Page:The Eternal Priesthood (4th ed).djvu/44

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THE THREE RELATIONS OF THE PRIESTHOOD.

mitted Himself to us in His sacramental Presence? A token of confidence, even in earthly things, will win the whole heart of a servant to his master. What ought to be the fidelity, loyalty, joy, devotion of our hearts for the custody of His Presence, His Person, and His dignity before men? The Blessed Sacrament consecrates the tabernacle, the altar, the sanctuary, the home of the priest. The bush in Horeb burned; but the priest and all about him are enveloped in the radiance and in the influence of the Blessed Sacrament intrusted to his charge. How can he lose the consciousness of this relation even for a moment? He may not be always in actual advertence to it. Even the disciples, when they picked the ears of wheat, or wondered at the stones of the Temple, or at the withering of the fig-tree, had other thoughts; but they were still conscious of one chief dominant thought which governed all, and continually recalled them to His presence. So it may be—so it ought to be—with us. A priest ought to be in no place where His Master would not go, nor employed in anything which His Master would not do. In the morning the priest spoke the words of almighty power, and for awhile he was in contact with the Incarnate Word. Such a consciousness—for it must not be called a memory as of a thing