Can women become priests? Part 1
Recently, a religious leader –kind of surprised– stated that he “had met many women with priestly vocation.”
I have met plenty, ALL OF THEM.
St. Josemaría reminded us that, “All men and women should have a priestly soul, and are called to share intimately in the sentiments of Christ's Heart." This is the BAPTISMAL PRIESTHOOD of all Christians, a participation in Christ’s eternal priesthood.
All Christians, each according to the particular vocation God has given us, must continue our apostolic mission until the end of time, carrying a priestly seal of the Holy Spirit imprinted on our souls. “Do you not know that a priestly mission has been conferred on the whole Church, on the body of the faithful, on you? Listen to what Peter tells the simple faithful: you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people set apart." And because of our divine vocation, we are called to live it with a “truly priestly soul and a fully lay mentality." It is something we have to live to the full in the middle of the world.
We should turn our whole day into a continuous opportunity to unite ourselves with Christ and save souls, as our Mother did. “With the priestly soul which I ask our Lord to grant all of you, you should strive to make your whole life into a continuous act of praise to God amid your ordinary activities: constant prayer and reparation, petition and sacrifice for all souls. And you should do all this in close, purposeful union with Christ Jesus in the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar."
People with a truly priestly soul have the sense of being co-redeemers. Being light, a guide, and a good shepherd to all. A priestly soul shares the desires that filled the Heart of Jesus: to guide souls, to teach the truth, to give doctrine.
Our priestly soul enables us to spend our whole life as a constant service to God, “not only at the Altar but in the whole world - which is an altar for us. All the works of men are done as if on an altar, and each of you, in that union of contemplative souls which is your day, say in some way ‘your Mass’, which lasts for twenty-four hours, in expectation of the Mass to follow, which will last another twenty-four hours, and so on until the end of our life."
Moreover, Jesus also instituted the ministerial priesthood, by which some men are chosen, ordained as priests, and configured with Christ (it is not a right of all, but a divine vocation). They act in the sacraments – in an eminent way in the celebration of the Eucharist – in the name of Christ and of his Church. Thus, the ministerial priesthood (conferred by Holy Orders) is at the service of the baptismal priesthood of all the faithful.
Icon Hodegetria; the Virgin Mary points to Jesus as the source of salvation for humankind, while he raises his hand in a blessing gesture.
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