 |
This article is an orphan, as few or no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from related articles; suggestions are available. (August 2009) |
 |
This article may need to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help by adding relevant internal links, or by improving the article's layout. (August 2009) |
Catholic Feast of Christ the Priest.
Each year, on the first Thursday after Pentecost, the Confraternity of Christ the Priest [1] in Australia and all the Dioceses of Spain celebrate the Liturgical feast of Christ the Eternal High Priest.
Approval was first granted by the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments[2] in 1987.[1]
The Feast focusses firstly on Jesus Christ in His office (Latin: Munus) of Priest. He is the model for our imitation, and when we pray for priests we are praying that they would be like Christ, the compassionate and trustworthy high priest (Hebrews 2:17), ever living to intercede for us (Heb 7:25).
The Second Vatican Council taught many things about the Priesthood of Christ and sharing in that one Priesthood through the Sacraments of Baptism and Orders. This development has been reflected beautifully in many subsequent documents.
One effective way to build upon this teaching is to establish the Feast of Christ the Priest more widely.
For people are instructed in the truths of faith, and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectually by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any official pronouncement of the teaching of the Church. Such pronouncements usually reach only a few and the more learned among the faithful; feasts reach them all; the former speak but once, the latter speak every year - in fact, forever.[2]
What Pope Pius XI wrote here about the feast in honor of Our Lord’s Kingship can be said just as truly about this feast in honor of Our Lord’s Priesthood.
The feast has its proper texts for the Mass, as for the Votive Mass of the Blessed Eucharist B, and approved Latin, Spanish and English texts for the Divine Office or Liturgy of the Hours.