August 3

Second Saturday after Trinity

And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in. S. Luke 14:23.

THAT we are in numberless cases unfitted to guide ourselves without some external aid, especially in cases of deep concern, such as keenly affect our own interest, our passions, our weakness; that religious questions, above all others, touch with peculiar absorbing force on every part of our lives, and every acting of our minds, accompanied by difficulties and trials from which none can hope to escape; that while any Christian of mature and disciplined habits of mind may be well able and rightfully entitled to give counsel and advice, yet the priests of God are specially commissioned and empowered both to "keep" and impart knowledge in spiritual things, and are set in the midst as fathers and guides of souls, not merely in public ministrations, but also in private offices, in all that concerns the interior life, in a way that can belong to none but divinely authorized persons. The desire which must ever be at the heart of a priest with regard to those under his care is to elevate the character, to develop and aid God's own work in the soul, making it more dependent on His guidance, more trustful of His mercy, more conscious of His indwelling presence.

Christ, by Thy Father's high decree, Sealed the great Priest to be, Who choosest Thine own ministry, And formest them to Thee.

Led by Thy guiding Hand. He shows the way, and He precedes, It is His life that leads; And while His words the faith reveal, His actions set the seal.