Priesthood Quotes

“You, Priest in your mufti, you are a chaplain to the self-satisfied. I come not to challenge Muad'Dib but to challenge you! Is your religion real when it costs you nothing and carries no risk? Is your religion real when you fatten upon it? Is your religion real when you commit atrocities in its name? Whence comes your downward degeneration from the original revelation? Answer me, Priest!”
― Frank Herbert, Children of Dune

“The very purpose of designing the Temple of Jerusalem as a series of ever more restrictive ingressions was to maintain the priestly monopoly over who can and cannot come into the presence of God and to what degree. The sick, the lame, the leper, the "demon-possessed," menstruating women, those with bodily discharges, those who had recently given birth—none of these were permitted to enter the Temple and take part in the rituals unless first purified according to the priestly code. With every leper cleansed, every paralytic healed, every demon cast out, Jesus was not only challenging that priestly code, he was invalidating the very purpose of the priesthood.”
― Reza Aslan, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

“The judge speaks in the name of justice,' he said. 'The priest speaks in the name of pity, which is only a higher form of justice.' (Bishop Myriel)”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

“M'Lord, I know from history that once upon a time in a much earlier Church, a vocation to the priesthood meant a call from the bishop, not necessarily a call from God. And I heard the Bishop of Rome himself call you to be that which you have now become by ordination and consecration.”
― Walter M. Miller Jr., Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman

“The Glory was entrusted to you, you weren't given permission to pass it on as you see fit.”
― Michael Ende, The Neverending Story

“We pay a heavy, very heavy price for the superhuman dignity of our calling. The ridiculous is always so near to the sublime. And the world, usually so indulgent to foibles, hates ours instinctively.”
― Georges Bernanos, The Diary of a Country Priest

“You will all be assailed, my dear friends, by the very real temptation to believe that you have been forsaken by God – that your priesthood is in vain, and that the weight of mortal grief and sin is more than you can bear. In the midst of your anguish you will ask of Him a sign, some visible ray of His unchanging light in a world of hideous darkness. I am sorry to say that this visible sign will rarely be given. The burning bush of Moses, the jewel-encrusted dove of Theresa, the Tolle lege of Augustine – these are no longer the style, as in the simpler days of saint and prophet. The light will be interior; you must look for it within”
― Henry Morton Robinson, The Cardinal

“Incidentally, one has to be very careful with that ‘Bridegroom’ imagery. It is so very apt to land one in Male and Female Principles, Eleusis, and the womb of the Great Mother. And that sort of thing doesn’t make much appeal to well-balanced women, who look on it as just another example of men’s hopeless romanticism about sex, and who are apt either to burst out laughing or sniff a faint smell of drains.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers

“O miracle—thus to be able to give [peace] we ourselves do not possess, sweet miracle of our empty hands!”
― Georges Bernanos, The Diary of a Country Priest

“Science is most definitely not a priesthood where people stand on a mountain and pass truths down to the waiting minions below.”
― Brian Cox

“Missionary work is a priesthood duty - an obligation the Lord expects of us who have been given so very much.”
― Thomas S. Monson

“A child who goes to school and shares his or her lunch with the classmates, is a billion times greater and more religious than all the book-learned priests, imams, rabbis and pundits in the world combined.”
― Abhijit Naskar, In Search of Divinity: Journey to The Kingdom of Conscience

“The other day a little girl in the fifth grade put me in an awkward spot by stating: 'Is it fair that Jesus created seven sacraments and only six of them are available to women?' She was referring, obviously, to Holy Orders to which -- according to eternal tradition -- only males are admitted. What could I answer? After looking around, I said: "In this classroom I see boys and girls. You boys can ask: 'Is anyone among the males of the world the father of Jesus?' The boys' answer: 'No, because Saint Joseph was only the putative father.' But you girls" -- I went on -- "can ask: 'Was one of us women the mother of Jesus?' And the answer is: 'Yes.'" Then I said: "You are right, but think this over. If no woman can be pope or bishop or priest, this is compensated for a thousand times over by the divine maternity, which honors exceptionally both woman and motherhood." My little protester seemed convinced.”
― Pope John Paul I, Illustrissimi: Letters from Pope John Paul I

“Nothing could have been less in line with contemporary conceptions of art than that the theatre should be divorced from all relation to life and politics. Greek tragedy was in the strictest sense ‘political drama’; the finale of Eumenides, with its fervent prayers for the prosperity of the Attic state, betrays the main purpose of the piece. This political control of the theatre brought back to currency the old view that the poet is guardian of a higher truth and an educator who leads his people up to a higher plane of humanity. Through the performance of tragedies on the state-ordained festivals and the circumstances that tragedy came to be looked upon as the authoritative interpretation of the national myths, the poet once more attains to a position almost equivalent to that of the priestly seer of prehistoric times.”
― Arnold Hauser, The Social History of Art, Volume 1: From Prehistoric Times to the Middle Ages

“You will go far in the Church."
"I have no desire to go far. My only ambition is to be a good priest."
"You will be that, of course. Nevertheless, you will go higher. And do you know why?”
“Why?”
“Because,” said Orselli, “you are not afraid of worldliness. I do not mean that you are worldly. Far from it. But you have a talent for being all things to all men.”
― Henry Morton Robinson, The Cardinal

“The false argument has been used that only a man can represent a male Jesus. But this portrays an inadequate understanding of the incarnation. The Son of God, in assuming our humanity, became a man, not to sanctify maleness, but our common humanity so that, be we men or women, we can see the dignity and beauty of our humanity sanctified in him.”
― James B. Torrance, Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace

“The proud cannot accept the authority of God giving direction to their lives. (See Helaman 12:6.) They pit their perceptions of truth against God’s great knowledge, their abilities versus God’s priesthood power, and their accomplishments against His mighty works.”
― Ezra Taft Benson

“The priesthood of Christ is “not according to the law of a fleshy commandment, but according to the power of an indestructible life” (Heb. 7:16). Aaron was constituted high priest according to the powerless letter of the law, but Christ according to the powerful element of an indestructible life. Our High Priest is constituted of a life which nothing can conquer, but which rather conquers everything! It is a life which cannot be destroyed. A life which saves to the uttermost. The endless, eternal, divine, uncreated life. The resurrection life which has passed the test of death and Hades.”
― Witness Lee, The Heavenly Ministry of Christ

“What, then, of the priest's iconic representation of Christ at the altar? If there is no specifically masculine or feminine charism or ontology, the significance of the priest's maleness fades away. What matters—as patristic Christology recognized centuries ago with its dictum, 'That which is not assumed [by the Son of God in the incarnation] is not healed'—is that Christ became human, assuming and thereby healing the nature common to men and women. Although biologically a man, Christ assumed human nature in such a way as to include both men and women in his salvific work. And that means, in turn, that to refuse to allow a woman to preside at the Eucharist may be to say much more than opponents of women's ordination realize—namely, 'that women are not adequate icons of Christ.' The result, notes [Sarah] Hinlicky Wilson near the end of her book, is nothing less than 'to leave both their humanity and their salvation in doubt.' If women can't reflect the human nature of Christ at the altar, how then can they trust Christ's human nature to save them at all?”
― Wesley Hill

“I, whom you behold in these black garments of the priesthood,—I, who ascend the sacred desk, and turn my pale face heavenward, taking upon myself to hold communion, in your behalf, with the Most High Omniscience,—I, in whose daily life you discern the sanctity of Enoch,—I, whose footsteps, as you suppose, leave a gleam along my earthly track, whereby the pilgrims that shall come after me may be guided to the regions of the blest,—I, who have laid the hand of baptism upon your children,—I, who have breathed the parting prayer over your dying friends, to whom the Amen sounded faintly from a world which they had quitted,—I, your pastor, whom you so reverence and trust, am utterly a pollution and a lie!”

Excerpt From: Nathaniel Hawthorne. “The Scarlet Letter.” iBooks.”
― Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

“It is important to note that when Mary Magdalene and other women were chosen by Jesus to bring the important news to the men, the men did not believe the women. Today 2,000 years later men still don't believe women when they say "We are also chosen by Jesus to be leaders in the church.”
― Roy Bourgeois

“If he had given away anything else, he would have been charged with indecent exposure.”
― Edmund Campion, Great Australian Catholics

“Teaching is no joke, sonny! ... Comforting truths, they call it! Truth is meant to save you first, and the comfort comes afterwards. Besides, you've no right to call that sort of thing comfort. Might as well talk about condolences! The Word of God is a red-hot iron. And you who preach it 'ud go picking it up with a pair of tongs, for fear of burning yourself, you daren't get hold of it with both hands. It's too funny! Why, the priest who descends from the pulpit of Truth, with a mouth like a hen's vent, a little hot but pleased with himself, he's not been preaching: at best he's been purring like a tabby-cat. Mind you that can happen to us all, we're all half asleep, it's the devil to wake us up, sometimes — the apostles slept all right at Gethsemane. Still, there's a difference... And mind you many a fellow who waves his arms and sweats like a furniture-remover isn't necessarily any more awakened than the rest. On the contrary. I simply mean that when the Lord has drawn from me some word for the good of souls, I know, because of the pain of it.”
― Georges Bernanos, The Diary of a Country Priest

“They receive their clients in a study purposely decked out with small statues of our Lady, the saints, candles, incense, soft light, and everything that serves to create a magical, esoterical atmosphere, so useful in subjugating the naive adventurers. ... They are swindlers who make money at the expense of poor simpletons who entrust themselves to them to resolve their problems.”
― Fr. Gabriele Amorth

“Each seminarian is the protagonist of his own formation ... and is called to a journey of ongoing growth in the human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral areas, taking into account his own personal and family background. Seminarians are likewise responsible for establishing and maintaining a climate of formation that is consistent with the values of the Gospel.”
― Congregation for the Clergy, Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis

“God calls those who believe as: the chosen, the elect, daughters, heirs, a royal priesthood, His treasured possession. - Hidden Treasures”
― Robin Bertram, Hidden Treasures: Finding Hope at the End of Life's Journey

“During this time of preparation, I also began to realize on a deeper level just how much the struggle between Communism and the Church was a spiritual one. It was a contest for the hearts - and eternal souls - of the people. Those in religious vocations - and any true followers of Christ - were called to a life of sacrificial obedience and anonymous servanthood. The Communist Party, to its faithful, promised the opposite.

Initially it flattered the intellect, appealing to idealists who put their faith in man. They saw man not as a fallen creature, saved by grace, but as inherently good. Man did not need a Saviour, a Redeemer; collectively he had all the necessary skills and mind and abilities to provide for his needs. And given the opportunity, he would care for his neighbor. The Brotherhood of Man did not need the Fatherhood of God. The secular society, through the institutions of the State, would do the work of the Church.

At first glance, the Communist system did seem fairer than the old oppressive monarchies with their rigid class structure, or the weak and failed democracies of Christendom. From each according to his abilities, to each according to his need - what could be fairer than that? Christianity believed in that, too. The difference was that, where God inspired the Christian to voluntary acts of sefflessness and sacrifice - acts opposite of his nature - Communism dictated them.

And who decided which one was needy? And which one should meet his needs? The Communist Party hierarchy. All power gravitated to them, and they were loathe to let any of it go. They used it to reward loyal underlings, and they used fear to control any who were suspected of being less than loyal.

Power meant control, and they meant to control every aspect of life, beginning with how and what the children were taught. It might be too late to change the parents, but if they could have the children....”
― Svetozar Kraljevic, Pilgrimage

“আরনেস্তো কারদেনাল-এর কবিতা । অনুবাদ : মলয় রায়চৌধুরী
অনুবাদ : মলয় রায়চৌধুরী


মেরিলিন মনরোর জন্য প্রার্থনা
প্রভু :
পৃথিবীতে মারিলিন মনরো নামে পরিচিত এই বালিকাটিকে গ্রহণ করুন
যদিও তা ওর প্রকৃত নাম নয়
( কিন্তু আপনি মেয়েটির প্রকৃত নাম জানেন : অনাথ মেয়ে ৯ বছর বয়সে ধর্ষিত
দোকানের কর্মচারী মেয়ে যে ১৬ বছর বয়সে নিজের জীবন শেষ করে দিতে চেয়েছিল )
যে এখন আপনার সামনে নিজেকে তুলে ধরছে কোনো সাজগোজ না করে
কোনো কাগজের দালাল সঙ্গে নেই
কোনো ফোটোগ্রাফার নেই অটোগ্রাফ সইয়ের ব্যাপার নেই,
নভোচরের মতন একা রাত্রির মুখোমুখি যার নাম মহাকাশ ।
বালিকা হিসাবে, মেয়েটি গির্জায় নগ্ন থাকার স্বপ্ন দেখেছিল ( টাইম ম্যাগাজিন যেমন বলে )
সাষ্টাঙ্গ জনগণের সামনে, মেঝেতে মাথা পেতে,
আর ওকে পায়ের আঙুলে ভর দিয়ে হাঁটতে হচ্ছিল যাতে তাদের মাথায় না পা রাখতে হয়।
মনোবিদদের চেয়ে ভালো আপনি এই স্বপ্নগুলো সম্পর্কে ভালো জানেন ।
গির্জা, বাসা, গুহা হলো মায়ের বুকের মতন সুরক্ষিত
কিন্তু তার চেয়েও বেশি…
মাথাগুলো মেয়েটির ভক্ত, তা পরিষ্কার
( আলোর এক স্রোতের তলায় অন্ধকারে মাথার জমঘট )।
কিন্তু মন্দিরটা তো টোয়ান্টিয়েথ সেঞ্চুরি-ফক্স স্টুডিও নয় ।
মন্দির -- শ্বেতপাথর আর সোনায় -- মেয়েটির দেহের মন্দির
যেখানে মানবপুত্র, চাবুক হাতে,
টোয়েন্টিয়েথ সেঞ্চুরি-ফক্স ব্যাবসাদারদের তাড়ায় ।
যারা আপনার প্রার্থনার বাড়িকে চোরেদের গুহায় বদলে দিয়েছে।

প্রভু :
এই জগত কি পাপ আর বিকিরণে দূষিত,
আপনি দোকানের কর্মচারী মেয়েটিকে কেবল দোষ দিতে পারেন না
যে, আর সমস্ত দোকানের কর্মচারী মেয়েদের মতন, তারকা হবার স্বপ্ন দেখেছিল।
আর ওর স্বপ্ন ছিল বাস্তব ( কিন্তু যেমন টেকনিকালারও বাস্তব )।
মেয়েটি কেবল আমাদের দেয়া স্ক্রিপ্ট অভিনয় করেছিল,
যা আমাদের নিজেদের জীবন, এক অদ্ভুত স্ক্রিপ্ট ।
মেয়েটিকে ক্ষমা করুন, প্রভু, আর আমাদের ক্ষমা করুন
আমাদের বিশ শতকের জন্য
বিশাল অতি-উৎপাদনের জন্য যাতে আমরা সবাই খেটেছি।
মেয়েটি ভালোবাসা পেতে চেয়েছিল আর আমরা দিয়েছি ঘুমের ওষুধ।
যে দুঃখের জন্য আমরা কেউই পবিত্র নই
মেয়েটিকে মনোবিদ দেখাবার পরামর্শ দেয়া হয়েছিল।
মনে করুন প্রভু ক্যামেরা সম্পর্কে মেয়েটির বৃদ্ধিপ্রাপ্ত আতঙ্ক
সাজগোজকে ঘৃণা, প্রতিটি দৃশ্যের জন্য তাকে নতুন করে তোলার জন্য দাবি
আর কেমন করে আতঙ্ক বেড়ে যেতে লাগলো
আর স্টুডিওতে অনেক দেরিতে পৌঁছোনো ।
দোকানের কর্মচারী মেয়েদেরর মতন
মেয়েটি তারকা হবার স্বপ্ন দেখেছিল ।
আর মেয়েতির জীবন ছিল অবাস্তব, স্বপ্ন যা মনোবিদ ব্যাখ্যা করে আর নথি করে রাখে।
মেয়েটির রোমান্স ছিল দুই চোখ বন্ধ করে চুমু খাওয়া
কিন্তু তারপর চোখ খুলে যায়
আর আবিষ্কার করে প্রচুর আলো ওর দিকে মুখ করা
তারপর আলোগুলো অন্ধকার হয়ে যায় !
আর লোকেরা ঘরের দুটো দেয়াল ভেঙে ফ্যালে ( তা ছিল ফিল্মের সেট )
পরিচালক নিজের নোটবই নিয়ে চলে যান
কেননা দৃশ্যটা তোলা হয়ে গেছে ।
কিংবা প্রমোদভ্রমণের পোতে, সিঙ্গাপুরে একটা চুমু, রিওতে নাচ
উইন্ডসর প্রাসাদে ডিউক ও ডাচেসের অভ্যর্থনা
এক মর্মন্তুদ ফ্ল্যাটের ছোটো বৈঠকখানায় দেখা ।
শেষ চুমু ছাড়াই ফিল্মটি শেষ হয় ।
ওরা মেয়েটিকে তার বিচানায় মৃত পেলো, হাতে ফোন ।
আর গোয়েন্দারা জানতে পারেনি কাকে মেয়েটি ডাকছিল ।
তা ছিল
সেইরকম যে বন্ধু কন্ঠস্বরকে চেনে তাকে ফোন করতে চাইছিল
কেবল রেকর্ড করা কন্ঠস্বর শোনার জন্য যা বলবে : রং নাম্বার
কিংবা কারোর মতন, যে, ডাকাতদের দ্বারা ঘায়েল
তার ছেঁড়া ফোনের দিকে হাত বাড়ায় ।
প্রভু :
কাকে ডাকার চেষ্টা মেয়েটি করেছিল তাতে কিছুই আসে-যায় না
কিন্তু পারেনি ( আর হবতো তা কেউ ছিল না
কিংবা কেউ যার নাম্বার লস অ্যাঞ্জেলেস ফোনের বইতে নেই ।

আপনিই ফোনের জবাব দিন !”
― Ernesto Cardenal, Love: A Glimpse of Eternity

“A priest prays to cure others hurt against a pride answers to cause others hurt”
― P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar

“When I'd be playing the tables at the casino, obviously I dressed and behaved like a layman. I think that was half the addiction. The thrill of becoming somebody else. It feels so good. We're natural performers, in a way. Always acting in a role of one kind or another.”
― Linden MacIntyre, The Bishop's Man