Page:The Eternal Priesthood (4th ed).djvu/81

Rh From this, again, it follows that the words of S. Paul ought to be in the heart of every priest: "I count all things loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but as dung that I may gain Christ;" "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death: if by any means I may attain to the resurrection which is from the dead. Not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect; but I follow after, if I may by any means apprehend wherein I am also apprehended by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended. But one thing I do: forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth myself to those that are before, I press toward the mark to the prize of the supernal vocation in Christ Jesus." These words of the Holy Ghost express the aim, aspiration, and effort of a faithful priest, always pressing upwards, and always ascending higher and higher in the life of God—the heavenly life of knowledge and power, of the Cross, and of conformity to the Son of God. No words can be added to these without lessening their constraining force. There is no degree of sanctity