Monthly Renewal of Fervour

Meditations for Priests
Monthly Renewal of Fervour

Among the many means we have to keep faithful to our high call, one of the most efficacious is the monthly recollec­tion. Pius X and Pius XI laid great emphasis on it in their exhortations to the clergy. In fact, it has become a widespread custom for priests to have a monthly recollection, at least in private; and recollections in common are a regular institution in many dioceses. However, the spiritual fruit of such recollection days depends greatly on the eagerness with which we seek it. Too easily recollections in private may become a mere routine performance; common recollec­tions may prove an agreeable diversion in the company of brother-priests, perhaps also a useful refresher on some point of ecclesiastical study. But the zealous priest will look upon his monthly recollection chiefly as the sure safe­guard of, and the necessary help to, sacerdotal fervour. Let us reflect a while on this, and see how useful our monthly recollection is: - lest we deteriorate in our spiritual life, - lest we stagnate in it, - lest we fail in sacerdotal holiness.

Lest We Deteriorate

Alas! it is possible for a priest to deteriorate, and to deteriorate very badly, in spite of the sacredness of his call. He may come to lose, gradually, the flavor of his priesthood, to think and to act in ways less and less sacerdotal, more and more of the world. He may even fall below the standard of a good layman, to the latter's great disedification. And his downward course may bring him in the end to become a stumbling-block and a scandal, even to give up his vocation.

Such falls never happen all of a sudden. They are brought about by gradual steps down the ladder of perfection, by a gradual neglect of the spiritual life. Therefore our greatest saIeguard against tnem is to detect and combat the first symptoms of danger: "Principiis obsta". And it is here that our monthly recollections are an invaluable help: they make us take stock of the state of our soul, discover which are the weak points that endanger our sacerdotal fervour, and take practical resolutions to stem the evil. No priest will ever lose his vocation or his sacerdotal spirit, as long as he is in earnest about the exercises of his monthly recollection.

* These considerations ought to influence me also and make me prize my monthly recollection, however secure I may seem to be: "Qui se existimat stare, videat ne cadat."

Even St Teresa was shown the place in hell where she would have gone had she not given up too natural a friendship.

Am I taking the opportunity of my recollection to watch sin­cerely, humbly, for any signs of possible deterioration in my spiritual life: v.g. in my prayers and exercises of piety, in my resistance to temptations, in charity, in zeal for souls; etc.?

­Am I generous in overcoming the obstacles that so often come in the way of my recollection day?

It requires energy and generosity to be faithful; but no sacrifices are too great to make sure of my perseverance: "Quid prodest homini..."

Lest We Stagnate

Probably the more common danger for priests is an habitual mediocrity. They slowly settle down to a life of very average goodness and rest satisfied with the efforts they make to be more or less faithful, at least materially, to their duties: their faults and shortcomings are not grievous, but neither are their virtues of the heroic type. And thus they carry on contentedly, with hardly ever any appreciable improvement in their ways - with what loss of merit to themselves, with what diminution of fruit in their ministry!

Against this danger also the monthly recollection, done earnestly, is a most efficacious remedy. For it puts before us again and again the obligations of our priesthood and its exigency of a more than ordinary goodness; it reminds us of the sacredness of our ministry and of the many means of fervour in it. We examine our daily life in that light, to see how far we fall short of that ideal, and, led by God's special graces, we take new courage to aim at greater fervour and generosity. In that way every recollection day ought to be a most powerful antidote for spiritual stagnation. "Dixi: Nunc coepi; haec mutatio dexterae Excelsi."

* Do I look upon my monthly recollection as upon a confirmation and a refresher of my annual retreat?

Examin­ing how far I have kept up my ideal and been faithful to my resolutions?

Do I devise practical means, v.g. by the choice of a particular examen, to grow in virtue and to perform my priestly duties more perfectly?

Do I stir myself to fervour by the exercise of the preparation for death? "If I were to appear before God now, how ashamed I would feel of what I am and of the little I have done for Him." Hence, the urge to renewed fervour...

Lest We Fail in Holiness

Further, our monthly recollections must be dear to us because they are stepping-stones to holiness. A good priest will never rest satisfied with avoiding grievous lapses, or with the practice of ordinary virtue: he will aim at the downright holiness which alone befits his priesthood, keeping that always as his determined goal, however far he may feel from it in reality, ever trying to go forward in the way of perfection. And every monthly recollection will be the occasion to strengthen his firm purpose and to renew his generosity in the pursuit of it.

In special meditations and exhortations he will be re­minded of the claims of his holy vocation; in the recollected solitude of his heart he will hear the voice of Christ and the inspirations of the Holy Ghost; and in his more fervent and prolonged prayer (including perhaps the Way of the Cross and the Holy Hour) Jesus will enkindle in him new sparks of the fire that consumes His Sacred Heart.

* Do I go to my monthly recollections with earnest desires of holiness?

Do I seek it in a sincere, humble and generous surrender to the action of the Holy Ghost in me: ready to wish what He wishes, to give all that He asks? ­

And do I steadily keep my eyes and my heart fixed upon the Model of all holiness?

"Aspicientes in auctorem fidei et consummatorem Jesum."

"Doce me facere voluntatem tuam" (Ps. 118).
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Adapted from Alter Christus, Meditations for Priests by F.X. L'Hoir, S.J.