THE WESTMINSTER LIBRARY

A SERIES OF MANUALS FOR CATHOLIC PRIESTS AND STUDENTS

EDITED BY

THE RIGHT REV. BERNARD WARD
BISHOP OF BRENTWOOD

AND

THE REV. HERBERT THURSTON, S.J.

THE PRIESTLY VOCATION

A SERIES OF FOURTEEN CONFERENCES
ADDRESSED TO THE SECULAR CLERGY

BY

RIGHT REV. BERNARD WARD

F.R.HIST.S.
BISHOP OF BRENTWOOD

NEW YORK:
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO
FOURTH AVENUE AND 30TH STREET
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
BOMBAY, CALCUTTA AND MADRAS
1918

TO
THE CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE
OF BRENTWOOD
IN THE MIDST OF WHOM
IT IS MY HAPPY LOT
TO SPEND THE LAST YEARS OF MY LIFE
THE SANCTIFICATION OF WHOM
HAS BECOME THE FIRST OBJECT OF MY
PASTORAL SOLICITUDE
THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE
RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED

PREFACE

THE aim of the following pages is to present well-known ideals and principles of action, and to apply them to the state of things actually existing among the secular clergy of this country. They contain the substance of Conferences originally addressed to Seminarists, which are now amended so as to be applicable to a wider circle.

From the nature of the case it happens that the greater number of our spiritual books are written by the Regular Clergy. Yet in some of its phases the religious life differs essentially from that of a secular priest. For example, the virtue of Poverty, or that of Obedience, as practised by the latter differ not in degree but in kind from the manner in which they are practised by those in the religious state. Hence the seculars do not always find the exact application they want.

In the present book it is hoped that frequent quotations from the writings or sayings of well-known bishops and priests who have had personal experience of the English mission may at least give actuality to what is said, and at the same time add an authority for it to rest on.

FEAST OF ST. THOMAS OF CANTERBURY,
PATRON OF THE SECULAR CLERGY OF ENGLAND,
December 29, 1917.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

THE PRIESTLY VOCATION

CONFERENCE I

THE PRIESTLY VOCATION

IT is well known that one of the great aims of Cardinal Manning during his long episcopate, and perhaps the one of his works which has left the most permanent impression behind it, was to raise the tone and status of his diocesan clergy. For many reasons connected with our Catholic history, the level at which the average secular priest in the days of the Vicariates aimed left something to be desired. When we read the story of penal times, and realise the kind of life that an ordinary priest had to live, it is not surprising that the tone and quality of mind which we somewhat vaguely designate under the name of the "Ecclesiastical spirit," should not have been largely developed.

We are not speaking now of the time of actual persecution. In the days when a priest had to go about his duties in the continual risk of being apprehended and cast into prison, and being condemned on trial to be hanged, drawn and quartered, the heroism of his life, and the manner in which he had to be almost continuously braving personal danger in his search after souls, would undoubtedly have taken the place of much training and prayer in sanctifying his soul. But with the relaxation of active persecution, came an imminent danger which showed itself throughout the dreary eighteenth century, and during the first half of the nineteenth. There was no longer any fear of violence, and even the depressing penal laws invented after