The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1916-02-12
BY John H. o'Rourke, ST..

10 answer this important question
it will be helpful to consider at some
length what the work of the priest.
hood is. One day early in the spring
of the first year of our Lords public
life, while walking upon the white
shore of the Lake of Genesareth, He
saw Peter and Andrew mending their
nets, and looking with eyes of love into
their sun-tanned and bronzed faces He
said to them: Follow Me and I will
make you Fishers of men,"
This is the first recorded call in
, the Gospel to the Priesthood of the
New Law. 1t was call to be Fishers
of men," The Apostles were invited to
leave the mighty toll Of laboring for
| fish in the lake, and to turn all their
energies toward the quest for souls. If
we draw out what is implied in the
terms Fishers of men" we shall un-
derstand more fully what the priest
hood means. The life of fisherman
is not life of comfort, ease or lux.
ury. 1t is life of hard, grinding toll.
1t is life of discomfort. ordinarily
with small remuneration-long hours
through years of work, commonly with
scanty material reward.
Success in it supposes generous zeal
and constant tact, for unless the fisher.
man labors zealously and cautiously,
slight will be his CATCH. The fisher
mans life, too, is one in which there
is an element of danger and in which
there is commonly much suffering.
When he ventures out upon the break
ers on the cold nights, facing the bit
ing wind, his loved ones often wonder
if his craft will make the shore at the
dawn, or whether his body will be
washed up upon the white beach.
This is the figure under which our
Lord represents to us the work of a
priest. The work of the sacred min
istry is no light toll, no easy labor
and the young man who looks forward
in ministering at the altar to leisure,
| repose, ease or comfort, had better aim
at some other mode of livelihood, turn
his thoughts toward some worldly pro.
fession. No man can be good priest
and Jealous minister of Christ unless
he is determined that his years shall
be laborious, filled with generous self.
sacrificing work for the Master.
He must not aspire to the priest
hood unless he have the zeal of the
fisherman and the tact. He must yearn
for souls with some of that loving
yearning and ardent longing which
was in the Heart of his Divine Mas.
ter in the quest for the lost sheep. He
must be ever willing to crush his own
natural inclinations and tendencies
and to seek for the wandering sheep
with all the tact and perseverance and
gentleness that by Gods grace and his
own efforts he can acquire. Without
this tact, instead of drawing souls to
Christ they will be deferred from the
use of his ministrations and his eff.
forts, be they ever so Jealous, will be
frustrated.
He must remember, too, that in the
priesthood there is an element of dan.
ger to body and an element Of danger
to soul. There is bodily danger be-
cause he must minister at the beck OF
every needy soul which requires his
ministry. irrespective of disease and
infection. Personal danger can never
be consideration when duty calls or
the salvation or welfare of the least
member of his flock is in question. Day
and night, at any hour, he must be
willing to face any danger to win
souls to Christ.
There Is peril to spirit because he
must come in contact in his minis.
trations with every infection of soul,
must touch it and heal it without hav.
ing his own spirit soiled or tainted.
He must breathe the noxious atmos-
phere of sin, and yet not be poisoned;
must constantly touch and handle sin
and yet not be stained by it. He
must lift up the dull, heavily laden
hearts Of men from things of earth
to things Of Heaven, and not have his
own thoughts and aims dragged down
to things which are low and gross.
II young man finds himself with
the courage to embrace this kind of
life, and the strong determination to
lead it, then If he has physical health
and the mental equipment required for
our seminary training, and is living a
pure and spotless life, and feels in his
soul the strong will to embrace this
work, he can 60 confidently to the al
tar, being sure that he has heard in his
heart the same call that was addressed
on the lake shore to the apostles:
Follow Me and will make you Fish
ers of men," but II he lacks these quail.
tiles and finds not In his soul the de-
sire for life which is solitary, com.