This week, we want to give you a look at some of the new material being produced by CTS. This material includes; a report on aids, an investigation into science and religion, a look at the Doctors of the Church and much more. To begin we want to look at a new booklet that reflects on the priesthood: A Priest Forever by Fr John Saward.

The new text, jointly published with The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, aims to reiterate and reinvestigate what the priest is, and what he is called to be in an age of change across the world and within Christian churches.

The text is in fact subtitled, “Continuity in an age of change” and to understand this possibility is its clear aim, as its author states eloquently in the introduction.

“In what follows, I shall speak, first, of the being of the priest, what he is forever by the indelible character of Holy Order, and then of the sanctity of the priest, what he is called to become through correspondence with the specific grace of Holy Order. This booklet’s object is simply and faithfully to expound the nature of the ministerial priesthood, and the motives for priestly sanctity rooted in that nature, according to the teaching of the Church.

My approach in writing is the same as Father Vincent McNabb’s attitude to preaching: “I have devoted my life [he once said] to the preaching of platitudes; it is one of the satisfactions of my life. I like the old things – sun and moon, fresh air, bread and butter, work, friendship, avoiding the occasions of sin. Sometimes the devil would say to me, ‘Now, Father Vincent, people don’t like those sorts of things, give them something modern.’ My Guardian Angel says, ‘It isn’t your duty to be modern. You must give something true.’” Please God, with the help of my own guardian angel, I shall give you something true in this meditation on the priesthood.”

The booklet also offers a reflection on the priesthood of Christ and the importance of the Virgin Mary, as mother of priests.

A Priest Forever is available from the CTS priced £1.95

Fr John Saward is priest in charge of the parish of SS. Gregory and Augustine, Oxford, a Fellow of Blackfriars Hall, the author of eight books, and the translator of several others, including The Spirit of the Liturgy by Joseph Ratzinger.

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Of related interest:

	Holy Orders - In a time when there is so much confusion over the nature of the priesthood, this booklet delineates the Church’s teaching on the sacrament of Holy Orders and its grounding in scripture and tradition.
	Priest’s Guide to Hearing Confessions – This new Guide is a very helpful attempt to create a modern equivalent of the classic manuals for confessors popular among priests in the past. It provides a valuable guide to best pastoral practice, with a wide range of sample problems and counsel.
	Priesthood Today – Bishop Patrick O’Donoghue takes the opportunity of this ‘Year for Priests’ to re-examine the role of the priesthood today.

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