Today is the Feast of St. John Eudes, a great saint of the 17th c. A great missionary. He was a promoter of devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and spiritual writer. Canonized in 1920’s, he has a gigantic statue in a niche in Saint Peter’s Basilica. He founded the “Eudist” fathers.
I have posted this from St. John Eudes before, from The Priest: His Dignity and Obligations – HERE
On bad priests…
Bad priests are a sign of God’s anger
The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds. Instead of nourishing those committed to their care, they rend and devour them brutally. Instead of leading their people to God, they drag Christian souls into hell in their train. Instead of being the salt of the earth and the light of the world, they are its innocuous poison and its murky darkness. St. Gregory the Great says that priests and pastors will stand condemned before God as the murderers of any souls lost through neglect or silence….
When God permits such things, it is a very positive proof that He is thoroughly angry with His people, and is visiting His most dreadful anger upon them. That is why He cries unceasingly to Christians, “Return, 0 ye revolting children . . . and I will give you pastors according to my own heart” (Jer. 3, 14-15). Thus, irregularities in the lives of priests constitute a scourge visited upon the people in consequence of sin.
A good priest…
He is an ever burning and shining light set in the candelabra of Mother Church, burning before God and shining before men: burning in his own love for God, shining by his charity for his fellow man; burning with the perfection of his inner life, shining by the perfection of his exterior deportment; burning in fervent prayer for his people, shining by his preaching of the word of God. The priest is a sun cheering the world by his presence and bearing. He brings heavenly blessings into every heart. He dispels the ignorance and darkness of error and radiates on every side bright beams of celestial light. He extinguishes sin and gives life and grace to the multitudes. He imparts new life to the weak, inflames the lukewarm, fires more ardently those who are aglow with the sacred flame of divine love. He is an angel purifying, illuminating and perfecting the souls that God has entrusted to him. He is a seraph sent by God to teach men the science of salvation which is concerned only with knowing and loving Almighty God and His Divine Son, Jesus Christ. The priest is an archangel and a prince of the heavenly militia, waging constant war against the devil who strives to drag countless souls into the depths of hell. He is the real father of the children of God, with a heart filled with love which is truly paternal. That love urges him to work unceasingly to nourish his flock with the bread of the sacred word and of the sacraments, to clothe the faithful with Christ and the Holy Ghost, to enrich them with celestial blessings and to secure for them every possible assistance in the salvation of their souls. …
He is a captain in the mighty army of God, always ready to battle for the glory of God and the defense of Holy Mother Church. He is ever prepared to lay siege to the world, the flesh and the devil. For him the conquest of kingdoms means only the salvation of souls for each soul is a kingdom more precious than all the empires of the world.
Please pray for priests. Pray for me.
Always on the right sidebar.
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One has to wonder why the good people of Libville did to incur God’s wrath in the form of Bishop McButterpants that the people of Black Duck did not do.
I am not sure if God is angry with us now. I say this since I have met many good priests as well as good-hearted priests who were poorly taught and formed. On the other hand I have also met many bad priests. Fortunately, I have good ones serving my parish.
I will pray for all priests; their burden is greater than us lay folks.
In our family rosary, we include all Priest who have ever personally asked us for prayers as well as all Priest who have administered or are going to administer the sacraments to us.
I feel great compassion for Priests. They endure so much and the world is unfriendly.
We must pray for our Priest’s.
I was being mordant, but I’ll speak plainly instead. This doesn’t hold up to logical scrutiny. An All-loving, all-wise, all-knowing, all-good deity doesn’t inflict punishment by territory, out that makes him (small h, because of the incident error here) arbitrary and cruel. Why did some of your parishes get wonderful, decent, devoted pastors while the adjacent others got sexual predators and monsters? I can’t conclude that your God was that angry with a few blocks of real estate. Step back and consider whether the saint you mention works to your confirmation bias instead of your intellect.
[You should have stepped back before you posted this.]
St John Eudes’ words here are rather striking.
Re. “Thus, irregularities in the lives of priests constitute a scourge visited upon the people in consequence of sin” – seems to be saying that we (“the people”, which I presume includes, maybe even is dominated by, we laity) mainly have only ourselves to blame for said “irregularities”. The thought arises in one’s mind to call this out as “victim blaming” on the part of the dear saint.
But what overshadows all is the vortex of damnation that seems from his foregoing axiom to follow:
1) bad people make bad priests (St John Eudes);
2) bad priests surely make bad people (if not, then what’s the point of good priests instead of bad);
3) goto 1
What might I be missing here? I would have thought we need good priests to make the rest of us good. (Perhaps it’s no bad thing that not everything that a canonised saint writes is nencessarily true.)
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