” “"How to retain inner unity in the sometimes exhausting activism of the ministry?", asked in his speech, left to the priests and permanent deacons in Freising, Benedict XVI, according to whom "the approach to the solution of this problem lies in one’s inner communion with Christ". "The ontological relationship with Christ" must therefore become "alive in one’s awareness and therefore in one’s actions". This brings to light "a new view of the priestly ascesis", which "must not be placed besides the pastoral action as an additional weight". "In my acting reads the text I learn how to overcome myself, how to give up my life peacefully; in disappointment and failure, I learn how to renounce, how to accept grief, how to become estranged from myself. In the joy of success, I learn gratitude. In the delivery of the Sacraments, I receive themselves myself, in my heart of hearts….". This "ascesis of the service" is, in the Holy Father’s opinion, "certainly a very important reason that however always requires a new inner rearrangement of one’s acting, starting from one’s being". (to be continued)” “
