Religion & Spirituality
Pope Benedict XVI: "In the context of the Year for Priests, it is in my heart to pause to underline the apostolic zeal of St John Eudes, particularly directed to the formation of diocesan clergy. The saints are the true interpretation of Sacred Scripture. The saints have verified, in the experience of life, the truth of the Gospel; thus they introduce us into knowing and understanding the Gospel. The Council of Trent, in 1563, had issued norms for the erection of diocesan seminaries and for the formation of priests, as the Council was well aware that the whole crisis of the reform was also conditioned by an insufficient formation of priests, who were not prepared for the priesthood in a just way, intellectually and spiritually, in the heart and soul. This was in 1563; but since the application and realization of the norms were delayed both in Germany and in France, St John Eudes saw the consequences of this lack. Moved by a lucid awareness of the grave need for spiritual help, in which souls lay precisely because of the inadequacy of the majority of the clergy, the saint, who was a parish priest, established a Congregation dedicated in a specific way to the formation of priests. In the university town of Caen he founded his first seminary, an experience highly appreciated, which very soon extended to other dioceses. The pathway of holiness, which he traveled and proposed to his followers, had as its foundation a solid trust in the love that God has revealed to humanity in the priestly Heart of Christ and in the maternal Heart of Mary. In that time of cruelty, of loss of interiority, he turned to the heart with the line of the prophetic word (Is 46, 8): Redite, praevaricatores, ad cor - often commented on by St Augustine. He wanted to recall people, men and women and above all future priests to the heart, by showing the priestly Heart of Christ and the maternal Heart of Mary. Every priest must be witness and apostle of this love of the heart of Christ and of Mary." (General Audience, 19 August 2009) For much more, visit Totus2us - dedicated to Our Lady, it is inspired by our holy fathers St John Paul II and Papa Benedict XVI. Totus Tuus was JPII's motto to Mary. Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.