awful blood."

In order to foster in us the spirit of personal piety, we are constantly
admonished by the Church to be men of prayer. The Priest should be like
those angels whom Jacob saw in a vision, ascending to heaven and
descending therefrom on the mystical ladder. He is expected to ascend by
prayer and to descend by preaching. He ascends to heaven to receive light
from God; he descends to communicate that light to his hearers. He ascends
to draw at the Fountain of Divine grace, he descends to diffuse those
living waters among the faithful, that their hearts may be refreshed. He
ascends to light his torch at the ever-burning furnace of Divine love; he
descends to communicate the flame to the souls of his people.

The Church, indeed, considers prayer so indispensable to her clergy that,
besides the voluntary exercises of piety which their private devotion may
suggest, she requires them to devote at least an hour each day to the
recitation of the Divine Office, which chiefly consists of the Psalms and
other portions of Holy Scripture, the Homilies of the early Fathers and
prayers of marvelous force and unction.

Chapter XXX.

CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY.

The Church requires her Priests to be pure in body as well as in soul, and
to "present their bodies a living victim, holy, well-pleasing unto
God."(514)

Our Savior and His Apostles, though recognizing matrimony as a holy state,
have proclaimed the superior merits of voluntary continency, particularly
for those who consecrate their lives to the sacred ministry. "There are
eunuchs who have made themselves such for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake. He
who can take it, let him take it."(515) Our Lord evidently recommends here
the state of celibacy to such as feel themselves called to embrace it, in
order to attain greater perfection.

St. Paul gives the reason why our Savior declares continency to be a more
suitable state for His ministers than that of matrimony: "He who is
unmarried careth for the things of the Lord--how he may please God. But he
who is married is solicitous about the things of the world--how he may
please his wife--and he is divided."(516)

Jesus Christ manifestly showed His predilection for virginity, not only by
always remaining a virgin, but by selecting a Virgin-Mother and a
virgin-precursor in the person of St. John the Baptist, and by exhibiting
a special effection for John the Evangelist, because, as S