WEDNESDAY REFLECTION
Mid-week Reflection
17th March 2021
How can I not speak about Saint Patrick whose feast day is today? After escape from kidnapping and a return to Ireland, there he remained for the rest of his life building up the Kingdom of the Lord against the pagan rulers. It must have seemed a daunting task. I wonder if he read the Gospel appointed for tomorrow where, in St Luke, we read that the harvest is great but the labourers are few and thought, how right that was. Like a bishop saying, I have thirty three churches but I don’t have thirty three active priests or an archbishop saying, I have ninety one churches but I don’t have ninety one active priests. What would Jesus do? Well, he appointed seventy two others and sent them out to prepare for His work. Who were these people? We don’t really know apart from Joseph called Barsabbas and Matthias. The others, called by the Lord, were people…..like all of you! Another thing he did was to sanctify his clergy…the Apostles. There is a letter in the archives of the Diocese of Trieste. The bishop had written in the early part of the fourteenth century to Pope Saint Clement V, famous for starting the Avignon Papacy. The bishop reported that a significant number of his priests were not living priestly lives. The Pope wrote back and told him to make sure he had enough priests for his needs and to exhort them to holiness of life. That’s what bishops do today. They exhort the priest to holiness of life. Perhaps you who are among the seventy-two others of today can help the bishops in their pastorate by praying for the holiness of life essential to the priest.
Monsignor Monaghan
