The president of an Irish seminary spoke these words in the course of a sermon preached at the First Mass of a young priest: "High and dear above all other prayers, seek to give rather than be given to. By this absolute giving of yourself to God at the dawn of your priesthood your First Mass will be as a great sun rising in the morning of your priestly life. May it rise and shine and glow higher and stronger day by day, and for many days, as you go on in your priesthood! And when at length the evening comes and the end draws near, may the radiance and fervor of your First Mass here, undimmed and unchilled by the passing of the years, be a light, a flame, and a fire, as the visible fades away and the invisible reveals itself! Oh, your First Mass and your Last Mass and all your Masses in between, may they merge into one bright and brilliant sun, illuminating and sanctifying your own life and the lives of all who come under your influence!"
When Abram returned victorious from battle, Melchisedech, the king of Salem, went forth to meet him. He brought with him bread and wine to offer in sacrifice, "for he was the priest of the Most High God." He blessed Abram and prayed that God's good favor would remain always with him.
The priest of the New Law also comes forth to offer a sacrifice of bread and wine. Through that sacrifice and through the life of dedication of the true priest, through his prayers and penances and labors, we too are enriched by God with abundant blessings. One is privileged to know intimately the lives of several priests who suffered for years the horrors of the concentration camps. What graces these heroic men have drawn down on themselves and the whole world! The Cure of Ars was fond of reminding the people that without the priest there would be no Mass, and without the Mass there would be no abiding Presence and no Holy Communion. As I try to contemplate the meaning of the Mass and the wonderful truth that I am called upon, as a Catholic, not only to stand with Mary on Calvary but to unite my poor offering with His and hers, as I begin to realize the grandeur of the Mass and the priesthood of Christ in which every baptized Catholic shares, I see, too, why such insistence is laid on the necessity of praying for our priests.
The Salvatorian Fathers in America have founded the "Association of the Priests' Saturday," the one simple rule of which is that members engage to offer at least the first Saturday of each month, and better still every Saturday of the year, for priests. Such activities are evidence of the quickening of interest in the priest's vocation, which is a result of a better understanding of the blessings every priest is responsible for calling down on the world. Hence Christ Our Lord, as He points to the altar and shows me His priest offering the Holy Sacrifice, would have me pray for priests, for saintly priests. "If the Church," wrote Pius XI, "has saintly priests, she has nothing to fear; but if she lacks this, nothing else can compensate her for her loss."
Jesus, You told us to pray to the Lord of the harvest that He send laborers into His harvest. Send into Your Church saintly priests, to preach Your word effectively, to offer the sacrifice of the holy Mass worthily in Your sight, to pray, to toil, to go forth to the battlefront and confound Your enemies, to set before themselves the ideal put by You as their aimto win back to You, not a single city or country, but to win the whole world because it is Your world, bought by You with a great price.