Conformed to Christ Crucified, Volume One

Meditations on Priestly Life and Ministry

This collection of meditations covers various themes pertinent to the formation, life, and ministry of the ordained priest. Each theme is one aspect of a common, unifying vision: priestly conformity to the Crucified Christ. Through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, the priest–in the depths of his being–is sacramentally conformed to Christ the Head. Truly, he can say with Saint Paul: ?I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me? (Gal 2: 20). This book calls both the seminarian who seeks ordination and the priest already ordained to embrace wholeheartedly the cruciform reality of the priestly vocation: to be made one with the risen Christ Crucified for God’s greater glory and the salvation of souls.

?In Conformed to Christ Crucified: Meditations on Priestly Life and Ministry, Father Joseph Carola has edited a number of his homilies in which he reflects upon on the irreplaceable ministry of the ordained priesthood in the Church. Published during the Year for Priests, proclaimed by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, Father Carola’s homilies draw upon the Sacred Scriptures, the Fathers of the Church and other saints to provide a treasured font of sound and deep reflection on the truth declared by St. John Mary Vianney: ?The priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus.? Father Carola’s homilies will lead priests and seminarians to identify themselves more completely with Christ crucified and so make their hearts one with the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus. For all of the faithful, study of these homilies will mean growth in knowledge of the great gift of the ordained priesthood and love of priests. We owe a great debt of gratitude to Father Carola for his homilies and for their excellent presentation in his book. His homilies uncover anew for us the immeasurable love of God Who calls men to be priests and consecrates them to act in the person of His Incarnate Son, Head and Shepherd of the Church in every time and place, unceasingly offering His life for the sake of the flock and, in a special way, for the sheep who have wandered from the fold.?

+ Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura

?Father Joseph Carola with these meditations offers a strongly Ignatian view of Holy Scripture. The vocation to the priesthood is above all a call to live a life totally conformed to the poor, suffering, and crucified Christ. Jesus Christ leads his disciples on the road to Emmaus to understand their life and their ministry for the Risen Lord.?

Christoph Cardinal Sch”nborn Archbishop of Vienna