From Archbishop Donoghue

Dear Brothers in Christ,

Thanks you for asking me to say Mass with you today. Father Higgins and I want this to be a successful retreat for you all - we are praying for you - and if there is anything we can do to help you, I hope you will not hesitate to ask either one of us.

I also hope that as you consider the time you have already spent as a seminarian for Atlanta, and all the events of your life that led up to your decision to recognize and accept a call from God, a vocation, that you will see His care, His concern at work in your lives. And I hope you will have realized by this point in your lives, that we are much better off to place our lives in the hands of God, and not to try and predict and plan too much about our own futures.

Our Lord makes this point, when he tells the Apostles in the Gospel, "I have much more to tell you, but you can not bear it now." An interesting choice of words. He did not say, "I have much to tell you but it can wait until later." He said, "Ébut you can not bear it now."

Suppose our Lord had told the Apostles about the troubles they would face in their own lives - suppose He had predicted for each of them, the martyr's death that awaited them - or if He had told them of the terrible persecutions that were to come later, under the Roman Emperors and later despots - or suppose He had told them of any number of tragic and catastrophic events of history, events affecting not only the Church, but the whole of mankind. Perhaps their faith would have still seen them through the test, but the Apostles would not, most likely, have been comforted or settled or reassured to know the hardships that awaited. They were human.

What our Lord did do, instead of laying out the future in detail, was to promise them a much greater gift, the gift of the wisdom of the Holy Spirit - His Spirit and that of the Father in Heaven. He knew that the challenges of life were impossible to escape - He understood that there is really no advantage whatsoever in knowing what is to come Ð and He gave His men what they needed - the Holy Spirit to sustain them, to help them discharge their responsibilities, and to face whatever hardships they would encounter. "The spirit of truth," He said, "will guide you to all truth." How much greater love this promise expresses, than any visions of the future - how much more help, to promise the strength to endure, rather than to reveal fearsome or even terrifying challenges, and then depend on human weakness to be strong and able to endure.

In giving the Spirit of Truth to the Apostles, our Lord also gave His Third person to the Church - and though the Church has suffered, and continues to suffer form the egos and whims of individuals, the Spirit has not suffered the Church to fail in those matters that count in the eyes of God - doctrine, forgiveness of sins, sacramental life, and the just distribution of charity, the treasury of love Christ continues to distribute through our love for one another. This has been the work of the saints, and it is our work in the present day. Results are not achieved by magic - by peering into the future and trying to discern what will and what will not happen. Results are achieved by trusting the Holy Spirit, and by trusting the Church, through which the Spirit moves and speaks.

To this end, I ask you all to understand that to be ordained, a man must trust the Spirit to guide Him, and he must believe the Church, who speaks for the Spirit - in her doctrine, in her teachings on morality, and in the laws that govern the liturgy. You must be ready, as the rite of Ordination says, "to teach what you believe, and put into practice what you teach." These strictures will apply in the pulpit, in the confessional, at the altar, and above all, in your personal lives.

So, dear brothers, let us pray today that God will send us an abundance of His Holy Spirit, that we may know the truth, and that the truth will set us free from ourselves, and make us all new men in Christ. For that is the man that the Church is looking for Ð that is the man the Faithful expect to see, when they look into our eyes, when they see the actions of hands, and hear the words of what we will teach Ð not us, but Jesus Christ in our place. It is a tall order, especially for the weak side of the equation Ð the side that we are Ð but on the other side is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of power and truth, and I have no doubt, and this I teach you solemnly, that He will come through for us, He will balance our weakness, and make us strong, if we are sincere in offering ourselves to Him. Let us renew that offering today, and humbly ask Mary, the mother of all priests, the first in the order of grace, and in whose heart every vocation finds life, to help us in our quest.

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