"The ordained priest is essential and central to the mystery of the Redemptive Incarnation of God the Son, as is evident in the call of the Apostles at the very beginning of Our Lord?s Public Ministry and in His consecration of them as priests at the Last Supper on the night before His Passion and Death. To know, love, and serve Our Lord, according to His plan for our salvation, that is, to be a living member of His Mystical Body, the Church, is to encounter Him through His priests who, notwithstanding their unworthiness, act in His Person for the salvation of countless souls. Christ acts through His priests, sacramentally conformed to His Person as Head and Shepherd of the Church at every time and in every place. Christ calls men to His priesthood (vocation), confers upon them the sacramental character to be His brothers in the priestly life (ordination), and sends them forth to exercise His pastoral charity on behalf of those for whom they are called and ordained (mission). The ontological reality of the ordained priest is most perfectly visible in the offering of the Eucharistic Sacrifice by which Our Lord makes sacramentally present His Sacrifice on Calvary and its incomparable fruit: His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity as the Heavenly Bread which sustains us on our earthly pilgrimage. The priest, giving Himself totally to Christ for the offering of the Holy Mass, is also one with Him in giving himself totally for the teaching of the truths of the faith, and for the guidance of the flock in the way which leads to eternal life. His entire life as priest, teacher, and shepherd in Christ the High Priest, Divine Master, and Eternal Shepherd, is by its very nature an oblation. Essential and central to the life of the Church is respect for the integrity of the identity of the ordained priest and of His call, above all, to the perfection of the oblation.

Father Kevin O?Reilly, OP, offers us a most treasured instrument, through the study of the timeless theological reflection of St. Thomas Aquinas, for understanding the identity of the ordained priest and for respecting its integrity in practice. In a time of so much confusion and error regarding the priestly vocation, ordination, and mission, he provides a clear and thorough presentation of the perfection of a holy life inherent in the sacrificial response to Christ?s call: ?Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men? (Mt 4:19)."?Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke.