Pope St Pius X - From the heart of God

Here is an excerpt from the booklet 'Adoration Reparation and Spiritual Motherhood for Priests' in Honour of Pope St Pius X Feast Day on Friday 21st August.

"Every priest has a birth mother, and often she is a spiritual mother for her children as well. For example, Giuseppe Sarto, the future Pope Pius X, visited his 70-year-old mother after being ordained a bishop. She kissed her son’s ring and, suddenly pensive, pointed out her own simple silver wedding band saying, “Yes, Giuseppe, you would not be wearing that ring if I had not first worn mine.” Pope St. Pius X rightfully confirms his experience that, “Every vocation to the priesthood comes from the heart of God, but it goes through the heart of a mother!”


Here is an inspiring passage on the priesthood from the book Recipe for Holiness by St Pius X:

"His mere duty is not sufficient for a true priest. He needs something higher: sanctity. Jesus Christ requires a simple Christian life of the faithful but of the priest He asks a life of heroism. And, therefore, if Christian perfection is an ornament, a glory and a halo for any member of the faithful, for the priest it must be his normal way of life: a life of faith which helps him to discern the dark arms of the enemy, a life of hope which sustains and strengthens him in his daily struggles, a life of burning and inflaming charity, a life of angelic purity, of sacrifice, of a spirit of poverty, of meekness and of a patience which remains unmoved and unperturbed under the blows of the most atrocious injuries. It must be all this because the priest, raised aloft, must by the light of his example enlighten God's people and warm them with his fervor...

The priests are the representatives of Jesus Christ. But in order to represent Jesus Christ one must have His sentiments in oneself and have - as might be said - His very words on one's lips. As the stars are visible after the sun has gone down so priests must be so many stars to illuminate the firmament of the world in the absence of the Sun of Justice, Jesus Christ."


This excerpt from Pope St Pius X offers us as Spiritual Mothers for priests some clear and illuminating characteristics that priests require for their mission and sanctification. We can ask Our Lord in prayer, on their behalf, for the grace to bless our Priests with these qualities that Pope St Pius X has so eloquently described, in the hope that all priests desire and become what his beautiful portrait paints of the ideal priest.