Scottish Catholic Observer

“It is because Jesus had a relationship with His Father that He spoke with authority and so if a priest has a relationship with Jesus Christ through prayer he too will have the same authority,” Mgr John Armitage, rector of the Catholic National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk, said on a visit to Scotland last week.

The monsignor (above) made his comments to the clergy of St Andrews and Edinburgh Archdiocese on October 1.

The theme of his reflection was ‘the joy of the Gospel’ with a particular focus on the forthcoming Year of Mercy that begins this December.

He told the clergy gathered at the Gillis Centre in Edinburgh that the disappointments of life—often unexpected, unfortunate and unfair—can sometimes rob them of the joy that should come from being a priest of Jesus Christ. The answer, he said, was to accept the loving mercy of God in one’s own life.

“If the Church is to be a place of welcome and reconciliation then it has to start with us,” he said. “You cannot be a ‘missionary of mercy,’ as the Holy Father asks us to be, unless you have accepted that mercy in your own life.”

In doing so, the priest will be better able to tend to those also in need of Christ’s healing during the Year of Mercy.

“Each generation has its own challenges, each time has its own opportunities and I think that as we approach the Year of Mercy the vision of Pope Francis is that the Church has to be an instrument of mercy for everyone regardless of where they’ve come from or what they’ve done,” he said.

The Year of Mercy begins on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 2015, and runs until the Feast of Christ the King on 20 November 2016.