The prayer which we just said together forms part, as you know, of the prayers which we say as priests at the offering of the gifts of Holy Mass, at the offertory. The offertory of the Christian is a spiritual offering, a spiritual offering in the idea of the New Testament certainly does not mean that it excludes, would exclude material sacrifices. Sometimes we can hear that in the part of Protestants who, misunderstanding and misrepresenting the idea of the sacrifice in the messianic age and misinterpreting the words of the prophets who emphasized so often that God is not pleased with material sacrifices as such.

[01:18]

Exclude these material sacrifices or visible rites from the worship of the church. However, that has never been the meaning of the warnings of the prophets concerning the new worship of the messianic age. The prophets protested not against the offering of material things as such, but they protested against the offering of materials material gifts without the corresponding mental attitude. And that mental attitude which corresponds and makes the material gifts pleasing in the eyes of God is the attitude of humility, the attitude of a contrite heart,

[02:23]

The offertory is not only, as we said last time, yesterday, it is not only an offering in the spirit of prayer and the spirit of joy, but the offertory is also an offering in the spirit of humility and of contrition. the operatory is certainly, again, in the whole context of Holy Mass, has the function of a purification. And that also is the reason why in the East still now and in old Christian times, probably also in the West, the kiss of peace accompanied or was connected with the operatory procession because this kiss of peace also has the function of mutual forgiveness.

[03:30]

It is, if you want to put it that way, a penitential rite. But here in this prayer it is clear that the offertory has that function of purifying our hearts before we enter with hearts lifted up on the spiritual level of the canon of the Mass. Before we enter, we may say, through the beautiful portal of the Holy, Holy, Holy, Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabbat. And this purifying effect of the offertory consists especially in this, that in this right, people bring material things, bring of their material possessions. Therefore, they offer or they renounce something that belongs to them, material goods, and

[04:42]

And this renouncement of material goods indicates their eagerness and their willingness to give up the pleasures and the comforts of this material world for the greater honor and glory of God. One could perhaps also put it in this way and see the offertory position in the light of the words of the Epistle to the Hebrews, where St. Paul writes to the people in Jerusalem, the Word of God is efficax, efficacious. It has an immediate effect It penetrates, it cuts like a double-edged sword and it penetrates into the very depth of our own inner being and there separates, as Saint Paul puts it, the organic soul, that means

[06:01]

or that we consider as, to say, the vegetative and sense life from the spirit. The thought of the word penetrates into the inner heart of man and there separates the lower life of the senses called anima, which always includes and means organic life, the life that is essentially connected and is the life of an organic body, and the spirit, the separation of soul and spirit. The spirit is the life of grace, the pneuma. is the life that descends upon us from the one source which is the risen Saviour. So therefore the offertory may be seen in that context

[07:09]

that the word which we have received in the mass of the catechumens is a two-edged sharp sword which penetrates into that one can say critical and there works in us the critical separation of the, let us call it, the organic life of the senses and the supernatural life of the spirit. It frees our spirit, and that is expressed in the offertory. Every sacrifice certainly has that meaning. It's a response to that sharp two-edged sword of divine revelation which penetrates our heart, wants to give us the freedom of the spirit at the expense, naturally, of our being bound of the bonds which fasten us to our body, to the lower life of our soul.

[08:18]

So the offertory, therefore, is a freeing of the spirit by bringing material gifts into the altar. Our soul should be free so that after we have offered it, These material gifts at the offertory we can say with greater right and with greater assurance, let us lift up our hearts, sursum corda, free from the bondage in which we find ourselves in virtue of original sin in relation to our body and its desires and concupiscences. So the word of the operatory therefore also includes and leads us in a practical way into that whole field of Christian life which we call the ascetical life, the life of mortification, and which has for us priests a special importance because it is so much a part of our own life especially,

[09:36]

when we think of our pledge of celibacy that we have given when we became subdeacons. So our body and our bodily life is in a special way put, has been put upon the altar. The Word of God has penetrated in a very special way into our hearts when we received and when we obeyed our vocation, the call to the holy priesthood. The priest in that way is taken out of the people, he's taken out of the, how could we call it, the line, continuous line of generations, and he is put in a very special and immediate way, faced with the eternity of God. So let us speak then in this connection about our duty and obligation of bodily mortification, and especially also about the meaning of celibacy, the positive meaning of celibacy, of holy virginity.

[10:56]

There is no doubt that our time, our age, is inclined to minimize the importance of abstinence, of fasting, of bodily mortification. We are members of a soft generation, and especially that is true also here in this country, where we live, also as priests, in comparative luxuries. If one compares the standards of an American priest with those of a European priest, especially in the Latin countries, let's say Italy, or France or Spain, one sees right away that there is a great difference in the standards of life. And then in this country, priests are less inclined to put much store into the concrete demands of daily mortification in the surroundings in which they live, the furniture and the apparatus and the things that they have at hand, let's say television and all the modern gadgets of technical gadgets are at our disposal.

[12:24]

and are widely used. While in the European and Latin countries there certainly is looking at it on the whole, of course one always does injustice in any kind of generalization, but nevertheless looking at it in the abstract or in the In the general way, the standards of the priests, especially in Latin, countries certainly are much lower, and they are lower deliberately. But that imposes, I think, upon us, or puts a question to us that we should seriously ask ourselves about, especially in the context of a retreat, because a retreat also has that function and is held for that reason that we should quietly check in our own life and that we should see if it corresponds to the will of God, our way, our daily way of life.

[13:39]

And as I say, there certainly is much reason for the priests, especially in this country, to revise their standards. In some way it always strikes me as a great inconsistency that on one side the message of Our Lady of Fatima is widely publicised and there is a great devotion to Our Lady of Fatima and the message of Our Lady of Fatima certainly is a message of penance and an exhortation to greater willingness to do works of penance. but unfortunately the reality and the practical effect of this message is, it seems to me, a minimum and is neglected.

[14:45]

So certainly there is no doubt that the message of Our Lady of Fatima there hits at a point which is of crucial importance to us. There is no doubt that the future will have great sacrifices in store for us. One can see that already now. The situation of the country, also of our country, is not beyond the possibilities of disorder and of catastrophes. And in the whole struggle between the two worlds, let us say what we call broadly speaking, the free world, what we call the free world, and the world of communism, the tremendous struggle that is there, certainly is not helped by any softness on our side. We know very well to which tremendous sacrifices the Russian people as a whole are being subjected

[15:51]

to achieve the goal which the leaders of the people have set for themselves. And we also see to what tremendous extent, really, the Russian people proves to be capable of suffering and of sacrifices day after day. It certainly is not a recommendation, On the other side, we see that what we call the democracies and the people there are not, absolutely not, as willing to give up material comforts for the pursuing and the defense and the propagation also of their own ideals, ideas and ideals of the essence, very essence, of man as a free being and of the rights of man and all these things that are connected with it.

[16:54]

So we know and we also remember the admonition of our Lord that there are certain evil spirits which can be expelled only by fasting and by prayer. And those things our Lord couples them together. Prayer cannot be separated from fasting, fasting cannot be separated from prayer. We see that so clearly in Lent when the Church puts before us the ideal and the very idea of the ascetical life of the Christian and we find always these three things united the spirit of prayer, the spirit of bodily mortification expressed in fasting, and the spirit of charity, of almsgiving. And we have to seriously remind ourselves always that these three things belong together.

[17:59]

Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, that means practical works of mercy. These three things form one unity. We have and cultivate prayer without the spirit of mortification, and without the spirit and the willingness and the factual practice of charity, brotherly charity, in giving help to the needy, our prayer simply is empty. The same also if fasting is there but without prayer and without charity, then this fasting is simply a kind of selfish self-training and an attempt to bring, let's say, our bodily life under our own control, but before God any such attempt as, for example, we find it so often done in Asia,

[19:03]

without any value. And the same also for almsgiving. If almsgiving is done without works of mortification, fasting, and without prayer, it is simply a merely humane attitude at best, It is an attitude in which I display as a human being to my own satisfaction my goodness in which I help other people. So it's a philanthropic attitude, but it has nothing to do with the life of the Spirit. To make our prayer spiritual and really, to say, a sincere offering before God simply has to be accompanied by fasting and by practical almsgiving. In both these things I think we as priests have to check our attitude and we have to ask ourselves seriously before God how willing are we to

[20:10]

confess or to practice this holy trinity of works. In a special way also, of course, the ecclesiastical year, and that is one of the things, you know, which we should also, as I say, keep in mind if we think about the practice of fasting, of mortification, bodily mortification, the best thing is that we don't leave these works to simply, let us say, to our own whims and moods. And that very often could also, especially when we deal with souls that are inclined to scrupulosity, could lead to wrong practices. As you know very well, all these practices, especially also the practice of bodily mortification, if somebody is really inclined and willing to take works of bodily mortification upon himself, he is easily caught in this kind of inner pressure

[21:32]

But the more I do, the better it is. Therefore he gets into that wheel of quantity. The more I do, the better it is. And then, of course, has certain dangers, brings certain dangers with it, and easily may throw the Christian life out of balance. And therefore, again, the ecclesiastical year itself, that holy, sacred order, which Christ the Lord, through the Holy Spirit, has instituted in the church, is such a wonderful norm, which indicates there is a time of rejoicing and there is a time of repentance and sadness. There is the time in which we enjoy also the material gifts in the name of God and in that holy joy which is characteristic of the messianic age.

[22:37]

And there is a time in which we abstain, in which we offer. And certainly there is the Lenten period. And of course now the Lenten fast has been considerably reduced, but one can absolutely clearly see that the Holy Father, in granting this easing of the conditions, exhorts and admonishes and implores us to continue in the spirit of freedom and of voluntary sacrifice what has been asked before by the law. So, let us say, the abolishing or the reducing of the, let us say, juridical demands of the church law should really also be seen not only as a

[23:42]

a measure of understanding or of compassion with our age and the weakness of the age. Maybe that's only in our imagination, this weakness. But it certainly wants to give room for involuntary mortification. And therefore this easing of the law puts upon us even a more acute obligation, I mean inner obligation, and admonishes us to do, let us say, in the love of our heart, what is not demanded any more by the law. It would be really, and I think everybody realizes that, it would be a great pity if the Lenten practice of the 40 days in preparation for Easter... would, through the new legislation, kind of drop out completely as a real factor in our spiritual life.

[24:51]

The same certainly is true of the Ember Days. The Ember Days are certain islands of penance and of mortification which are distributed throughout the whole year, and touch and consecrate in a special way all the four seasons, because all the four seasons have their special gifts to us, and through the ember days all these material gifts of the four seasons are being offered to God through special fasting and abstinence. Then, of course, there are other times, you know, for example, the whole idea of the celebration of the Sacred Heart certainly is connected, and that was the intention of the popes, with the idea of reparation. This idea of reparation again shows us the penitential spirit and shows us also the real character of mortification.

[26:00]

in a beautiful and in a positive light, that it is our voluntary taking upon ourselves and making full through ourselves what is still lacking in the sufferings of Christ. So a reparation in which we show to the world that we are friends of the one who died on the cross alone, that now in this time of the messianic age and since the fullness of the Spirit has been poured out over the whole earth, that Christ there is on the cross surrounded by friends, surrounded by those who are eager for their part and in the power of His Spirit to give up material comforts and material goods in order to, as it were, console him in his passion.

[27:03]

So for us as priests then, as a special, of course there is a special obligation because we, our example sets the standards. If people see, you know, that we are living as priests more or less in luxury and on a standard which is above that of the average Christian, the result of that cannot be but a slackening and a stifling of the sacrificial spirit in our congregations. What I want is then in a special way also to point out in this connection the celibacy and the spirit which should animate it. It is evident that the very spirit of celibacy requires of us a constant spirit of mortification, because celibacy is not only something that, to say, here and there becomes acute and our sacrifices of our sensual desires and concupiscences, but it is a status.

[28:26]

And certainly, again, it would be kind of out of proportion, out of keeping with the general line if our celibacy, our life in holy virginity, would be on the other side, accompanied by a constant looking for material comforts. The general idea of celibacy requires what St. Benedict calls the law of parcitas, the parcitas, the being satisfied with a little in our entire life. Very often we can see that even the keeping of celibacy in our priestly life is hindered or is at least made much more difficult as long as it is accompanied with a life which is lived in constant comfort.

[29:28]

The comfort is something which softens our inner attitude and which therefore also reduces our resistance against the temptations of the flesh. While, on the other hand, all around partitas of our life, especially as far as food and sleeping and so on is concerned, will help us and in our keeping and living the true spirit of holy virginity. It seems to me important when we consider and speak about our life of celibacy and of holy virginity, seems to me it is important that we do not consider that simply as, let us say, only a constraint, only as something negative, that we have to consider it, and really should and are asked by our Lord to consider it as something immensely positive.

[30:46]

Holy virginity is not a virtue which is exclusively penitential at all. Holy virginity is a virtue which gives witness to the fact that the fullness of the Holy Spirit has descended here upon earth, and it is part of the manifestation of that fullness of the Spirit. One can say of the fullness of the messianic age that there are those who are eunuchs, not by nature and not by art, but by the Spirit, by their own free will. The virginity gives of the Church, gives witness before the entire world that the age of paganism and the age of the Old Testament have passed. Neither paganism nor the Old Testament

[31:50]

had any real positive evaluation of holy virginity, and especially not of holy virginity as a total vocation which takes the entirety of our life and in which we persevere unto the death. That is only really has come into this world through the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ, that the Word of God, descended as the Virgo Virginum from heaven, and that this Word of God, a virgin himself, became and took flesh in the womb of the Virgin of our Blessed Lady, the Mother of our Holy Virginity. so that here in holy virginity not a lack, or let us say a discipline becomes evident which would kind of cut the life nerve in us, but that here a fullness of life, but naturally of the life of the Spirit, a fullness of eternal life becomes manifest in us.

[33:15]

Why are we and why do we lead and why do we love a life in holy virginity? It is because through Christ the Virgin, made flesh, and who died for us, offered his body for us, and now is enthroned at the right hand of the Father in the mystery of the Ascension. which means that his whole bodily nature is filled with the abundance of the Spirit, only because he sends the fullness of the Spirit to us, therefore we are, as it were, taken out of the, now let us call it the changing, the up and down, the constant rhythm, of birth and death. Holy virginity is in us the anticipation of the eternal life, of that life which we, which has begun in mankind and in the head of the new mankind in our Lord Jesus Christ as he is enthroned at the right hand of his Father.

[34:39]

There is the source of holy virginity. and therefore that holy virginity is not a spirit, let us say, or a power which is simply, let us say, opposed to life, or which simply wants to kill what is good in us. No, it is something that wants to consecrate what is good enough and bring it to its real, true, and full manifestation, to its absolute purity. We are, as virgins, we are children of the resurrection. That's the beautiful word that our Lord himself uses in this connection. You are children of the resurrection. Why? Because you have received the spirit of the resurrection. You are members of the mystical body, the head of which is the Virgo Virginum.

[35:43]

not in the sense of abstaining but in the sense of consecration and fulfilment of everything that is best in also our bodily life, in the life of the senses. After all, the life of the body and the life of the senses is in itself, again, an image and points to a higher fulfillment. It's in itself also not only opposed to the spirit, but it is also an image of the spiritual life. We find that truth expressed right in the beginning of Genesis, where the sacrament, the mystery of marriage is explained. And for that reason, man will leave his parents and he will cling to his wife.

[36:46]

And St. Paul says, and that is a great mystery, but I say in Christ and in the church. So that the married love, that sharing of life, which... happens, takes place in married life is in itself an image and a signpost to a higher fulfilment. It's not only diametrically opposed, not at all, to the life of the spirit, but it points to the fulfilment in the spirit and really in itself has what we may call a desiderio naturale, a natural inclination, a natural longing for that fulfilment which spiritual love is able to give to man. There is no married life which is free completely of that inner tragedy that Paul Claudel once expressed in this way, that every married love is a promise that in the end cannot be fulfilled.

[38:03]

which is so true. The promise in good married life and in married love is really an eternal promise. It is the promise of a pure love, of a complete union, which cannot take place in the sphere and on the plane of the flesh, just cannot take place. of that the flesh is only a weak imitation, a shadow, pointing to a greater and higher reality, and that greater and higher reality is realised in the love of Christ for his church. And this love of Christ for his church is a love in which Christ, in absolute selflessness, gives himself and everything he has, his eternal life, to his church as his bride. And that is really what takes place also in our life, in the virginal life of the Christian.

[39:12]

It simply is not good for man to be alone. That sentence of Holy Scripture absolutely stands. And in the light of that sentence, let us say, the bachelor's life just is not a status which would correspond, it may be justified in certain exceptional circumstances, but it certainly is not a status which belongs, let us say, to that order and dispensation of divine love which descends from heaven and includes also the relation between man and woman sealed and sanctified in holy matter. Our life as priests is not a bachelor's existence. If it were a bachelor's existence, it would be simply an egoistic, self-centered thing.

[40:16]

It is true that our life as priests is sometimes, let us say, threatened by the certain, let us say, shrinking or the degeneration which may take place in a bachelor's life. The celibacy has certain dangers, there is no doubt about it. Celibacy may be to us, let's say, an opportunity to become, for example, a hypochondriac in our attitude. I mean constantly concerned about our own health and about ourselves, that we become, for example, self-centered, self-centered in vanity, self-centered in jealousy, that we envy somebody else for his successes or for his promotion, things like that. All these characteristic vices, you know, which show that our life,

[41:20]

Our celibacy is lived rather in a selfish way and in a wrong way and is not filled with the true spirit of a holy virginity. Certainly there is that, and these dangers are there. The danger, just our relative isolation, just the unquestionable loneliness which is part of the existence of a priest and especially also part of the existence of a diocesan priest. This loneliness may work in us and may push us in the wrong direction, in the direction of personal sensitiveness, extreme sensitiveness, looking for praise, looking for approval in every direction, looking for help and support and so on, being very sensitive wherever somebody seems to infringe upon our rights, become very conscious, let us say, of justice,

[42:30]

and being at the same time very much inclined on one side to step over the limits of justice as far as other people are concerned, and highly sensitive if somebody else oversteps our own rights. So in this way, you know, there are certain dangers, there's no doubt about it. Also, a giving in may be too self-pity, because certainly such a lonely life is an inducement to self-pity, that we become kind of depressed, that we let the wings of our souls kind of hang down because there isn't much inspiration that could help us, there isn't much sympathy and there isn't much help that we get from others. So in all these ways, you know, celibacy may be a temptation and an occasion for our life, let's say, to shrink in a certain way and to lose that fullness which really is intended for us by God.

[43:47]

So therefore, the best way also to counteract these dangers of celibacy seems to me that we live our life in holy virginity exactly in the spirit which the offertory of the Mass clearly puts before us day after day. And that means that we live our life of holy celibacy first in the spirit of consecration. The life of our senses, I think it's so wrong if what happens today and is said today so often, you know, that the holy virginity is nothing but a kind of a very often involuntary, forced, what they call sublimation. as if the spirit of holy virginity would be something that we, let us say, through training or drill of some ascetical sword, you know, and through a constant effort of transposition, you know, transposing or using energies, vital energies that are not used in the field into which they belong, in the field of the senses,

[45:14]

that we kind of transform that energy into acts of spiritual, so-called spiritual altruism or selflessness or whatever it may be, or into missionary activity and to the care of souls and so on. so that we transform, to say, the natural longing for children into the virtue of teaching and of forming a congregation which then is a kind of a substitute for the family sense, you know, which would be inborn in us as men. However, that, to my mind, is absolutely against the very facts of our Christian existence. We must see that clearly, that our virginity is not a human attempt at sublimation of some lower vital energies.

[46:22]

But holy virginity is definitely, and the Church always insists on that, it is a gift which comes from above. The mystery of holy virginity is not a sublimation of lower energies, but it is a consecration and transformation of our sense life and of sensual love through the power of the divine agape which descends from above. But that, as soon as we see that, you see, then also it right away... makes it clear to us that in order to live the life of holy virginity, we must do everything in our power to let the positive divine agape, the power of God's descending love, come into our soul and work in our soul so that then our soul

[47:30]

low earthly love may be consecrated by the greater power of heavenly love. That means we cannot meet the problems that celibacy puts before us, for example, by a certain attitude also of mockery, by trying, for example, in a contemptuous manner way to lower the dignity for example of the female sex to make jokes about the weaknesses of women or try to despise women or in that way to give ourselves you know a certain outlet and certain opportunities for example by joking jokes that play around, as it were, with the factors of our sense life, and in that way give a certain diversion.

[48:39]

All that is complete nonsense. All that means that we simply miss the point in our life of holy virginity. Because, as I say again, that life is not a life which lacks something, so that then, in a kind of artificial and stupid way, we would have to make up for that lack. But the Holy Virginity is a life of fullness. and is a life of fullness which does not kill our lower nature, but again transforms, transfigures our lower nature into and lifts it up, also the lower nature, on a higher spiritual level. But as I say, in order to that holy virginity may develop in us that one can say transforming and transfiguring power,

[49:40]

which would lead us into the liberty of the spirit, which would give to us a certain inner, I want to say, peace, which shows and has the characters of a certain superiority over the lower values of our sensual nature. In order to have this power, holy virginity must clearly be lived from above, cannot be lived in any way from below, neither through so-called attempts at sublimation nor so-called diversions. None of that works. It has to come from above. Therefore, it is necessary to live the life of Holy Virginity that we develop in us a deep love for the things of the Spirit, the sapientia, the sapere divina, be able to

[50:47]

Enjoy the heavenly things, to have a taste for heavenly things. See how good and how sweet the Lord is. That communion versicle, that gives us the direction in which we live our life of holy virginity. It has to be a life of love. It's not so that love is killed, but it is so that love is deepened in us, deepened in us through the intervention and consecration of the, for example, the beauty and gladness and splendor of the word of God, which is a word of love, which is a word of reconciliation. which is a word which in last analysis restores everything that is on the earth and in heaven under the head of the gloriously risen Saviour.

[51:49]

So the life of holy virginity therefore must be lived in a positive way, and that means first of all we have to feed our love for the spiritual things. And there is the absolute necessity that the love of Mary sitting down at the feet of Christ has a positive role and plays a positive role in our life. We must have these moments in which we can completely surrender who wants to tell us the precious mysteries and share with us the precious mysteries of his whole sacred heart. And that is one thing, therefore, the reading and meditation, that vacare Deo, be able to be free for God, has to be an element of holy virginity. Because, as St.

[52:52]

Paul says, who is married is divided. I want to spare you. I don't want you to have that division. I want you to be, let us say what the ancients always expressed, I want you to have one heart, a united heart. And that united heart is a heart which receives its life from above. As long as we are born from the earth, we are earth. We have to be reborn again from above, and that is something that is not only true of baptism, but that is the general basic topic of our entire existence, especially as virgins of Christ. We have to keep the lamp burning, the lamps of the Word, and which burns, of course, only when it is united to the love of our heart.

[53:55]

So that marriage feast between the Word of God and our heart, that is the real secret of Holy Virginity. But as soon as that takes place in the intimacy of our heart, that marriage between the Word and our heart, then also something else takes place, and that is that our heart becomes broadened and that our heart goes out and wants to share that beauty that we receive from above with others. And that, of course, first of all, takes place in the celebration of the Holy Liturgy. I think one of the greatest and the most important functions of the solemn prayer of the church for the priest is that it brings him into a living, concrete contact with the heavenly Jerusalem, that it lets him take part in the marriage feast between the lamb and the bride, the liturgy, the celebration of the liturgy, the beauty of the house of God.

[55:08]

the songs that we sing, the whole rites and ceremonies that we perform, all that is something that belongs to the word of the senses. But it is in this word of the senses an expression of the transforming, transfiguring love which descends from above. The splendour and beauty of the house of God should be loved by the priest. because this splendour and beauty of the house of the Lord is something which also operates and works for the sanctification of his own body. Just because the liturgy and the whole world of the sacraments is a world of signs and symbols, therefore it has a sanctifying effect on our entire bodily life. But, of course, it cannot have that effect if we celebrate the liturgy just in a sloppy way in which everybody sees, my gosh, the one goal that he has in mind is to get through with it as soon as possible, get it over with it.

[56:22]

where beautiful gestures are prescribed, gestures in which we open our hands, you know, as an expression of that wideness and broadness, that welcome that we should have for everyone. This spreading out of our hands and saying Dominus Vibisco, it just becomes an absolute meaningless thing that doesn't in that way even touch neither our body nor does it touch our soul in any way. and so many other things that are there. The beauty of the house of God, the festive character of the singing, for example, I said before, the singing has an absolute positive function also in the life of our senses. because it is that singing which expresses and which is a consecration of our whole sense nature in the service of God.

[57:28]

Cantare amantis est. The one who loves, sings. Therefore the singing is the language of love. If in our entire parish service and parish liturgy the singing has no place at all, something is lacking, and it will have certainly its effects on the spirit of the priest. It will diminish in him the joy of his salvation, the joy of that holy virginity that really should be his. hinder him to come to a full realization of the fact that he is a child of the resurrection and that in worship he is the one who leads the choir of all those who are really children of the resurrection and follow the Lamb wherever it goes. Therefore, the beauty of the liturgy, the dignity of the liturgy, the liturgy has to be transparent.

[58:30]

It has to be really a sacramental through which the love of God, that descending love of God, touches and takes possession to a certain extent also of all the organic life of man. But also not only that, it is, and that of course we can see that so beautifully also in the offertory that we sing. But also another thing is naturally that this holy virginity can only be lived, and again there we come to the spirit of the offertory, it can only be lived in the spirit of humility. So often the fathers have warned against them that holy virginity may be a great temptation to try. that it may lead to a kind of attitude in which we are and cannot be and should not be touched by anybody, that we are superior to all those who don't live on these icy heights of holy virginity, that where we are the untouchables, far superior to the rest of the world, so that we have this kind of

[59:51]

superiority or condescending attitude to those who live their life in matrimony and so on, to the rest of the world. And that, again, you know, is so against the spirit of holy virginity. Virginity should be lived with, one can say, with a warm heart, you know. The prophet Ezekiel and the prophet Jeremiah, they characterized the spirit of the messianic age by saying, I shall take the heart of stone out of you, and I shall replace it with a heart of flesh. For heaven's sake, let us not make holy virginity, or let us not allow the devil to use our celibacy to give us or form in us a kind of heart of stone. That's not the meaning of virginity. It is a heart of flesh that we should have as virgins. But we can do that only if we are conscious of the fact that our own virtue, our own chastity can never and should never be made by the devil, see, for a stepping stone for his suggestions of pride and of superiority to others.

[61:07]

We are not a caste which is completely different and set off from the rest of the world, but we are human beings, and we live our holy virginity not as those, as Saint Paul says, who lord it over the faith of others, but we live our holy virginity in order to be the servants of the joy of the Christians.

[61:35]

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