PAstoral letter
“the Observance of 23 and 24 June 1995
as Feasts of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
and the Immaculate Heart of Mary”
June 05, 1995
To my beloved priests:
The Holy Father, in his Letter
to Priests this year, urges all priests to reflect on their priesthood as
“at the service of the People of God and at the service of its mission.” He
reminds all priests that “this priesthood of ours must guarantee the
participation of everyone — men and women alike — in the threefold prophetic,
priestly and royal mission of Christ.” He insists that “above all else the
Eucharist itself is ministerial.”
When Christ affirms that,
“This is my Body which is given for you... This cup poured out for you in the
New Covenant in my blood” (Lk 22:19-20), He reveals His greatest service: the service of the
Redemption, in which the Only Begotten and Eternal son of God becomes the
Servant of man in the fullest and most profound sense. (Letter
to Priests, 24 March 1995, 7).
The Holy Father then turns to
Mary who is the handmaid of the Lord, and he goes on, movingly, to recall to
our minds that:
If the priesthood is by its
nature ministerial, we must live it in union with the Mother who is the
Handmaid of the Lord. That our priesthood will be kept safe in her hands,
indeed in her heart and we shall open it to everyone. In this way our
priesthood in all its dimensions will be fruitful and salvific.
May the Blessed Virgin look
with special affection upon us all, her well-beloved sons...
May she especially inspire in our hearts a burning desire
for holiness. As the Holy Father wrote in the
Apostolic Exhortation Pastores dabo vobis, “The new evangelization needs new
evangelizers, and these are the priests who are serious about living their
priesthood as a specific path towards holiness” (Pastores dabo vobis,
82; 8).
What we are urged to do then,
dear brother Priests, is to renew our desire and resolve to go forward in our
“specific path toward holiness.” Yes, but this is the way which will enable us
to serve our beloved brothers and sisters, united with us in the one life of
the Body of Christ, to fulfill their own “common priesthood,” given to all of
us in Baptism. Thus, dear brother Priests, the more deeply we live our lives in
the living current of the one love that joins the Heart of Mary and the
Heart of Jesus Christ her Son, the more shall we be empowered to nourish, to
renew and bring to fulness, the Christian priesthood of our brothers and
sisters in the Body of Christ which is the holy Church.
With this letter then, I ask
that each priest in the archdiocese, and each parish, set aside the two days, 23-24
June, this year, as Days of Prayer and Intercession of the
Sanctification of our Priests and also for the Sanctification of Our Parishes.
[1]. Let there be a Vigil before the Blessed
Sacrament on Friday, June 23 in all parish churches and oratories.
[2]. On the Feast of the Sacred Heart, let
a Mass of special solemnity be offered in every parish, for the intention of
the sanctification of our priests, and with them and through their ministry,
the sanctification of our parishes: the
fulfillment of the “two participations in the one priesthood of Christ”: the priesthood
of the ordained, and the priesthood of the baptized. We encourage
our priests to consecrate their priestly ministry and life to the Sacred
Heart of Jesus on this day.
[3]. On the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of
Mary, let a festal Mass be offered again in every parish, for the same
intention as that of the previous day. We encourage our priest to entrust their
priestly ministry and life to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on this day.
Thus for every priest and for
every parish we can look forward to a “two-day retreat”: two days of prayer for
renewal of priestly holiness, two days of intercession for our priests, and
also for the parishes — and the institutions and people — which they serve. We
ask every priest in our diocese, including all priests belonging to
religious Orders and Congregations, to join in this “massive movement of prayer
and intercession.” We ask all our beloved faithful in their respective
parishes to set aside time (to make sacrifices they may have to make for
this purpose) to join in the Vigils and the Eucharistic celebrations
that will be held in their parish churches and oratories. I believe we will all
agree that holiness of life and ministry, for our priests, is of supreme
importance for the new evangelization and the renewal of Christian life in our
archdiocese and in our country, as we move towards the Third Millennium.
I also ask our religious men
and women, especially our contemplative communities, to mark these two
days on their calendar, and join the prayer and intercession which our parishes
and all our faithful in the Archdiocese of Manila will lift up the Triune God
our parishes, and for the parishes and communities which they serve. We trust
that our entire archdiocese will enter with readiness and joy in this “two
day retreat” of fervent supplication to God in union with Sacred Heart of
Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so that abundant grace may be poured
out upon our priests and upon the communities they serve, in the increase of
priestly holiness and priestly dedication to the service of God and our
neighbor, — service, generous and self-sacrificing service, service “even unto
death” given in love.
I join the Holy Father in his
hope that this event, for us, these “two days of prayer and
intercession” will help our priests “to live in ever greater conformity and
likeness to the Heart of the Good Shepherd,” and the Heart of His Mother, the
Mother of Priests.
Devotedly yours, in the
Hearts of Jesus and Mary,
(Sgd.) + JAIME L. CARDINAL SIN, D.D.
Archbishop of Manila
