Posted on Bishop Strickland’s website on January 4, 2024

Please share with every Priest you know!

January 4, 2024

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Memorial 

My Dear Brother Priests,

As we begin 2024, let us pray that we enter this new year with great priestly fervor and with the Blessed Virgin Mary by our side. 

My previous letters have focused on us, as priests, becoming more and more deeply Marian. Now, I want to focus on what it means to be Eucharistic priests. First, I am compelled to emphasize the grave responsibility each of us carries to the altar of Jesus Christ when we celebrate Mass. Sadly, we have seen how devastating it is to the Bride of Christ when her priestly sons willfully live abusive and sinful lives. Priests who fail to authentically live Christ’s call to the priesthood and who lose their sense of repentance bring desecration to the sacred altar of Jesus Christ and wreak havoc on the Church. If we fail to respond to Christ’s call to holiness and to forsake any sin in our lives, the consequences for us and the people we serve are dire; therefore, we must double down on our efforts and use this time of crisis in the Church as an opportunity to grow even closer to Christ in the Eucharist and to experience a more profound conversion of heart. I believe the only truly effective way for us to respond to our human inclination toward sin is to seek a deeper Eucharistic piety.

Using the phrase “Eucharistic piety” may feel off-putting and overly spiritualized, but I believe our challenge as priests of the 21st Century demands that we seek holiness, real holiness. Although simplistic, I recommend striving to know Jesus Christ and His Sacred Heart more intimately. I am reminded of the eleven faithful Apostles in contrast to the unfaithful one, Judas Iscariot. The Gospels do not share the details of how each of the eleven came to truly know Christ in a profound way, but they do tell us about the time they spent with Him. The few times Judas is mentioned, it seems clear that he is preoccupied with the purse and not with learning at the feet of the Master. I suspect that if we had the chance to speak with apostles Peter, James, John, Andrew or any of the others, they would share wonderful, never-recorded stories about their quality time with Jesus. As His 21st Century priests, we are called to continually deepen our relationship with Him and, as with any relationship, it will require effort and selflessly spending quality time in His Presence in Eucharistic Adoration. 

Ultimately, we must be men of self-sacrifice to become truly Eucharistic priests. We must be men of real, day-to-day, draining and exhausting sacrifice. We must be willing to confront false messages no matter their origin – whether from the secular world or the Church. Most importantly, we must be willing to place our lives on His altar and to join Him in the most profound sacrifice of love the world has ever known.  

In closing, I believe we can agree that, as priests, we have made the commitment to love, honor, and cherish the Church. This is a difficult task, and we often fail, but I can think of no better person to emulate than the beloved disciple, St. John. He was at the Last Supper where wine becomes Christ’s Precious Blood, and with Eucharistic piety, John remained with Christ at the foot of the Cross where he was spattered with Christ’s Precious Blood as He died. Like John, this is also where we must be, intimately sharing in Our Lord’s Precious Blood as we offer His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity to the world. 

Brothers, let us pray for each other that we may always authentically and humbly approach Our Lord in Eucharistic Adoration and at His altar each time we celebrate Holy Mass. 

St. John the Evangelist, pray for us. 

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland 

Joseph Strickland

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland was named the fourth bishop of Tyler in September of 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI. Prior to being named bishop, he served a number of roles in the diocese, including vicar general, judicial vicar, and pastor of the Cathedral parish. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1985.

Posted on Bishop Strickland’s Website on December 21, 2023

Please share with every Priest you know!

Saint Peter Canisius, Priest and Doctor of the Church 

My Dear Brother Priests,

I pray that the last few remaining days of Advent are full of blessings as you transition from the joyful season of Advent to the glorious season of Christmas.  Having been a pastor for many years, I know all too well the challenges you and the faithful will experience as you make the quick change from Advent to Christmas in the space of a few hours. It can be dizzying, but I always found it uplifting to see the same faithful souls return for another liturgy, and I enjoyed laughing with them as we all wondered, “now, which liturgical celebration are we here for this time?” Although the 4th week of Advent 2023 will be very short, let us pray that we are still prepared for the Nativity of the Lord.

In my previous letter, I made a plea to all priests to become Marian priests, but I suspect we each have different ideas about how to become a Marian priest, and many probably wonder what this means for our priestly journey. First, I believe it means that we must intentionally invite and include Mary in our daily journey so that we can eventually come to fully understand our role as priests. Our Lord understood the importance of His Mother’s constant presence in His life, and He shares the gift of her presence with us. Scripture makes this very clear. As Jesus spoke from His Cross to Mary and the beloved disciple, John, He speaks to us, His ordained priests. We are to dedicate our lives to serving others with His Mother by our side. Her role in our priestly lives opens a rich dimension of what it means to be a priest of Jesus Christ.

Additionally, a Marian priest must be aware of Mary’s presence at the altar when offering the sacrifice of the Mass. She was present when He breathed His last breath as He died on the cross,and she is with us every time the Mass is celebrated. Our Marian focus, as priests, helps us to stay connected to the supernatural truth we celebrate at the sacrificial altar of Jesus Christ. With her help, we can overcome the challenge of losing the sense of the sacred and the supernatural.  

Lastly, priests who have a Marian focus are drawn closer to Christ, and as priests, the closer the better, for it is Christ who teaches us the true meaning of our priesthood. Priests sacrifice themselves and cling to the Church in service to God’s people, much like spouses sacrifice themselves and cling to each other for the good of the other. Our work is directed towards the salvation of souls. I must admit my focus, over the years, has not always been clear, but as my personal devotion to Mary has developed, the greatest blessings have been a heightened awareness of her presence at the altar and a more profound humility in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ – Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. I believe seeking to be Marian priests is simply entering more deeply into what our priesthood truly means.  

My dear brothers, as we go forward, may we rest in Our Mother who is the advocate of priests.  She will hold us close, and she will adopt us as her sons, as she did St. John.  She will draw usinto the radiance of her Son and there, by the intercession of Our Mother’s Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, we will be a consoler of Christ’s Sacred Heart.  As we His priests, in His presence, offer adoration and reparation for His Bride, the Church, there will be a renewal of holiness within our own lives and within His Church.  

Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, your priestly sons.

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland

Joseph Strickland

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland was named the fourth bishop of Tyler in September of 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI. Prior to being named bishop, he served a number of roles in the diocese, including vicar general, judicial vicar, and pastor of the Cathedral parish. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1985.

Posted on Bishop Strickland’s web site on December 8th, 2023

Please share with every Priest you know!

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

My Dear Priestly Brothers,

As we begin a new liturgical year, I am compelled to reach out to as many of you as possible with a simple but profound request – to join me in an important renewal of our priestly lives. I urge you to share this letter with every brother priest you can, even if it means translating it into another language. My hope is that Catholic priests around the world have an opportunity to join me in this renewal.

You may ask, “Who are you to send such an audacious message along with the claim that it should be embraced by every priest in the Catholic Church?” I am simply a priest and bishop who is devoted to our Blessed Mother and her Son, Jesus Christ, and it is through this devotion that I implore you to develop an ever-deepening life in Our Mother and Our Lord. Allow our Mother Mary, who gives us the grace to come unto Him, to lead you to her Son in adoration. There, you will be showered by the light of His Eucharistic Face which will lead you straight to His Eucharistic Heart and, there too, you will be accompanied by His Mother and her Immaculate Heart.

I believe it is time that we become deeply Eucharistic and Marian priests, and that we set aside all the squabbles, confusion and temptations to shape Christ’s Bride according to the world’s will rather than the Will of God. I am reminded of the dream of St. John Bosco in which he sees the Barque of St. Peter in desperate condition with her only hope being a strong tether to the pillar of our Eucharistic Lord, and an equally strong tether to the pillar of His Mother and Our Mother, the Immaculate Virgin Mary. I encourage you to read St. John Bosco’s vision of the two pillars; it speaks of our time.

Brothers, my message is not about another program or some sweeping reform; it is about every priestly heart coming to know the Sacred Heart of Jesus in a transformative way, and the best way to His Sacred Heart is through His Mother’s Immaculate Heart.

While the call to renewal is not complicated nor sophisticated, it will require each of us to lay down our lives for our Lord, who laid down His life for us. Should a priestly brother balk at the call – pray for him, nudge him, implore him to become a Eucharistic and Marian priest.

I hope my heart will speak to your hearts so that we might move, together, ever closer to His Heart, the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is there we find Truth.

Let us fall to our knees and pray, asking the Lord to guide us to a renewal of His Bride through His priests.

Bishop Emeritus Joseph E. Strickland

Joseph Strickland

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland was named the fourth bishop of Tyler in September of 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI. Prior to being named bishop, he served a number of roles in the diocese, including vicar general, judicial vicar, and pastor of the Cathedral parish. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1985.