The Feast of Christ the Priest, also known as the Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, The Eternal High Priest, is a

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moveable liturgical feast celebrated annually on the first Thursday after Pentecost. Approval for this feast was first granted by the

Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments it, Dicastero per il Culto Divino e la Disciplina dei Sacramenti , type = Dicastery , seal = Coat of arms Holy See.svg , seal_size = 100px , seal_caption = Coat of arms of the Holy See , logo = , p ...

in 1987. In 2012 the Congregation sent a letter to all conferences of bishops, offering the feast to be inscribed in their respective liturgical calendars if they ask for it.

Countries and institutes observing the feast

Confraternity A confraternity ( es, cofradía; pt, confraria) is generally a Christian voluntary association of laypeople created for the purpose of promoting special works of Christian charity or piety, and approved by the Church hierarchy. They are most c ...

of Christ the Priest in Australia * Spain * Poland (since 2013; Decree, 3 April 2013) * Slovakia (since 2013) *

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

(since 2014) * Czech Republic (since 2015) * England and Wales (since 2018) * Pampanga, Philippines (since 2001) * Community of Saint Martin (since 2020)Prot. 349/20

Significance

The feast focuses firstly on

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

’ Priestly Office (Latin: ''Munus sacerdotale''). He is considered the model for believers, and for the clergy in particular, with priests acting '' In persona Christi'' (“In the person of Christ”). The laity are thus urged to pray that priests would be more like Christ, the compassionate and trustworthy high priest (Hebrews 2:17), ever-living to intercede for humanity before The Father (Heb 7:25). The

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and ...

taught many things about the Priesthood of Christ, and sharing in that one Priesthood through the Sacraments of

Baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

and Holy Orders. This development has been reflected in many subsequent documents. One effective way to build upon this teaching is to establish the Feast of Christ the Priest more widely. What Pope Pius XI wrote about the feast in honor of Christ’s Kingly Office can be said just as truly about this feast in honor of Christ's Priesthood:

Liturgical aspects

The feast has its own

proper Proper may refer to: Mathematics * Proper map, in topology, a property of continuous function between topological spaces, if inverse images of compact subsets are compact * Proper morphism, in algebraic geometry, an analogue of a proper map for ...

texts for the

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

, as for the

Votive Mass In the liturgy of the Catholic Church, a votive Mass (Latin ''missa votiva'') is a Mass offered for a ''votum'', a special intention. Such a Mass does not correspond to the Divine Office for the day on which it is celebrated. Every day in the yea ...

of the Blessed Eucharist B. The feast also has approved Latin, Spanish and English texts for the

Liturgy of the Hours The Liturgy of the Hours (Latin: ''Liturgia Horarum'') or Divine Office (Latin: ''Officium Divinum'') or ''Opus Dei'' ("Work of God") are a set of Catholic prayers comprising the canonical hours, often also referred to as the breviary, of the ...

. The formulary lacks proper texts for the extended vigil (per IGLH 73). This rules celebration of the extended vigil out entirely, since, unlike other feasts, feasts of the Lord cannot draw on Common of the Saints. The entry from the Roman Martyrology (2005) reads:

References

External links

Website of the Confraternity of Christ the Priest about the feast and devotion

Website of the congregation "Oblatas de Cristo Sacerdote" about the feast (Spanish)
{{Easter Catholic holy days Holidays based on the date of Easter