If it should so happen that any man by sin or sloth barred the grace of his ordination at the outset of his life, by true conversion to God the grace which sin had bound may yet revive. If in the course of his life he should lose his fervour, or even his spiritual life, the Sacrament of penance will restore him to grace, and by contrition the sacramental grace may yet revive. Who, then, needs to despair? Hope honours our Divine Lord. Let us hope greatly, strongly, and with perseverance to the end.
2. But, secondly, the priesthood itself is a source of sanctification to the priest. It is a restraint and a guard and a shelter against the world. It is a motive and a measure of aspiration. It is a constant impulse after a higher degree of union with God. A priest is set apart for God's greatest glory; and on all his sacerdotal life, as on the vessels of the Temple, is written Sanctificatus Domino.[1] To this also his personal actions ought to correspond. The words of the Psalmist ought to be expressly true in the mouth of a priest. "One thing I have asked of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life: that I may see the delight of the Lord, and may visit His temple; for He hath hidden me in
- ↑ Zach. xiv. 21.
