Our country parish newsletter certainly makes for interesting
reading. Last Sunday we had the Association of Catholic Priests saying in “Judgment
on the horizon” that “Most days, one must be like Martha who was fully occupied
with her daily work, busy with many things.”
Here is the crux of the crisis in the priesthood. One must not be like Martha who was fully
occupied with work most days; one must be like Mary, partly occupied in time dedicated to contemplative prayer every day.
It was Mary, Jesus said, who chose “the best part” and that
best part is contemplative prayer. He chided Martha not because she was busy
but because she was “troubled”. If Martha had spent time “at the Lord’s feet”
she wouldn’t have been troubled; she would have learned, in contemplating
Christ, that perfect love which casts out fear.
Vatican II repeatedly urges contemplative prayer on both
priests and lay people but to the best of my knowledge it’s still not taught in
seminaries. That’s obvious from our Sunday homilies and parish newsletters.
Priests and lay people may perhaps be practising Christian Meditation or
Centering Prayer, but those are “strange doctrines” (Heb 13, 9), not
contemplative prayer.
No wonder we lack priests. “By their fruits you shall know
them” (Mt 7, 16).
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