If you confess your sins, repent and ask for forgiveness, you will be forgiven. The sacraments of Holy Orders provide to you God’s grace to live up to the demands of the call, but they do not grant perfection. Priests are still human, and are still fallible, sinful men. However, if you make Christ the compelling, motivating force in your life, then you will continue to grow in virtue and self-mastery. To mature spiritually, all of us must arm ourselves with daily prayer, with deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ and with frequent reception of the sacraments (especially the Holy Eucharist and Confession). A man who follows this path will not mess up big. If we ardently nurture our love for the Lord, He will provide all the grace we need to live up to our vows as a priest. It is when we lose sight of the face of Christ, when we cease prayerful communication with Him and when we do not avail ourselves of the sacraments that we stumble greatly, no matter what our vocation.

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