Section — Marc, Institutiones Morales
§ 1. On Holiness Of Life
"Whoever professes some state," says St. Thomas,19 "is held to those things which befit that state." From which, for the clerical state, the following are deduced:
(19) 2.2, q. 186, a. 2, in princ.
Principles. I. Clerics are held, in a peculiar manner, to HOLINESS OF LIFE. This is proved 1) from several places of Sacred Scripture, and especially from the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, in which the Apostle is wholly intent on this, that he impel both priests and Bishops of the New Law, and the ministers of priests, i.e. deacons, to the pursuit of virtue and holiness. - 2) From the doctrine of the Holy Fathers, who everywhere affirm this primary obligation of clerics and gravely exhort them to it.20 "For the suitable execution of Orders" (says St. Thomas, resuming the common doctrine of ecclesiastical writers on this matter), "not just any goodness suffices, but excellent goodness is required: so that, just as those who receive Order are placed above the people by the grade of Order, so also they may be superior in merit of holiness."21 - 3) From very many Councils, and especially from these words of Trent:22 "It is wholly fitting that clerics called into the lot of the Lord so compose their whole life and morals that in habit, gesture, gait, speech, and all other things they show forth nothing except what is grave, moderated, and full of religion." - The same is evinced from what was said concerning the one to be Ordained (n. 1912 sqq.).
(20) See the principal testimonies of the Fathers apud St. Alph., Selva, P. 1, c. 2. (21) Suppl., q. 35, a. 1, ad 3. (22) Sess. 22, cap. 1, de Ref.
- II. Clerics IN SACRED ORDERS are held to a holiness SO MUCH GREATER as the GRADE of the sacred hierarchy in which they are placed is higher. - The reason is taken both from the excellence of the office which they perform, by ministering at the altar and praying for the people; and especially from the necessity in which they daily are placed of preaching the divine word and ministering the Sacraments. Whence St. Thomas:23 "Because through sacred Order someone is deputed to the most worthy ministries, by which Christ Himself is served in the Sacrament of the altar: for this, a greater interior holiness is required than even the state of Religion requires. Whence, other things being equal, a cleric constituted in sacred Orders sins more gravely if he does something contrary to holiness than some Religious who does not have sacred Order."
(23) 2.2, q. 184, a. 8.
- Note. Clerics and priests, who before Ordination are already supposed to have reached some grade of perfection, are bound to use those means by which holiness already acquired can be preserved and can take on new increase. Among these means the following in the first place are commended by St. Alphonsus: 1. A life so stably ordered that each thing may be done in its own time. - 2. Frequent prayer, both vocal and mental, especially before and after the celebration of Mass. - 3. Spiritual reading, and this daily, especially in the Lives of the Saints. - 4. Study of sacred theology, and especially of moral theology. - 5. Daily visitation of the Most Holy Sacrament and of the Blessed Virgin Mary. - 6. Daily examination of conscience and frequent confession. - 7. Guard of the senses and flight from conversation with seculars. - 8. Annual celebration of spiritual exercises for a full week, and monthly for one day. - 9. Pious and constant devotion toward the Blessed Virgin, which effectively impels to this, that fervent prayers be recited daily to Her with the third part of the Rosary, and that every Saturday some act of mortification be exercised in Her honor.24
(24) Cf. Regolam. di vita per un sacerd. secol. (Edit. Turin, tom. 3, p. 859).