The Importance of a Good Priest for ones Interior Life

Taken from the book:  The Soul of the Apostolate

 by Jean-Baptiste Chautard, O.C.S.O

Source

If the priest is a saint (the saying goes), the people will be fervent; if the priest is fervent, the people will be pious; if the priest is pious, the people will at least be decent. But if the priest is only decent, the people will be godless. The spiritual generation is always one degree less intense in its life than those who beget it in Christ.


 “The good morals and the salvation of the people depend on good pastors. If there is a good priest in charge of the parish, you will soon see devotion flourishing, people frequenting the Sacraments, and honoring the practice of mental prayer. Hence the proverb: like pastor, like Parish. According to this word of Ecclesiasticus (10:2) ‘Those who dwell in the state, take after their ruler (St. Alphonsus, Homo Apost., 7:16)