Autumn: Doing

Three hundred and sixty-five texts drawn from the Fathers of the Church, saints, theologians, the Magisterium, and other spiritual authors provide daily nourishment for the year of priests, and an invitation to become rooted in what is essential. The booklets cover four fundamental aspects of priestly life: being, doing, the challenges and the opportunities.

The first booklet focuses on “the perennial Source of the sap of life: God, who has looked upon us and loved us, to whom we have given ourselves with a “radical” choice”, while the second looks at the implications of how this way of “being” is translated into action.

The editors, Hubertus Blaumeiser and Tonino Gandolfo, have involved a team of experts from many countries in this work.

Being and doing is also the subject of the first thought, by Pope  Benedict XVI, taken from his address to the priests of the diocese of Aosta in 2005. It is relevant to all Christians.

An expression of what we are

“It is not what you do that is so important but what you are in our priestly commitment.

Without a doubt, we must do many things and not succumb to laziness,
but all our work will only bear fruit if it is an expression of what we are.
If what we do shows that we are deeply united to Christ,

that we are instruments of Christ, a mouthpiece through which Christ speaks,
a hand through which Christ acts:
we should be convinced and act with conviction only
to the extent that this is truly the result and expression of what we are.”

Benedict XVI