Duchowość kapłańska

Abstract

Priesthood is the gift of love from God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. It is also the presbyter’s reply to God’s great love. For the man’s part, it is a process that occurs in the called one’s whole life. The process of the priest’s spirituality is a complex issue. It is connected with gradual development, at first human, and then Christian and priestly The beginning of this process falls on the seminary years and then it goes on throughout the priest’s whole life. Co-operation with the Holy Spirit should never be ended or stopped. The new riles of taking the holy orders remind that the sacrament of consecration, making the priest ontically similar to Christ, introduces him to the mystery of the unusual unification with God. Owing to that, on behalf of Jesus he may pronounce the words of transfiguration of bread into Flesh and of wine into Blood. Owing to the consecration by the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of consecration the priest’s spiritual life becomes marked, shaped and defined by attitudes and models of behaviour typical of Jesus Christ. The priest’s spirituality is enlivened and directed by the Holy Spirit. For this reason it aims at sainthood and at perfecting love. It should be understood as the whole of internal experience: of the feelings, thoughts and attitudes originated in the priest who in a conscious way experiences the personal relation to God.