As priests and bishops juggle an ever-increasing workload attending to their pastoral and administrative duties, they must never forget to make time for Christ, Pope Benedict XVI said.The secret to a fruitful ministry is being fully "incorporated by Christ," he said during a Sept. 21 audience with newly ordained bishops.
The bishops were participating in a special meeting hosted by the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops.
Priests and bishops today face a huge amount of work "that tends to continually and totally absorb them," said the pope.
The number of tasks and difficulties they face has multiplied, in part, because of "new realities and growing pastoral needs," he said.
"Nevertheless, the attention paid to everyday problems and initiatives aimed at leading people along the path to God must never distract us from an intimate and personal union with Christ," he said.
"To be available to the people must never diminish or overshadow our availability to the Lord," he added.
Spending time in prayer with God is still time well spent, he said, because prayer is the soul of pastoral activity and the lifeblood that infuses it with strength.
Prayer is one's "tower of strength for moments of uncertainty and discouragement, and is the inexhaustible source of missionary zeal and brotherly love toward all," said Pope Benedict.
Celebrating the Eucharist also brings light to one's day with its "mysterious sanctifying action," he said.
The Eucharist offers its "grace and spiritual influence to moments that are sad or joyous, troubled or soothing, full of action or contemplative," said the pope.
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SIC: CNS