Dear brothers, go out and discover culture, people and life! Marvel at the things that God makes grow without our having sown them. The people you will serve as priests — lay faithful and families, young and old, children and the sick — inhabit pastures that you must come to know. At times it will seem to you that you lack the necessary maps. But the Good Shepherd has them; listen to his very familiar voice.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus describes himself as the “good shepherd” (ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλός) (Jn 10:11). This expression refers to a shepherd who is perfect, authentic and exemplary, inasmuch as he is ready to give his life for his sheep, thus revealing God’s love. He is the Shepherd who draws us to himself, whose gaze reveals that life is truly beautiful when one follows him.

May they never lose trust in You, nor the joy of serving your Church with a humble and generous heart. Amen

May you always be keenly aware of the most exalted task that Christ himself, through the Church, entrusts to you: to restore people’s unity with God through the celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. A priest’s entire life can be fully realised by celebrating this Sacrament assiduously and faithfully.

Deep down, the supernatural gaze springs from the simplest and most decisive aspect of vocation: being with the Master. Jesus called those he wanted “to be with him” (Mk 3:14). That is the foundation of all priestly formation: staying with Him and allowing oneself to be formed from within; seeing God at work and recognizing how He works in one’s own life and in that of His people.

Fidelity to our vocation, especially in times of trial and temptation, is strengthened when we do not forget that voice, when we passionately remember the sound of the voice of the Lord who loves, chooses and calls us, and when we entrust ourselves to the indispensable accompaniment of those who are knowledgeable in the spiritual life. Throughout time, the echo of the Lord’s word is the principle of interior unity with Christ, which is fundamental and necessary in the apostolic life.

Together, then, we will rebuild the credibility of a wounded Church, sent to a wounded humanity, within a wounded creation. We are not yet perfect, but it is necessary that we be credible.

Just as Jesus loved with a human heart, so you are called to love with the Heart of Christ! To learn this art, however, you need to work on your interior life. That is the place where God makes his voice heard, and where the deepest decisions of our lives take shape. It is also the place where you will encounter the tensions and struggles that summon you to conversion, so that your entire life can breathe the fragrance of the Gospel.

Love God and your brothers and sisters, and give yourselves to them generously. Be fervent in your celebration of the sacraments, in prayer, especially in adoration before the Eucharist, and in your ministry. Keep close to your flock, give freely of your time and energy to everyone, without reserve and without partiality, as the pierced side of the crucified Jesus and the example of the saints teach us to do. Remember that the Church, in the two thousand years of her history, has had – and today continues to have – wonderful examples of priestly holiness.

You, candidates to the priesthood, are called to shun mediocrity, in the midst of very real dangers: the worldliness that blurs the supernatural vision of reality, activism that wearies, digital distraction that robs one of inwardness, ideologies that divert from the Gospel and, no less serious, the loneliness of those who seek to live without the presbyterate and without their bishop.