Choose a topic from Part 3 Suppl:
1. A man who receives the sacrament of orders is set tolead others. Therefore, he should be a man of holy and exemplarylife. Yet this is a requirement of precept and of propriety; it isnot of the essence of the sacrament. Even a sinful man who receivesorders is validly ordained, although he does great wrong inaccepting ordination.
2. A candidate for orders should have knowledge adequatefor the proper discharge of his sacred duties. He must have asufficiency of knowledge of the scriptures, and know the doctrinesof the faith, and the requirements of Christian morality.
3. The personal holiness of an ordained man has nothing todo with the sacrament itself; an ordained man does not advance indegree of orders as he advances in personal holiness.
4. A prelate who knowingly ordains a candidate whollyunworthy of the office he assumed, commits a grave sin, and showshimself an unworthy servant of the Lord.
5. A man in orders who, apart from necessity, exerciseshis office while he is in the state of mortal sin, is guilty ofanother grievous sin every time he performs a sacred function.
"It is vanity to love what passes quickly and not to look ahead where eternal joy abides.
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Thomas á Kempis
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"Happy is the youth, because he has time before him to do good. "
St Philip Neri
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"Before a man chooses his confessor, he ought to think well about it, and pray about it also; but when he has once chosen, he ought not to change, except for most urgent reasons, but put the utmost confidence in his director."
St Philip Neri
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