Msgr Moroney's Blog: The Grace to Be a Priest

30 January 2018

The Grace to Be a Priest

I was just perusing a wonderful new book by our own Father Romanus Cessario, OP, published by Cluny Media, which I highly recommend for your spiritual reading. The publisher describes The Grace to Be a Priest as "the fruit of one Dominican’s service as a priest of Jesus Christ...Father Cessario explains how the vocation to the priesthood comes to a man as both gift and mystery. God chooses priests to serve as both instruments of his will and spiritual fathers for his people. Drawing on the riches of the Dominican tradition as well as the general principles of Catholic theology, Father Cessario richly illuminates the nature of the priesthood with insights that will instruct priests, seminarians, and laypeople alike."

Monsignor James P. Moroney, a priest of the Diocese of Worcester for forty four years, is Pastor of Saint Cecilia Parish in Leominster. He served for many years as Executive Director of the USCCB Secretariat for Divine Worship in Washington D.C., as Rector of Saint John's Seminary in Boston, and as Pastor of Mary Queen of the Rosary Parish in Spencer and as Rector of Saint Paul's Cathedral in Worcester. Pope Saint John Paul II and Pope Benedict both appointed him as a Consultor to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in Rome and as Executive Director of the Vox Clara Committee. He is author of THE MASS EXPLAINED (Catholic Book Publishing) which is being published in its third edition this Spring.