mary plays a greater role to the lives of the priests than that of the lay faithful. this i say because in the strict sense she is the mother of all the priests. in actual fact there is only one priest, christ. all the other priests are partakers in the mission of christ. this means that all the priests are priests in the priest, they are pastors in the pastor and they are shepherds in the sherperd. jesus christ is the only priest, pastor and sherpered, of which all the other priests take part in the mission of christ. mary is the mother of christ. to a greater extent, she is the mother of all the priests. in as much as mary was present in the whole life of christ, she is also present in the lives of all the priests. in as much as mary played a vital role in forming christ, she also plays the same role in the formation of priests. in as much as mary was present at christ’s suffering, crucifixion and death, she is also present in the sufferings faced by priests.