Page:The Eternal Priesthood (4th ed).djvu/53

Rh their end is one and the same. They come up to the altar by paths far apart; but they meet before it in one heart and mind, conformed to the perfection of the Great High Priest.

This interior spiritual perfection consists not in a sinless state—for who is without sin?—but first, in such a freedom from the power of sin that they would willingly die rather than commit a mortal sin; and next, in such a fear and aversion from all sin that they would willingly suffer any pain or loss rather than offend God by a wilful venial sin; and thirdly, by a glad and deliberate choice of a life in the spirit of poverty, humility, labour, and the Cross—that is, the lot of their Divine Master; so that, even if they could enjoy the world and yet be saved, they would choose to be conformed to Him in His mental sorrows, and in the manifold ways of His Gross. Such a state, with a reign of the love of God and of souls, even though the impetuosities of sudden infirmity and the indeliberate movements and faults of nature still remain, is the interior spiritual perfection which the Fathers and Doctors require of those who come to be ordained to the priesthood.

S. Alphonsus says that they all hold that the state of sanctifying grace is not sufficient for ordination. But all who are in a state of sanctifying grace