Vigils Reading

SHARERS OF THE PRIESTLY OFFICE

From a sermon by St Leo the Great

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I rejoice, dearly beloved, in the pious affection of your devotion, and I give

thanks to God that I see in you the love of Christian unity. For your very

presence here testifies that you understand that the annual return of this day is

a matter for common rejoicing; and that in celebrating the annual festival of the

Shepherd, you are honouring the whole flock.

For though the universal Church is ordered in varying degrees, so the

whole is made up from the diverse members of the sanctified Body, we are all, n

evertheless, as the Apostle says, one in Christ; and no one is separated by office

from another, so that even the least among us is related to the head. Therefore,

Beloved, in its unity of faith and baptism, our society is undivided, and its

dignity is the dignity of all its members; according to the words of the blessed

Peter, spoken by his own consecrated voice: Be you as living stones built up, a

spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to

God by Jesus Christ. And a little later: You are a chosen generation, a kingly

priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people.

For all who are born again in Christ, the sign of the Cross makes kings,

and the anointing of the Holy Spirit consecrates priests; so that apart from the

special service of our ministry, let all spiritual and reasoning Christians know

that they are of royal birth, and sharers of the priestly office. For what is so

kingly as the soul that is subject to God, and the ruler of its own body? And what

is so priestly as to dedicate to the Lord a pure conscience, and to offer him on the

altar of our hearts the unstained gift of our love?

And since by God’s grace this has been given to us all, it is for you a devout

and praiseworthy thing to rejoice on the day of our coronation as though the

honour were your own.