commands them as follows: "Realise what you are now doing; imitate (the sanctity) with which you are charged, that in celebrating the mystery of the Lord's death you may mortify all vices and lusts in your members. Let your doctrine be the spiritual medicine of the people of God. Let the odour of your life be the delight of the Church of Christ, that by preaching and by example you may edify the house that is the family of God."
In the second preface the Bishop further prays: "Renew in them the spirit of holiness, that they may receive of Thee the office of the second dignity, and may, by the example of their conversation, impose a rule of moral life. May they be prudent fellowworkers with us; may the pattern of all justice shine forth in them."[1]
In like manner the Council of Trent orders that all clerics shall visibly show in their lives, by their dress, their gesture, their gait, their words, and in all other things, nothing but gravity, modesty, and piety, and that they avoid even lighter faults which in them would be great; so that "their actions shall inspire all with veneration."[2] These words express the exercise of perfection in its fullest sense,
- ↑ Pontif. Rom. in Ordinatione Presbyteri.
- ↑ Sess. xxii. De Ref. cap. i.
