The Priest: His Ministry Is Spiritual
The Priest: His Ministry Is Spiritual
Pastoral ministry is a spiritual ministry; therefore it requires spiritual persons who are able to lead others to God.
The learned shepherd fills the minds of his listeners with thoughts and information. But the spiritual shepherd fills the hearts of his flock with holy spiritual feelings.
The first gives them thought, and the second gives them love for God and people. There are social shepherds who can turn their children into a mass of activity and movement, which may be devoid of the spirit. This also reflects on the aspects of activity in the church.
There is a church whose entire activity is social: in parties, trips, clubs, exhibitions, workshops, and tutoring for those who fail in school… etc.
Another church has scientific activity: publishing books, translation work, journalistic activity, pamphlets and publications.
Another church has spiritual activity: spiritual lectures, prayer meetings, and spiritual exercises. All this depends on the type of priest.
A spiritual priest may be knowledgeable and social at the same time.
But a social servant cannot be spiritual at the same time. The spiritual aspect is broader and includes everything within it, while the social does not expand to include anything beyond itself. This also applies to the priest’s own work.
There is a priest swallowed up by liturgical service.
Perhaps he was among the spiritual servants before priesthood, then after priesthood he gets lost in liturgical duties—Vespers, Liturgies, engagements, anointings, funerals… etc.
Another priest is swallowed by administrative service in the church—construction and financial matters.
But the spiritual shepherd, his service is spiritual first and last, even if he works in a social field, he transforms it into something spiritual.
For example, serving the poor for a spiritual priest is not merely offering material assistance to those in need, but in addition to this, it is a spiritual service that leads these needy ones to a life of repentance and steadfastness in God.
Any work his hand reaches becomes a spiritual work. We find that one concern occupies him: leading souls to God. Every activity he performs has as its aim clinging to the Lord.
And with the spiritual priest, spirituality includes his visitation of people as well.
His visits are spiritual visits, and his conversations are spiritual conversations. Even when he speaks with children, he aims at a spiritual goal. Thus everyone who meets him feels that he receives from him something spiritually new. And I do not wish in this point to speak about priests only, but about all servants in general.
The spiritual priest has not only spiritual goals, but also spiritual means.
His works have spiritual depths, and have their effect through the working of the Holy Spirit in them. In all this, the man of God differs from the man of the world. The man of the world may reach his purposes by intelligence, cleverness, politics, cunning, strength, or skill. But the spiritual man—all his means are spiritual.
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