EF Ss Cyril and Methodius: "make this proclamation"

‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’

-- Mt 10:7-15

The spiritual gift conferred by presbyteral ordination is expressed by this prayer of the Byzantine Rite. The bishop, while laying on his hand, says among other things:

Lord, fill with the gift of the Holy Spirit
him whom you have deigned to raise to the rank of the priesthood,
that he may be worthy to stand without reproach before your altar
to proclaim the Gospel of your kingdom,
to fulfill the ministry of your word of truth,
to offer you spiritual gifts and sacrifices,
to renew your people by the bath of rebirth;
so that he may go out to meet
our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, your only Son,
on the day of his second coming,
and may receive from your vast goodness
the recompense for a faithful administration of his order.

-- CCC 1587

Ordinary Form Saint of the Day: Blessed Emmanuel Ruiz and Companions, martyrs in Syria 1860.

Thursday, 14th Wk Ord Time: "Heal the sick!"

"As you go, make this proclamation: 'The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.

-- Mt 10:7-15

"Heal the sick!" The Church has received this charge from the Lord and strives to carry it out by taking care of the sick as well as by accompanying them with her prayer of intercession. She believes in the life-giving presence of Christ, the physician of souls and bodies. This presence is particularly active through the sacraments, and in an altogether special way through the Eucharist, the bread that gives eternal life and that St. Paul suggests is connected with bodily health.
-- CCC 1509

The newly prdained priests of the Archdiocese of Washington join the ministry of all priests who carry out the mission of Christ today to heal the sick through the ministries of Word and Sacrament. In Catholic Standard photo above, at the end of a June 19 Mass of Priesthood Ordination at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Archbishop Wuerl stands before the altar with the eight men he just ordained as new priests for the Archdiocese of Washington. They are, from left to right, Father Anthony Lickteig, Father Charles Gallagher, Father John Fleming Reutemann III, Father Mel Ayala, Archbishop Wuerl, Father R.E. Blake Evans, Father Harry John Stokes Jr., Father David Wells and Father Justin Huber.