THE GRACES OF MY STATE – By Fr. Francis P. Harvey, S.S.

How our Lord clung to the apostolic group! He had kept these men when people were falling away; He gave them His confidence and made them share in His life. They were His treasure on earth. How exigent He was for their affection; how concerned for their faith; how grateful for their loyalty! The Father had given Him these men to continue His mission on earth till the end of the world. He rested His cause upon them. He was with them the night before He died; He returned to them from the grave; He blessed them from Olivet. The heaven He loved was to be with the Father and with them.

In most solemn words He gave them His mission and promised to send them from the Father, the Holy Spirit, who had formed His own human nature in the womb of His mother. He told them whatever He had heard of the Father and shared His divine powers with them. They should be what He had been to men. They had His lot. He sent them into the world where the hardship would be great and He could not take them out of it. But with all His heart He begged the Father to keep them from the evil of this world. He put them at a work which was far beyond human strength; but He allowed their claim for protection as workmen from the harzards of their work, and He was able to save them.

Such is the apostolate! Of this ministry I have received a share at my ordination. It is not merely an order or ministry I received to transmit grace to other men and leave me nothing but the burden of lifelong service. Our Lord censured the religious leaders of His day, who heaped burdens on the backs of men without moving a hand to relieve them … Together with the power to save and sanctify others, He gave me by “the hands of the Priesthood” at my ordination, His blessed hand in pledge to safeguard and sanctify me in and by my office and to be with me all the days of my life. In the round of my ministry, I shall find Christ and His sacramental grace that I can never exhaust.

– An Extract From Retreat Companion For Priests by Fr. Francis P. Harvey, S.S.