Dear friend, the one who is mighty has done great things to me. These words find a grateful and jubilant echo in the heart of our dear Father Gregory when today he's celebrating the Holy Mass, the Holy Sacrifice, thanking God for the greatest gift of the priesthood. And I would add not only of the priesthood, but also of the fact that he's called by God to be a priest and a monk. A priest as a monk. Because I think that is today the source of our great joy. And I think that is the reason why you are here in such great numbers to celebrate this Holy Sacrifice together with me.

[01:11]

You realize that the fact that Father Gregory is a monk gives a special note and a special character to his ministry as a priest. The priesthood certainly is a gift which God gives to an individual, not first for his own sake and his own sanctification, but for the sanctification of the whole mystical body of Christ. That is the reason why we rejoice. The gift that God's goodness has given to this, our brother in Christ, is also given to us. Let us try then to understand what is the special character and the special mission of a priest who is, first of all, a monk.

[02:21]

The monastic vocation and the priestly vocation are not the same. The monastic vocation is a vocation to complete surrender to God in a life which is dedicated to the striving after perfection. Therefore the monastic life is first of all a surrender to the fullness of the Holy Spirit, which works in our souls and is eager to make us saints, a living oblation through Christ to the Father in the fullness and unity of the Holy Spirit. But you see immediately that this monastic vocation is in no contradiction to an opposition to the vocation of a priest.

[03:27]

But it gives to the vocation of a priest a special note. The priest is ordained in order to be the bridge, the mediator between heaven and earth. He follows our Lord Jesus Christ who, as the Son of God, was also partaking in the glory and in the heavenly love of his Father. But at the same time, this Son of God became man. He descended. That is the beauty of today's Gospel. which is so appropriate for this celebration, where we see the Good Shepherd descending into the valley, taking upon his shoulders the lamb that has been lost. This is the function of the priest. He is the representative of the Father.

[04:31]

He glorifies the Father through the Son. but at the same time He is there to sanctify man, to be one who has sympathy, compassion with those who fell among the robbers, with those who are down in the valley. The priest is the one who with our Father in Heaven rejoices over one sinner who is repentant. The monk is, I think, in a special way called to take part in this mediatorship of the priest. Because the monk in one way lives in that glory that the risen Christ, through the fullness of his spirit, has poured out over the church. The monk is called in the fullness of the Spirit to sing the songs of God's glory.

[05:40]

He is the one who represents in his own life that mystery of love which unites forever the Church as the bride of the Holy Spirit to God, our Heavenly Father. and therefore also the way in which the monk administers his priestly office. The first of it is the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. When a monk priest offers the Holy Sacrifice, then it is not exactly the same as if a priest in the parish would do the same thing. You see here we have tried to express that through the building that we have erected for this purpose. It is the octagon which, as I have often told you, represents in some way the beauty, the gladness, the quiet of heaven.

[06:48]

And that is really the home of the monk. The monk is the citizen of heaven. of the heavenly world. There is where the real roots of his strength are. He is a man of contemplation. He longs from the depth of his heart for that quiet in which alone he has the opportunity to be confronted in his personal depth with God with his heavenly Father. The monk therefore loves those long hours of prayer in the night and in the day where he enters into this rest, into this rest of living deep personal confrontation with God. The root of the priestly activity of a monk-priest is first of all his prayer.

[07:55]

is rooted in that prayer, in which, for example, Abraham was fighting with God for the salvation of Sodom. Asking again and asking again and trying to strike a bargain has it where, for a simple thing, so that the mercy of God may descend upon. The monk is equal to Jacob, who fights at the night with the angel of God, in this combat and in this attempt to force, as it were, the mercy of a loving God upon this world. That is the meaning of our celebration, of our praying, of the vigils every day. And there is one of the roots of the priesthood, of the priestly activity, of the He comes out of this deep confrontation, this struggle, as it were, with God in prayer, just as the root of the holy sacrifice that our Lord offered on Mount Calvary was in Gethsemane.

[09:15]

When in absolute solitude, he presented, as it were, himself as the son to his father. May this chalice pass by, but if it is your will, then I shall drink it. There our Lord stood wearily as the high priest in the solitude of prayer before his Son. And this root of the priestly activity of a monk-priest to also then influence the very celebration of that Holy Sacrifice that He offers here. You realize that our Mass takes a little longer, that our Mass has a certain character of solemnity, that we sing at this Mass. We try to express in that way the principle that Our Holy Father Saint Benedict has put before us.

[10:21]

The celebration of Holy Mass should be filled with the full participation of the mind of the heart. It should really be a prayer. It should be an act of worship which is not only, let us say, compliant with certain external rules, but which comes out of the depth of our heart, is a real personal act of worship. And coming out of this living center of true devotion, this holy sacrifice then also represents really the beauty of heaven in the unity of minds and hearts which it creates among us. And that is the other great gift, I think, of the priestly activity of the Mass. The monk experiences in every moment of his life that peace consists in that bond of unity which unites us as brethren around the one table of the Holy Sacrifice.

[11:39]

The priest-monk is in a special way, because he is devoted to a vow to the stability in the community, he represents in a special way the unity of charity, the universality of the Catholic Church. You see here when you come into this little church, Then remember we are not a parish. We are not in that way a local church. We are not a church which is built for the religious needs of a neighborhood. But we are a church which is there for thee and represents the universality of the Holy Church Catholic. Our priests, in that way, are not members of the diocese, but they are consecrated for, one can say, the universal church.

[12:50]

So the priest is, the monk priest is, in a special way, the representative of that catholicity, the worldwide importance, and the glorious, one can say, of the Church, which does not only see these or those local needs, but also, and even more, keeps the eyes wide open to the worldwide horizon of the Church. And so in this way, the monk-priest also, in a special way, keeps his eyes on the universal needs of the Church as a whole. In a special way, the monk-priest united and works in unity with the Holy Father, the head of the Church in Rome. He is, in a special way, one can say, the monk-priest's bishop. And therefore also our prayer is in a special way and our way in which we meet people and individual souls.

[14:00]

is in a special way devoted to thee this goal, to build in the hearts of the faithful the universal charity of the Catholic Church, which has no, and does no any, limits, no limits of races, no limits of classes, nor limits of we or slave of which for Finally, the monk-priest has, it seems to me, a special mission also in this, that he represents in a way the church penitent. The monk carries the cowl. The cowl really is a garment of heaven. It shows that the monk is deliberately chooses, as it were, the vocation of God's poor. He is from the depth of his heart convinced that it is not his own achievement, for that is God's grace working in his own complete poverty, which does great and mighty things.

[15:20]

And therefore the monk's life is deliberately a life of poverty and a life of labor. And therefore the greatest enemy of the monastic life and also of the priestly administrations of a monk would be the pride of a Pharisee. The monk is, by profession one can say, a publisher. What we do is really a service, one can say, of constant public penance. And therefore it was always also the special mission of the monks in the history of the Church. to open the gates to all those who in their own life realize their poverty. The monk's heart rejoices over one sinner who is repentant, who knows that he needs salvation.

[16:28]

The monk has the beautiful answer of a father, a monastic father shows, who once when somebody came to him, a great sinner, and said, oh father, I don't dare to confess my sins. And he said, do it. Confess them to me, and I'll count. That is really the special mission of the priest monk. He does not only, let us say, sacramentally absolve in the confessional, but it is his special mission that he takes upon himself the burden of the sins of those who come to him and ask to be received again into the unity of the Church. The month priest should, in a very special way, have a heart for those who need forgiveness, for those who in the spirit of repentance come eager for absolution.

[17:40]

He should be the good shepherd who descends into the valley and takes the sheep, the lamb, upon his shoulders to bring it back into the heavenly glory. When I say these things, my dear friends, I think you all realize although this celebration we celebrate in honor of God, who in his almighty power has great, long great things to our confrere, Fr. Gregory, but to also realize that these gifts are, through the power and grace of God, in a special way also visible in the one who celebrates his silver jubilee today with us. We rejoice when he reads the singing because we realize that song comes out of the living heart, comes out of a heart that really is confronted and lives before the heavenly Father.

[18:49]

We know that here is a priest with us who as a monk has a deep love for unity and charity. And that is the special gift of gentleness, the special gift that radiates from this, our jubilarium today. And finally also that deep feeling and understanding heart for those who are in need, for those who need the good physician, for those who are longing to receive that oil of charity, of understanding charity and sympathy, that their wounds, their inner spiritual wounds, may be healed. In all these gifts, for all these gifts, we really, from the bottom of our heart, we are thankful to God, who has done indeed great things to this, our dear brother in Christ.

[19:52]

Raise all ye people to God the Father. Father, have mercy on us. Father, have mercy on us. When I look at me I don't know what I am becoming, what I'm posting, what I'm listening to, [...] what I'm listening Namo Buddhaya [...] Like it's a miracle you're still with me.

[21:32]

I can't think of the reason why we found ourselves in this horrible hell. As far as I can remember, I thought we were supposed to be together. You're looking at me. To the ones they showed me how to go, or else they would not have let me go. And as I was passing by, they asked me, asked me, said, where do you live, where do you come from? There was a little girl, [...] a little

[22:39]

This is the land of my ancestors, [...] gave her all the good things that the Lord had given her. And [...] the good things that the Lord Allahumma salli alaihi wa sallim, wa ala kulli ajma'in, wa ala kulli ajma'in.

[23:45]

Allahumma salli alaihi wa sallim, wa ala kulli ajma'in, wa ala kulli ajma'in. I am

[24:05]

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