Msg Base:  AREA 5  - ASK FATHER            CIN ECHO   AMDG
  Msg No: 170.  Sat 11-02-91 22:45  (NO KILL)  (RECV'D)  (MAILED)
    From: Father Mateo
      To: Mike O'donnell
 Subject: Becoming a priest

³ Dear Father:
³  
³ Would you be so kind as to write the entry on Becoming a Priest.  I would
³ like it to be about a typewritten page, "from the heart", which would
³ mention the sacrifices, the rewards, etc. of the priesthood.  Since you
³ are our "online priest", and because you write so well, I would be
³ especially honored if you could do this.
³  
³  
³ Mike O'Donnell.....Columbia, Maryland
³  
 
Dear Mike,
 
Our Lord said, "You have not chosen Me; I have chosen you."  He starts
the ball rolling  1) when we are created -- we don't create ourselves!
2) when we are baptized - - our parents or our adult selves bring us to
the font because   He first moves them by His grace; 3) when we follow
His will into our permanent vocation: marriage, priesthood, diaconate,
religious life, et al.; 4) when we die and go to settle accounts with
Him.
 
So I became a priest because He wanted me.  He set up my family and
early life experiences to help me get His message.  He created me the
sort of person who would be inclined to listen to and follow such a
call.
 
I am a convert.  Before I became a Catholic, I wanted to follow my
Dad and become a preacher.  My encounter with the fullness of Christ's
truth in His true Church increased my desire to preach that truth.
 
I found I loved the Catholic Church.  Nothing and no one I have ever
encountered so engages my participation and my full involvement.  So I
became and am her priest.
 
The ongoing self-oblation and intercession of Jesus Christ is the only
hope people have of rescue from eternal damnation.  Saying Mass brings
people into the ever-flowing current of Christ's oblation.  The human
priest is Christ's instrument for achieving that integration.  The
priest, acting in Christ's person at Mass, plugs the people here
present into the current of His saving act.  And I am a priest because
I want to say Mass, and so bring people into Him.
 
I remove the obstacles which prevent men from being one with God.
Again Christ uses me as His instrument in accomplishing the forgiveness
of sins.
 
These two sacraments - - Eucharist and Penance - - along with preaching
and writing (which is a kind of preaching) are the reasons why I am a
priest.  At the end of the road for every man and woman there lies
either Heaven or hell.  The priest engages those options directly,
personally.  And the ordained priest functions in the whole Church to
form a priestly people, a Kingdom of priests to our God.
 
Could I have done all this without becoming a priest?
 
No!
 
                        Sincerely in Christ,
 
                        Father Mateo