ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Praised be Jesus Christ!

It is a joy for me to be here tonight with you, my brother priests, seminarians and young men—with you and with our Eucharistic Lord, Jesus Christ. I express my deep thanks to the priests, teachers, youth ministers and chaperones who have accompanied our young men this evening, for this opportunity to spend some time here at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary. It is good to pray with you and for you.

We gather tonight, dear friends, in the presence of our Lord, to do what He both told us and taught us how to do, that is to pray. And what a gift, what an honor it is to gather here, in the presence of our living God, as beloved sons of the Father, brothers and friends of Jesus Christ.

We are praying tonight a most sacred prayer, Night Prayer of the Catholic Church. This prayer, in which we make intercession to God for the entire world, is part of the Breviary or Liturgy of the Hours that is prayed by each priest every day. It is part of the sacred duty of every Catholic Priest. At his ordination, the priest makes a solemn promise to be faithful to praying the Breviary, and upon it his day, indeed his entire life, is ordered.

Like the Sacrifice of the Mass, of which it is a prolongation, the Liturgy of the Hours, a part of which we pray tonight, demonstrates the vocation, the role and the very meaning of the Catholic Priesthood. Some people wonder, “What does it mean to be a priest? Why would someone choose to be a priest?” Well, we see in this prayer an answer to those questions and an important aspect of the priesthood. Priests are men who respond to God’s call and who offer themselves, in prayer, in service, and in love for others. And this is at the very heart of the priesthood, namely the offering of oneself for others in response to God’s call, just as Jesus did in His sacrifice on the Cross.

Dear young men, how much the world today needs the priesthood! How much the Father needs priests to be like Jesus His Son in His special role of offering intercession for the people! And because the Father needs priests, He calls them through His Son Jesus Christ. And there is no doubt that He is calling young men today, young men like yourselves, to intercede for His people as priests, to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to forgive sins in Confession, to proclaim the Gospel in word and sacrament.

In discerning such a call to the priesthood and in order to live the priesthood faithfully, all of us need the Light of Christ, the light spoken of in the reading tonight. Without this light, we remain in darkness, but with this light, we have a tremendous gift, for the Light of Christ has great power, the power to conquer all darkness. And, dear friends, we need the Light of Christ for ourselves at this time.

We need to beg the Light of Christ to enlighten our minds, to know Jesus and His Will. We need to beg the Light of Christ to enkindle our hearts to love Him more and more.

This great light is reflected in the Church and in the heroic saints who have gone before us, Heroic priests like Maximillian Kolbe, Padre Pio and Pope John Paul II. Dear friends, the Lord has a tremendous desire to share this same light with us, that we may be what our world needs: Holy Priests for a Holy People.

Tonight, as we continue our prayer and kneel before Our Lord, let us bask in the Light of Christ and ask His light to fill us. Let us ask His light to transform us, let us ask His light to shine so brightly in us that we may grow to be the men he is calling us to be, that we may have the courage to say “yes” and to heed His call in whatever He asks us to do. In one sense or another Jesus is saying to each of you right now: “Come, follow me!” Ask Him earnestly if He means in the priesthood! And if He does, His light and His strength will never abandon you! Amen.