the sick, in supporting the dying by day and by night. Finally, there remains the signal grace and privilege of the missionary oath, whereby, on the threshold of the apostolate which they have received, after the likeness of the oblation of Jesus upon the Cross, they freely offered themselves a living, daily, and acceptable sacrifice to God the Father."
The Fourth Provincial Council warns us that we are bound to our flock by multiplici et conscientiæ et cordis ligamine—by manifold bonds of conscience and of heart.
First, it says, "a missionary priest receives the oblations of the faithful for no other reason than because he is a missionary therefore he is bound to serve them." Missionary priests are bound to labour without weariness for the salvation of the souls of those subject to their care. Let them call to mind the solemn hour in which, when invested with the ineffable dignity of priesthood, kneeling before the Bishop, they promised obedience and reverence to the Ordinary. When, therefore, they are chosen out and sent by the Bishop, to whose precepts they subjected themselves with a willing mind to fulfil the pastoral office over the sheep intrusted to him, it is plain that they are under grave obligations by the precept of obedience to fulfil rightly so great a duty.
