The Unique Charism of Diocesan Priestly Spirituality

By Robert Getz

The Unique Charism of Diocesan Priestly Spirituality explores the distinctive vocational grace of diocesan priests and their evangelizing of God's work, power, beauty and mystery linked from creation to eternity. Based on the experience of a Trappist monk who held to the simplicity of that life as a diocesan priest, it's both a spiritual and educational tool for priests, seminarians, church hierarchy, and laity in prospective or current church leadership positions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Feb 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781543997606

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Copyright May 04, 2018

Registration Number: TXu 2-096-916

Publication 2019

Robert L. Getz

Print ISBN: 978-1-54399-759-0

eBook ISBN: 978-1-54399-760-6

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Table of Contents

Dedication

What a Glorious Design is Eternal Salvation!

Foreword

From the Author

Acknowledgment

Part 1

Chapter 1 : Our Footsteps Mark the Sacred Ground

Come walk beside me

Our unique charism—Biblically connected to sacredness of places and spaces

Cosmological, creational, salvific, incarnational rooting—the father’s plan

The divergence of religious order and diocesan priests

Diocesan priests are the gatherers and presiders who model Jesus

Understanding the local church

All existence in Jesus identifies the sacredness of space, the wonder of God

Diocesan priests enter most profoundly into the realm of God’s being

The spaces of diocesan priesthood whisper eternity

The raw materials of diocesan priestly spirituality

Contemplation of Chapter 1

Chapter 2 : Jesus Links All Cosmic, Human Existence

Jesus is the link to divine unity

Diocesan priests are the continuing voice of God’s evangelization

Seeking God’s humility, understanding, and awareness

Fundamental processes in God’s cosmological design tied to parish living

Inventory of gifts of the Spirit

Communication planning and assessment

The theology of serving

Led by the Holy Spirit and the voice of Christ

Contemplation of Chapter 2

Chapter 3 : Territories Gather Devotional Sacramental Ministries

Experiencing the unique space of history and grace

Our ministerial role challenges us as we walk among our communities

Pursue seminaries and schools providing spiritual expressions of holiness

Available and visible to our parish family

Challenges moving forward in your ministerial role

Priestly spirituality and celibacy

Enablers of sacramental devotion

Our personal leadership plan requires prayer, reflection, and study

Our spirituality and ordinary everyday stuff

Building harmony and humility

Organizational skills

Gatherings guided by the Holy Spirit

Contemplation of Chapter 3

Chapter 4 : Servant Shepherding, Jesus’ Territory in Our Hands

Universal Holiness throughout cosmological existence

Evangelization of the Good News

The theology of cosmology and evangelization

Communio gathering, proclaiming, evangelization

Our Mother Mary’s evangelizing, life-popular religiosity

History of diocesan priests’ charism of serving, grace, and holiness

Popular religiosity

Popular religiosity and essential elements of evangelization

Popular Christian religiosity experiences

Popular religiosity blessings

Contemplation of Chapter 4

Chapter 5 : Biblically Rooted—Interior and Exterior Landscapes

Discovering spiritual landscapes, entering, embracing interior formation

The holiness and spiritual rooting of our vocation

God’s grace and the themes in our lives

God in the uncovering of hidden areas of our interior and exterior direction

Sacred historical patterns of communication

Profound spiritual attitude and sacramental moments humble and excite us

Believers in the processes of God’s activity in the style of Jesus

Visioning the Meaning of Occasions of Grace, Holiness, and Divine Design

Called to a deeper interior formation

Contemplation of Chapter 5

Chapter 6 : Geographic Settings Proclaim God’s Salvific Plan

Amazingly, Jesus put territory for living to eternity into our hands

The Good News of the Living God

God’s Design for authority and hierarchical structures

Asking for assistance

An ecumenical and healing outreach

Assessing our leadership and communication skills

Contemplation of Chapter 6

Chapter 7 : Liturgical Gathering Embodies the Cosmological Totality

Diocesan spirituality in liturgical worship

We all live as priest presiders or participants in worship and liturgy

Fundamental theology of welcoming

Theology of awareness to liturgy

Voice

Hearing

Sight

Movement

Scents

Silence and Peacefulness

Guidance, understanding, and teachable how-to moments

Eternal design of inclusiveness of heaven and earth

Contemplation of Chapter 7

Part 2

Chapter 8 : Ascetical Happenings Shape All People

We are men, like Jesus, sharing designated earthly experiences

Signs and spaces of our priesthood

We are clothed in spatial encounters, happenings of loving and serving God

Daily routines reflect the holiness of Jesus in our servant shepherding

Formation, from mother’s womb to end of life

Diocesan priests are in the world, but not of it

Contemplation of Chapter 8

Chapter 9 : Daily Supportive Signs of God

God is the model of supportive existence for all

Forming and developing our unique diocesan priestly spirituality

Our spirituality builds on God’s cosmological and communal creations

Contemplation of Chapter 9

Chapter 10 : Creational Global Insight and Challenges

Servant shepherding moves us into a universe of interconnected unity

Movements, Catholic endeavors with civil and moral consequences

The spaces of our lives and our spirituality

Episcopal and Papal guidance as Pope Francis studies Laudate Si

Contemplation of Chapter 10

Chapter 11 : Bishops and Priests—A Monumental Calling

The roots of our faith—bishops

The selection process

Term limits for our bishops

The roots of our faith—priests

God’s established hierarchy

The Creator’s cosmological order and contemporary evangelizing

Bishops are co-shepherds and co-servants of Jesus

Relationship of diocesan priests to their bishop

Morality, addictions, obsequiousness, and other stresses

Support for pastors, seminarians, and deacons

Guidance for diocesan priests from the local bishop

Globalization challenges

An outreach of encouragement

Celebrating the Father’s "Good News together

Contemplation of Chapter 11

Chapter 12 : Intellectual, Relational Prayer, and Study

Intellectual and relational world questioning

Time for learning Jesus’ divine wisdom

Our role in conflict resolution leads our people to holiness

Called to listen, discern, and counsel

Contemplation of Chapter 12

Chapter 13 : Our Spirituality Is the Bedrock of Our Being

Deep spiritual elements lead to eternal life, holiness, and grace in our lives

Lifetime themes and sub-themes of Jesus

Integrated individual and family wholeness

Presence

Gathering

Analysis and decision-making

Correction, revision, and change

Solitude

We humbly search God’s guiding interpretation of conflictual areas

Parish finances

Parish ministries

Rest and renewal

Aging

Brother priests healing one another is vital

Contemplation of Chapter 13

Chapter 14 : Servant Shepherd Tasks Humble Us

A closer look at our lifetime commitment to follow Jesus

Living like Jesus, seeking the wisdom of God

Relationships call us to reflection, honesty, understanding, and prayer

Managing complaints—an ever-developing grace and skill

Material and spiritual cosmos of our priestly spirituality in time and space

The Gospel of fun—blessed are the joyful

Contemplation of Chapter 14

Dedication

Dedicated to all who have heard Jesus whisper their name, and say Come, Follow Me. May you be surprised by unseen and undiscovered spaces of Jesus revealed.

What a Glorious Design is Eternal Salvation!

We diocesan priests, our local bishops, and all baptized people are standing in the ongoing cosmological presence of Almighty God when it links us to all eternity in the evangelizing recognition of God’s work, power, beauty, and mystery throughout creation.

We have evolved cosmologically and spiritually to the present age, in which we stand as voices raised in praise of the design and order of God, to eternal life and unconditional loving.

All life and being are linked and rooted in this cosmological, ontological realization of our involvement with the living God.

Robert L. Getz

Foreword

Only an author of deep and balanced faith could create the book you are about to experience. That talented writer is Monsignor Robert L. Getz, who shares with his readers a wealth of information, wisdom, and colorful practicality based on a lifetime of his own priestly service to God and the world around him.

The Unique Charism of Diocesan Priestly Spirituality, Part 1, speaks to priests, seminarians, and interested laypersons in practical terms. Msgr. Getz explores the spirituality of the diocesan priesthood by carefully identifying the who, the what, and the where of it. Subsequently, Part 2 describes the mechanics of that same spirituality, underscoring its how-to component and, at the same time, provides pragmatic suggestions for its implementation in the life of any contemporary clergyman or layperson.

Indeed, the insights Msgr. Getz offers his readers into the world of today’s priest are not exclusively applicable to members of the ordained diocesan or religious order clergy. And therein lies the uniqueness of this exploration of spirituality, since the same principles it contains apply to any Christian who is earnestly engaged in following the path of behavior and faith modeled by Jesus.

Monsignor Getz’s work steps out of the earthly realm to take a fresh and appealing look at diocesan priestly vocations. The Unique Charism of Diocesan Priestly Spirituality explores cosmological spirituality together with the theological underpinnings of diocesan priesthood. The author skillfully links the Father’s creational design to diocesan priests who closely follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Diocesan priests—and, by extension, we—walk along with Saint Peter, who established the local church and the local diocesan priesthood in Rome. They travel to the gentile world with Saint Paul who lived a charismatic diocesan priesthood based on his calling and gifts. And each of us—ordained and lay alike—works, walks, stands, kneels, and dies in the space ultimately determined by God.

The Unique Charism of Diocesan Priestly Spirituality represents a spiritual, educational tool for priests, seminarians, church hierarchy, professed men and women religious, and laity in prospective or current church leadership positions. This work provides a deeper understanding of diocesan priests for people in the pews while, at the same time, potentially making a significant contribution to Catholic institutions, especially in the education and formation of seminarians.

The writing of Monsignor Getz serves to reinforce both the relevance of contemporary priestly spirituality and its pervasive importance today. Through his careful examination of the relationship between God and cleric, the writer invites his readers to active participation in a life of reverence. The message confronts conventional social thought in a world frequently at odds with the divine and, in so doing, ratifies its significance for every priest, seminarian, and layperson.

Now, prepare to experience a truly worthwhile and spiritually profitable read!

J.D. McNamara, D. Min.

From the Author

The persistent lack of guidance over the years was my motivation to write The Unique Charism of Diocesan Priestly Spirituality, a two-part book for diocesan priests and seminarians as well as lay leadership seeking to deepen their understanding of the role they play in God’s plan.

This work steps out of the earthly realm and takes a fresh, appealing look at diocesan priestly vocations. Our unique calling as diocesan priests has hardly been explored. Most of the spirituality books I read about diocesan priesthood were authored by members of religious orders, clergy, sisters, brothers, and laypersons. The popes, as well as various diocesan priests, have offered us monographs over the years. This book is written foremost for diocesan priests and young men considering a vocation as a diocesan priest. However, the book is a spiritual educational tool for all religious men and women. It has the potential to make a significant contribution to Catholic institutions, specifically in the education and formation of seminarians. The book’s audience includes all people who wish to deepen their Catholic faith, especially those in leadership roles.

The central thesis of The Unique Charism of Diocesan Priestly Spirituality is that we, like Jesus, walk on sacred ground. The manuscript is a creative, concrete recognition of the cosmological creational salvific and incarnational rooting of the Father’s plan and carried out by diocesan priests today.

A diocesan priest’s association with the sacredness of places and spaces is biblically based and rooted in the religious meanings presented in the Bible. Models for our holiness are found in the spaces of creation in Genesis, then Paradise with sin and loss, again within the space of the flood, the journeying space of Abraham, and Israel’s promised freedom and resettlement. All are spatially grounded.

All existence in Jesus identifies the sacredness of space, territory, history, culture, and people’s experience of the wonder of God.

The biblical authors identified God as a location Person–Being, with a localized identity, which manifested as a voice, cloud, figure, mountain, battle, journey, or temple. This connection and relationship with a geographical place were always a part of the background of Biblical encounters and personalities.

This book is based on the experience of one man who began his vocation as a Trappist monk and who held to the simplicity of that life as a diocesan priest. Admittedly, a few years have passed since I attended seminary. So, when I mention in the book that certain courses and ideas were not taught in the seminary, I apologize if that is no longer the case.

I pray the book conveys the hands-on experience gathered through the many years of counseling religious order and diocesan priests in positions I held as spiritual advisor, ombudsman for priests, and Episcopal vicar for clergy.

Blessed to send ten young men to seminary and five young women to convents, I penned the manuscript as if I were talking to those young men and women I encouraged over the years. Believing wholeheartedly in the need for continuing education for diocesan priests who are keenly aware that funding is elusive, I established an endowment to sponsor sabbaticals and spiritual education experiences for diocesan priests in my mission diocese.

The Unique Charism of Diocesan Priestly Spirituality speaks with diocesan priests and seminarians in a way that brings us as close to one another as if seated at my kitchen table for a one-on-one conversation. As I share my experience and many of the lessons learned with the reader, I hope they will find zeal or renewed zeal for their calling.

***

At eighteen years of age, I entered the monastery. It was 1951 when the bus dropped me off about a half-mile from the Abbey of Gethsemani. I trudged the long dirt road with my duffle bag over my shoulder and smiled as I passed through the gateway marked Pax Intranibus, meaning peace to all who enter. It was a prophetic welcome.

My time at the Abbey was a bit of heaven as I journeyed serenely, more inward with the Lord. We had few possessions at the monastery: a toothbrush and a rosary. We received some old work boots and had a small box along the wall that held work gloves, notebooks, and pencils. No one had personal possessions, and nothing extraneous.

On day one, novices received guidance in the form of Saint Benedict’s instruction, which was the rule of our Religious Order and dates to the fifth century. We were also given a copy of the Constitutions of the Trappists to study.

At the monastery, I was very much in union with God. In total silence, I experienced contentment and inspiration such as I had never experienced before in my life.

Despite my contentedness, Our Lord had other plans for my life, my vocation. Forced to leave the monastery due to rheumatic fever in my third year, imagine my surprise when I later entered the diocesan priesthood and found no handbooks, no guidance available to the recently ordained. We were very much on our own.

The Unique Charism of Diocesan Priestly Spirituality draws upon my years of personal prayer, reflection, writing, and pastoring fourteen parish communities and eight missions in two historic dioceses. At times, the reader will discern that some thoughts come directly from my prayer journals over the years. I draw on my experience as a staff official under five bishops, including the roles of Vicar General, Episcopal Vicar for Clergy, and ombudsman for both religious and diocesan priests. I was awarded the honorary title of Corps Colonel in recognition of fourteen years of military chaplaincy. Prayerfully, I was blessed to provide the oversight for the elevation of my 161-year-old parish, San Albino Church, to that of a Basilica. I received two levels of the title of Vatican Monsignor. Pope Benedict XVI gave me the title of Protonotary Apostolic.

More important than the recognition of any accomplishment in my life is the joyful way Christ led me to live my life in His service.

My experience is that the routines of Jesus’ servant shepherding set the model for the diocesan spaces of our priesthood. Our priestly functioning has inclusivity that we have only just begun to realize.

Like Jesus, diocesan priests have circles of support on which they depend. Jesus had His disciples and followers, His Apostles, His family and close friends, and always His Father. Think of Holy Thursday. Jesus shared Passover with His Apostles, and they went out singing to the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus asked His Apostles to pray with Him for one hour. Even Peter, James, and John could not stay awake with Jesus. In the end, Jesus was alone with His Father in the Garden.

It is much the same for priests. Parish priests have parishioners, parish councils, their bishop, fellow priests, and their close friends and family. Ultimately, like Jesus, diocesan priests find the solace they seek when they find quiet intimacy with God, our loving Father.

Just as Christ lived in a specific territory, culture, space, and place, diocesan priests are vowed and rooted in the holistic development of universal religious experience, wrapped geographically, historically, and creationally in the mystical seeking of the Trinity’s divine beauty.

The Unique Charism of Diocesan Priestly Spirituality provides a prayerful study of the interrelatedness of ongoing cosmic existence with the interior spiritual visioning routines of all holiness and its communal environment. This holiness is expressed in evangelization and pastoral, devotional religiosity throughout creations’ existence. Pope Francis urges protection of creation, which means respecting each of God’s creatures as well as respecting the environment in which we exist. All gifts of nature deserve our reverence and respect.

Mother earth and cosmic existence support us with light, air, warmth, water, food, rest, and endless energies and interplays that we cannot comprehend. A profound ongoing cosmic reality is for us to understand humbly. It is not only in communications with our eyes, ears, sight, and gestures; it is also with music, sound, silence, and quiet that God speaks to us. Cosmic reality is the intellect of inner listening, visioning, remembering, and imagining that bring the wide-ranging word, of quiet divine presence, to us. It is not visible but profound and meant to allow us to discover God more deeply.

The entire network and intertwining of God’s presence are the ways of cosmic reality and the spaces and experiences in which we live. These systems comprise a prodigious part of the underpinning of our faith discovery and experiences of the living God. God’s way of communicating with us is an ongoing and endless experience of who we are and who He is.

I marvel at the messages of God that we experience. He speaks to us in smiles and whispers in the quiet of our hearts and the stillness of our souls.

The charisms of diocesan priestly spirituality are as unique as our individual calling to the priesthood. We all remember when Jesus first called to us. In my case, along with a priestly vocation, God graced me with the gift of hospitality as well as a special devotion to my fellow priests. My door is always open to my brothers. My living quarters witnessed many confessions, shared conversations, and counseling sessions over the years.

Like Jesus, diocesan priests live, work, walk, stand, kneel, and die in the space that God ordains for them. The diocesan priest reflects the domestic churches of Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and all the kings and prophets.

A priest begins in the domestic church of his birth family and birthplace and is ordained to the domestic churches of his local diocesan community until he stands and walks the territory given to him by his local, territorial patriarch—the bishop, his Ordinary.

In the pages of this book, I hope to lead others to walk closely with Jesus fully under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The Reverend Monsignor Robert L. Getz, Protonotary Apostolic

Acknowledgment

Although I would love to share the memories of so many beautiful people, meaningful friendships, and graced experiences and spaces that God placed in my path, there is no way to convey the graces bestowed upon me in my years as a diocesan priest in the pages of this book.

I would also like to thank those who inspired, read, and edited this book over the years it took to write it, and extend my deepest gratitude to those who provided invaluable assistance in bringing this book to publication.

Part 1

Chapter 1

Our Footsteps Mark the Sacred Ground

Come walk beside me

Diocesan priests follow in the footsteps of Jesus as we walk on sacred ground. The Unique Charism of Diocesan Priestly Spirituality is written for the men who inhabit or hope to inhabit the sacred spaces of diocesan priesthood. Some men, like Jesus, wear sandals. On the feet of others, you will find everyday shoes, sneakers, work boots, and even combat boots. Within their assigned territory, priestly feet tread dark inner-city intersections, busy markets, factory sidewalks, dusty desert roadways, farms, battlefields, or snowy seldom-traveled trails.

Formed like Jesus in servant shepherding, diocesan men respond to a sacred calling to the priesthood with inclusivity of clerical functioning that we have just begun to comprehend. Just as Jesus lived in a specific territory, culture, space, and place, diocesan priests are vowed and rooted in the holistic development of universal religious experience, geographically, historically, creationally, and globally.

Our unique charism—Biblically connected to sacredness of places and spaces

Before Jesus, the sacredness of Biblical space is found in the story of creation in Genesis, Paradise with sin and loss, the flood, the journeying space of Abraham, as well as Israel’s promised freedom and resettlement. Spatially grounded, our predecessors set a precedent for diocesan priests to follow.

The authors of the Bible saw God as a Person-Being with a localized identity, such as a voice, cloud, figure, mountain, battle, journey, or temple. This locational connection is always part of the background in Biblical encounters.

Scriptural meetings center on individuals whose footprints are forever embedded in history. Turf, in one form or another, is ground zero. God’s people come from the earth, walk it knowing ... For you are dust, and to dust you shall return. (Gen 3:19) Our standing, our valuing of space and place, live deep within us.

God’s most profound relationships occur with Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Israel, and the twelve tribes. Exodus tells the tremendous heroic story of occupying a land chosen by God for His people. God’s relationship with Moses crystallized when Moses removed his sandals, recognizing that he stood on sacred ground in front of the burning bush.

The twelve tribes of Israel present endless encounters between God and His people in named and sacred spaces. The markings of graves, fields, inheritances, journeys, captivities, exiles, battles, and the rights and conflicts of people, families, communities, and groups are incalculable.

Vatican II remains an open invitation to priests and laity to walk together in beautiful, creative spaces. The Second Vatican Council, also called Vatican II, (1962–65), was the twenty-first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. It was announced by Pope John XXIII on January 25, 1959, as a means of spiritual renewal for the church and as an occasion for Christians separated from Rome to join in a search for Christian unity.

We accompany one another in the Church of the modern world, ecumenism, and integrity of conscience, liturgy, priestly life, Scripture, and intellectual pursuits. One unique spiritual attribute of the diocesan priest is that he identifies the here and now of the Holy Spirit, as God reveals Himself in mundane daily routines. Diocesan priests are not meant to focus solely on a charism, gift, or interest, but to collect all the happenings of life each day, his own and those of his people, and focus them into the allness of God. The priest gathers metaphors, analogies, parallels, and dichotomies from the ambiguities and diversities of our daily experiences and gives them all to our Incarnate Savior. While priests walk side-by-side with the laity, they also walk day-by-day in the mystery of Jesus’ space.

Jesus reordered the whole design of priesthood and all religious experiences, to include Melchizedek, Aztec, pre-mosaic, shamanism, Judaic, Egyptian, and all cultures. Jesus inserted the Divine Presence into priestly ordained Apostles, and this passed to us as their successors.

It was Jesus who linked our fundamental priesthood to men of flesh, living in specific places with the divinely ordained power and presence of Christ Jesus, our loving Almighty Father, and His Holy Spirit as the guarantors of this design incarnated in the Catholic Church.

Cosmological, creational, salvific, incarnational rooting—the father’s plan

The study of cosmology has always intrigued me, and I am sure many others over the centuries. Like the Wise Men of Christ’s birth, most fascination lies in areas like the stars and astronomy. All life is built on space, location, and presence. The Big Bang Theory and the Point of Singularity explore and attempt to explain the wonder of rocks in geology, or ruins in archeology, agricultural sciences, and all types of engineering, architecture, and design. Geologists study the origin, history, and structure of the earth. Telescopes seek to relate us to spaces. Groundedness, the laws of gravity and time, and the relativity of Einstein are rudimentary to our identities and our connectedness in space and creation.

Our Catholic-Christian theology of cosmology belief is so much simpler. God the Creator is the Source of all places and spaces. We see the understandings, wisdom, and guidance of God in the exploration of outer space, the understanding of natural resources, and global warming. The difference in our belief is so much more than the big bang or evolution. God brings deeper meanings to all space and place experiences of living, to include the historical aspects of the earth around us.

Our exploration of the mystery and wonder of space with all its aspects and dimensions is without limit. Religious scriptures and the imagination of authors, composers, scientists, and mathematicians reflect on space. Our understanding requires humility to seek, question, and listen. In the end, we always come back to groundedness where our feet, minds, thinking, spirits, and faith stand.

All space, whether on land or in water, or ice, or in the air, is consecrated by Jesus as holy and dedicated to God’s living presence. God and creation through Jesus Christ secure all of life to the universe, which includes earth, lakes and oceans, mountains, skies, farm and fields, cities, roadways, gardens, and legendary journeys, as well as our companions on the journey.

The Jewish people are forever linked to Jerusalem via history, but via the Diaspora are scattered throughout the world. Yahweh calls Jewish people to a homeland that dates to the time of Abraham. They have an identity of place and faith mysteriously rooted to a location that is by word, history, and race beyond our understanding. I believe it is an anomaly of locale and belief that only God can reveal.

All people of faith stand in sacred places that are central to their system of belief, whether Native American, Buddhist, Hindu, or Muslim. All holy places serve to provide sacredness and identity to specific people, as in Tibet, Mecca, the Ganges, or Christmas Island. The ultimate reality of standing in sacred spaces is God-given in every form and is the foundation of our diocesan priesthood.

The divergence of religious order and diocesan priests

At the time I attended seminary, we lacked the primary theological or spiritual orientations that gave us an appreciation and grasp of the fundamental reality of the priestly life and our future ministry. The mystery of the diocesan priestly calling is a vibrant and unexplored reality. I believe the Religious Order priesthood has a more thoroughly explored and formed spiritual sensitivity to the charisms and rooting of their religious calling. It is interesting to note that some religious orders begin with their charism calling and formation, and then designate someone for ordination to serve in the specific places of the ecclesiastic area of their community. The Benedictines, Franciscans, and other orders started this way. The consecration to service came later in religious groups.

The diocesan priest’s first calling is to the space of his given locality, which is fundamental to his ordination and spirituality. He knows well that his joys and sacrifices, celebrations and sadness are tied to this assigned place. The diocesan priest is more than a functionary in the settings of Church and sacraments. He allows himself to be touched daily by his environment. Parish experiences, people, and spaces are the mainstay of his vocation. Pastors embrace all of life’s passages, pain, teachable moments, analogies, metaphors, parallels, and parables that surround his life, his people. Priests realize that the being of Jesus is always present.

The hereness and nowness of Jesus fills the very base and core of diocesan priests. It is the earth-identity and connection to his footprints with God that funnel all dimensions of the priest’s presence and the environment to the allness of our loving Father, the living God.

Religious and diocesan clergy are rooted in different foundations. The diocesan priest and his bishop are ordained by God to live and die in a local, territorial area, which is the rooting, calling, charism, and a gift for a man of local places. Most men are born, grow up, and are formed in their home diocesan locations.

Rooting in a local area is one difference between diocesan priests and religious priests and brothers, and where most communities of women religious diverge. Religious men and women have their rootedness and calling in a specific charism to which they respond. The essence of most diocesan priesthood is established as a designated geographical area, not in a Gospel charism, service, or ministry.

So, the priesthood that Jesus established by His words, actions, and modeling were local to the area of Israel. Jesus also instituted a sacred calling that is the foundation of Religious Order priests based on specific charisms.

His Apostles were mandated to a priesthood that extended beyond the location of Israel, James being the exception as he was the first martyred Bishop of Jerusalem. Jesus’ Apostles reached into territories around the known world and lived and died in those localities. They developed the local churches throughout the Mediterranean world and into the Middle East and India. Peter located in Rome to establish the local mother-church of Christianity and to establish the local priesthood there, the diocesan priesthood.

Paul, in his journeys, identified and lived a diocesan priesthood in the various communities in which he dwelt. He also lived a charismatic priesthood based on his calling and gift of traveling to the larger Gentile world. He lived a vow that was unique, not either–or, but both. His vow included a religious priest charism of missionary travel and teaching, as well as the charism of a diocesan priest’s rooted dedication to a specific territory. Paul and the first Apostles were men who recognized the importance of the place as a priority. What I mean by that is they were cognizant of the places where they lived and died in the priesthood of Jesus. Paul claimed his Roman citizenship before his martyrdom. He modeled a priestly calling, saying our citizenship is not from here. This duality of Paul’s calling and priestly ordination is a subject for contemplation and religious understanding for saints, bishops, and scholars. It is a mystery of the Holy Spirit.

Religious priests live their charismatic calling, serving the people of God undefined by specific space. That does not mean they do not make a deep commitment to a place, culture, or history where they are serving. Many have been martyred and given their lives in those locations.

The rootedness of their priesthood is found in the charisms of their religious life, whether founded as missionaries, teachers, or dedicated to the sick and the weak or to prayer. Religious priests have many unique gifts that shape their priestly life.

Religious who are uniquely committed to a specific space, work, and prayer are the contemplative orders, such as the Benedictines, Cistercians, Camaldolese, and Carthusians, as well as Orders in the Eastern Rites. The Benedictine Rule vows monks to stability in a monastery space. They are not to wander away from that place. They do go out to serve as pastors, missionaries, give missions and retreats, or even serve as military chaplains. Still, they remain technically affiliated with their religious community, are cared for at the monastery in their final years, and usually are buried there. Their priesthood is shaped by and follows living out their community life and charism, in obedience to their superior.

Following the example of Jesus, the diocesan priest is pledged to spend his life and faith ministry in a definitive place under the plan and authority of a local Ordinary. The history, culture, and people of that area become his first love. They bring him to Jesus as he brings them to Jesus. They live communally in the Our-Father plan given to Jesus of the Kingdom. The priest is ordained to live and die in that space. The communal areas of the place and people’s lives are shared intimately in faith until death do us part. Our space is part of the calling of the diocesan priest and diocesan charism.

The spaces of the diocesan priesthood are as varied as the spaces Jesus walked during His lifetime in Israel. His feet mingled with the history, people, and episodes of daily life. It is essential to reflect on Jesus’ priesthood and ministry in a real charism.

Standing with John the Baptist at the gathering by the Jordan River, Jesus stood in authority and humility before this strange, much-loved, and well-recognized Prophet asking the power of the Father and Spirit and for John’s endorsement as He presented Himself to become the ultimate Servant of all.

Jesus entered the space of retreat, prayer, and preparation as He went into the desert for forty days. His shared focus was the Father and the people. Jesus reached out and faced His oppositional encounters with Satan.

Gathering His Apostles and disciples as assistants, Jesus proclaimed the offices of inclusion of participation. His associates were formed by Him. In the name and power of the Father and Spirit, they represented Him and served others in His name.

Jesus planned journeys into villages, homes, gatherings, and synagogues. He spoke, taught, and hung out throughout the countryside.

His openness to interruptions and the unexpected demands and encounters for mercy and healing were keynotes of His priestly serving, sacrifice, and weariness.

Following the Father’s plan, all these steps were taken by Jesus in the land of Israel, Jesus’ priestly parish choice. Jesus set forth the first model of diocesan parish priestly spirituality and living.

The final moments of His priestly offering and loving touch for all people were demonstrated by Jesus with His Apostles at the Last Supper and when He poured out lifeblood in His passion and death.

His priestly glory and recognition came with His Resurrection and entering the eternal liturgy of the Father in heaven. Jesus assured history would continually be brought into His priestly touch by gathering the living Church into His salvific Mystical Body.

Jesus chose to mingle with diverse people and places in His priestly serving, which overflowed into the endless ages of divine history. His service indicates that in the Father’s divine plan, many places and happenings in human life and history were left unexplored. There were people and places left to another person’s steps, times, and faith-energy to discover. God works through faith, priestly charisms, and ministries to always offer divine, everlasting life to all people in all places.

One focus of diocesan priestly charism is on definitive geographical places as modeled by Jesus. Other places and individuals touched by others are part of the Holy Spirit’s outreaching. The gifts of this priestly calling were not simply from above and divine. They were from the very concrete realities and people that Jesus reached out to and that touched Him each day. The sky and clouds, grain and fields, food and water, pathways and dust, smiles and faces, shouts and questions, seasons and rituals, coins and trading, pain and suffering, and so many other items contributed to Jesus’ daily routines and living. These are the raw materials of diocesan priestly spirituality.

The sharing of these everyday life experiences, day-by-day in our given space, is the making of holiness. Jesus yearns to bring His daily intimacy with the heavenly Father to all of us, most notably to the people of these spaces of life.

As the Russians speak of their motherland and the Germans of their fatherland, Jesus saw Israel as both His maternal and paternal heritage. The diocesan priest most commonly experiences his diocese and parishes in this light and realizes his connections and commitments in this frame of reference.

The availability of God’s presence is not only open to all people and places, His visibility is open to all of history in the priestly presence of Jesus Christ. Jesus stands not only in the motherlands and fatherlands of all people but walks among them in the charism and calling of all diocesan priests. The diocesan priesthood follows the model of Jesus. They concretize Jesus, the priest of all priests, ordained to walk and stand in all spaces of life. He shares His visibility with all the baptized, chiefly His local ordained priests. Jesus established the first callings to priestly ministry when He delegated His Apostles to become diocesan bishops as they scattered to various parts of the Middle East and Mediterranean worlds. They, in turn, ordained the local presbyters and deacons after this model of Jesus.

Different charisms of priestly serving and specialized ministry developed over the years. Traveling evangelization and teaching; miracles and healing; administration; outreach to the poor, prisoners, widows and orphans, refugees, and slaves; monasticism and lives dedicated to prayer and other sufferings gradually identified themselves later. The precise serving of these requirements brought forth the formation of religious orders by priests and brothers, as well as religious groupings of women.

This diocesan charism of the priesthood is tied to a specific locality and choice. Jesus made such a choice. Our charism is often linked to a birthplace, which, for many, involves a selection of their birthplace again in their own lives and family settings. For others, it includes selecting a territorial locality where they wish to serve, live, and die, and comes under a formal Canonical process of incardination. It is a choice made toward priesthood ministry and serving. It is intended as a permanent lifetime commitment.

The assignment of bishops is an anomaly in this understanding, which needs further reflection and study. This subject is explored further in the second part of The Unique Charism of Diocesan Spirituality. It involves choice as a secondary consideration. After the Vatican proposes a place, the man’s decision or choice follows. He often has no history or familiarity with the area in question. At times, the bishop is a religious, formed and fostered in his religious community and its primary charism. The place of his calling from the Vatican is unknown, unfamiliar, and often not one of his choosing. The community of God’s people has no input or affirmation to offer to the candidate bishop. It is all set in the wisdom and inspiration of experience and the Holy Spirit. At times, the question of the diocesan priesthood and its connectedness with the local church is not a primary consideration.

Bishops often have the background not of the local church, but of their religious order and its primary charism. Alternatively, diocesan men are from other localities, dioceses of their first choice where they were initially ordained. Later, they might be transferred to other dioceses. It is often a significant uprooting, re-choosing, and relocation.

Some people avoid choosing specific spaces by which to identify their lives and work. Jesus did not. Avoiding this decision of living spaces and commitment is historical. People such as Bedouins or Native American tribes traveled, left their footprints wherever they moved, and saw all territory as theirs or as a shared homeland.

Scripture shows much relocating for Noah, Abraham, and the twelve tribes. It seems part of the mobility of people. Scriptures always acknowledge the stranger, the refugee, and the traveler. God’s plan for growth and maturing in living is stability. The vineyards, olive trees, herds, families, and all of life require a rootedness, even if it means mobility over large areas of terrain. The space of life is the rooted family; it is planting and harvesting, it is ownership, inheriting, and passing on our heritage. These are the perfect example of how the diocesan priesthood is rooted and intended for growing.

Our chosen space is sacred, a gift from God, and the basis of the diocesan priesthood calling. God leads us into life-spaces, by birth, happenstances, and other planned events or unseen happenings. One way or another, we are responsible for choosing or not the spaces that are laid before us. We do not stumble into spaces by coincidence. God leads and guides us. Ultimately, we decide—I will be in this space now, or if You wish me to tread upon this turf.

How or when we discover this space personally, and step into this lifetime commitment is God’s calling and our decision. It is not just a human process. It is a divine and spiritual discernment. Some choices lead us in this way.

As diocesan priests, we recall how Moses made his decisive steps to live in Egypt growing up, to identify with his Hebrew heritage, to leave, to marry, to return and face Pharaoh. Then to leave again in the Exodus, to journey, climb Mount Sinai, and lead his people to the chosen land. Led by Moses, the Hebrews became a people of places and discernment and decision in serving God.

Diocesan priests are the gatherers and presiders who model Jesus

Our diocesan priesthood helps direct people to the holiness of who they are in the saving priesthood of Jesus. The diocesan priest offers to God the way that he lives. The priest models Jesus’ identity for the Father and for all people in his daily local way of life.

So, the diocesan priest is ordained to create, identify, labor, serve, and consecrate the day-by-day giving of himself to the people of his local space. His charism and calling, above all, is to be the servant of the Father, in the model of Jesus, and with the power of the Holy Spirit in this given, ordained-lifetime local space of the diocese and parish territory.

In the spirit of Vatican II, we are a Church, a people, of the local church area. We live in a defined space in which we work out our salvation. This plan of saving grace and its rootedness in space has its origin in the words of creation in Genesis. The Incarnation moment in Israel is for the diocesan priest, his bread, and butter and, for all persons, their standing in ways of holiness. There is no separable, invisible, spiritual life-place, be it a church, temple, sanctuary, mountaintop, an individual’s soul, or the heavenly kingdom of the Father, apart from a local place and a universal space. God’s design is eternal, infinite space.

Local priests are shaped and formed by the terrain of our daily living areas. We learn and integrate so much of earth’s elements from the land where we walk and move. We are not at the mercy of our geographies. We pray for guidance as we determine our needs based on our surroundings. The diocesan priest chooses to be rooted in and shaped by the local surroundings of his locality, where he will experience God and grace for the rest of his life. He will live and die in the areas of this specific diocese and be buried here. It is like the vow of marriage: I take you for better, or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and health, until death does us part. The diocesan Church says that to him, and he to the local church.

Religious priests and externs can choose the vow and spirituality of a diocesan area secondarily, after they make the first choices of community and the charisms. Many dedicate priestly years, love, and service to a diocese, but their first love commitment is elsewhere. We have a brother priest in our diocese, ordained for his diocese in China, to which he will never be able to return. His nearly forty years with us have never changed his fidelity to his home in China. We have priests who have transferred in from their original diocese, some incardinating here and some not. We have religious who have left their orders, incardinating with us. Their new choices and standing as diocesan priests with us require searching decisions before God, to find an original orientation in their spirituality as priests of our diocese. It is like accepting seminarians from outside localities who have little or no experience in our region.

The Pope identifies the bishop and the selection of bishops through Canon Law.

The diocesan priesthood includes not only distinct, local, external space that the priest trod, but also the inner, spiritual space of his being and those who surround him in his daily living.

The inner spiritual life of each person is a sacred and special space established in and by God. It is to provide us with endless cultivating, like the fields or vineyards of the Gospel. The diocesan priest is to become both a master and servant of his inner God-space and, with the Church and the Holy Spirit, do the same for the people of his parish and diocesan territory.

Adam, having life and spirit breathed into him by the Father from the earth and establishing an elementary universal human priesthood, becomes a baptismal shared priesthood with Jesus. All priesthood includes earth, place, locality, and life.

Understanding the local church

The natural environment forms the space of a local church known as the parish. Jesus left it to His Apostles to mark communities of faith and conversion, to categorize the towns and cities, and to determine the presbyters and deacons, as well as the local heroes and leaders. The people accepted the presence