A Priest Is The God-bearer Or Christ-bearer,

We Are To Introduce Our People Into The Life Of The Church, Which Is Salvation, That They May Grasp Its Meaning, Its Contents And Purpose, To Taste And See How Good The Lord Is.

It Brings Spiritual Warfare And Suffering For The Priest As He Identifies With Those Who Suffer, And Shares The Frustrations, Anger, And Incomprehensibility Of That Suffering In What It Does To Those Who Suffer. The Priest Shares In These Struggles Of His Suffering People, The Uncertainties It Brings, The Sense Of Divine Abandonment It Induces, And The Loneliness Caused.

A Priest Is The God-bearer Or Christ-bearer, A Living Eucharist Of The Divine Presence, Bringing A Sympathetic Ear And A Compassionate Heart In Which People Find God's Consolation, Understanding And Love.

There Is A Kind Of Thinking In The Church That Wants To Reduce The Priest To A Mere Functionary, A Managing Director, Where Administration Rather Than Doctrine And Worship Are To Determine The Form Of The Church.

Priesthood Is Not A Convenient, Historically Conditioned Form Of Church Organisation, But Is Rooted In The Incarnation, In The Priesthood And Mission Of Christ Himself.