The Eternal Priesthood

Henry Edward Cardinal Manning has written this book on the eternal priesthood. Manning commences: "It is of divine faith that our Lord ordained the Apostles to be priests when by the words hoc facite in meam commemorationem. He thereby conferred on them the power of sacrifice. It is also of divine faith that when, three days later, He breathed on them, saying, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost," He gave them the power of absolution. In these two powers the priesthood was complete. The pastoral authority and the world-wide commission of the Apostles were not yet given. They had received the twofold jurisdiction over His natural body and over the mystical body, together with the power of bestowing the same by ordination upon others, for their priesthood was the "sacerdotium Christi ad Ecclesiam regendam, a Spiritu Sancto positum." "In conferring the same afterwards, they bestowed this sacerdotal office upon some in all its fulness that is, with tho power of bestowing it upon others; and on some, with the limitation that the priest ordained could not confer upon others the sacerdotal jurisdiction which he had received. Excepting this alone, the priesthood in the Bishop and the priesthood in the priest are one and the same, and yet the Episcopate, by the divine power of ordination, is greater than the priesthood. But this difference is divine and incommunicable." Further on we read: "HITHERTO we have dwelt upon the priesthood as invested with the greatest power ever bestowed by God on man. This alone would suffice to show that it demands of the priest-not a proportionate consecration of all his living powers, for that is im possible-but an entire oblation of himself. It shows also that with the priesthood a proportionate grace, adequate for the discharge of all his duties, is given to the priest. This alone would suffice to show that the state of the priesthood is the highest in its powers, obligations, and grace: and that it is the state of perfection instituted by our Divine Lord to be the light of the world, and the salt of the earth." This is an excellent work for bishops, priests and the faithful alike who wish to appreciate the office of the priesthood.