the sacred Ordinations were celebrated.

To this subject Saint Benedict dedicates Chapters 60 and 62 of the Regula Monasteriorum.

In the Minister of the Sacred Altar two things are sought above all:

a) the call from God, thanks to the designation of his Abbot;
b) suitability, both moral and intellectual, for such a great office and ministry.

As for the first condition, the Holy Patriarch expresses himself thus: ‘If any Abbot desires that there be ordained for him a priest or a deacon, let him choose among his own who is worthy of the priesthood.’ (Rule, Ch. 62)

It is therefore the Abbot who chooses; although the Holy Patriarch also makes the vote of the Community take part; just as was done in the Cathedrals by the Community of the faithful.

The Abbot, however, cannot proceed capriciously. His choice must take place within determined limits.

Thus, he will not be able to go outside his own community, and in any case, he will have to present to his own bishop a suitable and worthy person.

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2. Scis illum dignum esse? (Roman Pontifical: ‘Do you know that he is worthy of it?’), asks the bishop of the archdeacon who presents him the ordinand.

Generally one responds by assuring that the candidate is most worthy of such an honour and burden.*

Such was not the response, however, of one of the ancient Egyptian anchorites, whom a good bishop had asked if he believed that his cellmate was as worthy as he of presbyteral ordination. ‘If he be worthy of it’—replied the anchorite—‘I do not know. I know, however, that he is more worthy than me!’

Saint Gregory’s account of the Cleric of Aquino, whom Saint Benedict prohibited to ascend to Sacred Orders under pain of falling back into the power of the demon (St Gregory, Dialogues II, 16), ought to instil in us a holy fear.

That Cleric had doubtless washed away by penance whatever faults there were in his earlier youth. But the Lord judged that a body already subject to sin could not be raised to the height of the pulpit, or to the steps of the altar of God. Before sacred Ordination, first must come the merits of a life secure in chastity and generous in holiness.

It is on these arguments that the choice of the Abbot and the vote of the monks must rely: electio Congregationis et voluntas abbatis pro vitae merito (Rule, Ch. 62: ‘The choice of the Community and the judgment of the Abbot on the merit of his life’), so that with a secure conscience one may respond to the question of the ordaining bishop: Scio et testificor ipsum dignum esse ad huius onus officii. (Roman Pontifical: ‘I know and attest that he is indeed worthy of the burden of this office.’)

The Abbot and the Community should always remember that the novice who is suitable has the right to be admitted to Canonical Profession. No one, however, can boast of a right to be raised to the priesthood, for which the Lord chooses whom, when, and how He wishes. Nemo sumit sibi honorem, sed qui vocatur a Deo tamquam Aaron. (Heb 5:4: ‘No one claims such a dignity for himself, but only he who is called to it by God, like Aaron.’)

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3. ‘Let the one newly ordained be on guard against vanity and pride, nor let him dare to do what his Abbot has not commanded him, recognising that he is subject to the Rule even more than before.’ (Rule, Ch. 62)

‘Let him advance all the more in the ways of God.’ (Ibid.)

Monastic profession is already a good preparation for the Priesthood. But Holy Orders, rather than diluting the fervour of the first calling, demands instead a more diligent correspondence to divine grace.

The sentence in the Pontifical addressed to the new priests, Agnoscite quod agitis, imitamini quod tractatis (Roman Pontifical: ‘Understand well what you carry out, relive the Mysteries you celebrate’), is found in the Epistolary of Saint Gregory the Great, and means that the sacred minister, by whose hands Christ renews the sacrifice of universal redemption, should be so incorporated into Him that the words which He pronounces in the person of Jesus may really be true: ‘this is my body; this is my blood.’ It is Christ Who speaks in him and Who lives in him.

It is true that the priest-monk, in community, will not always have occasion to exercise all the priestly offices: Sacerdotem oportet praeesse, offerre, benedicere, praedicare et baptizare. (Roman Pontifical: ‘It is necessary that the priest should preside, offer the Sacrifice, bless, preach, and baptise.’) But this is not demanded even of the bishops, since in the Church there is a wise distribution of labours.

The priest in the monastery carries out the most noble and important priestly offices, which are those of offering the Divine Sacrifice and interceding day and night for the Church and for the world.

*The Italian contains a pun on ‘onore’ (honour) and ‘onere’ (burden).