By Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Translated by Lauren Webb.

The spirit of the Society of Saint Pius X is before all else that of the Church. Recognized by the Church as a society of common life without vows and as a priestly society, our Society is grafted onto the trunk of the Church, and draws its nourishment of sanctification from the most authentic tradition of the Church and from the living and pure sources of Her sanctity. In this manner those societies recognized by the Church over the centuries grew and flourished with new branches and bore fruits of sanctity, which are the honor of the Church Militant and Triumphant.

All of Scripture is turned towards the Cross, towards the Redemptive Victim, radiant with glory, and the whole life of the Church is turned towards the altar of sacrifice. Consequently, Her principal solicitude is the sanctity of the priesthood. We ought to have this profound conviction that the Church will be holy in the measure that Her priests are holy.

For the Seminarians, the ever-growing discovery of the great mysteries to which they are destined, ought to give a particular character to their life. Captivated by Our Lord and His Sacrifice, they ought, for this same reason, to renounce the world—its vanities, its futilities. They ought to manifest this detachment by their garb, by their attitude, by the love of silence and of a retired life, even if the apostolate will ask of them later on to go to souls. The Church forms those who give holy things—sacerdos—that is to say—sacra dans—those who give holy things, those who perform holy and sacred actions—sacrificium—that is to say—sacrum faciens. She places into their consecrated hands divine and sacred gifts—sacramenta—the Sacraments.

The spirit of the Society is before all else that of the Church. Its members—priests, brothers, sisters, oblates, tertiaries, will strive to know ever more fully the mystery of Christ as St. Paul describes it in his Epistles, especially in the Epistles to the Ephesians and the Hebrews. Here we will discover that which guided the Church for twenty centuries. We will understand the importance that he gives to the sacrifice of Our Lord and, consequently, to the priesthood.

We ought to deepen our understanding of this great Mystery of our Faith which is the Holy Mass. We should have an unlimited devotion for this Mystery, placing it at the center of our thoughts, of our hearts, of all our interior life. This will be to live by the spirit of the Church. Profoundly convinced that the source of life is found in Christ Crucified, and thus in the Sacrifice that he has bequeathed to us, the members of the Society will discover with an ever growing joy that the Mystical Spouse of Our Lord, born from the pierced Heart of Jesus, has nothing dearer to Her heart than to transmit this previous Testament with a magnificence inspired by the Holy Ghost.

The spirit of the Society is essentially a priestly spirit, illuminated by the radiating Redemptive Sacrifice of Calvary and of the Mass, Mystery of Faith. This great Mystery, summit of our Faith, is transmitted to us by the Church in Her Liturgy, where, as a Mother, She strives to unfold the infinite riches of this Mystery in the actions, words, chants, and liturgical vestments, which follow the admirable liturgical cycle. The Society, anxious to live this Mystery, is zealous to know the liturgy and to accomplish it in all its beauty and splendor. “I have loved, O Lord, the beauty of Thy house,” says Psalm 25.

The spirit of the Society is a liturgical spirit. The priest is consecrated before all else for the Sacrifice of the Mass, for the public prayer of the Church. The Society will strive to acquire this liturgical spirit in all it profundity in order to live the Mystery of Christ, offering Himself to His Father and offering His entire Mystical Body. The splendors of the Liturgy sing of Jesus Crucified and Resurrected. The Church has known how to show us and have us live of this Mystery in a truly divine manner, which captivates hearts and elevates souls.

Everything has been arranged with the love of a faithful Spouse, and of a merciful Mother. Every kind of inspiration is found in the holy places, the ceremonies, the vestments, the chants, and the choice of prayers, in the Missal, the Breviary, and the Pontifical, in the Ritual. The members of the Fraternity will nourish their spirituality at the sources of living water that the Church offers them in the holy Liturgy—incomparable source of wisdom, of faith, of grace, of aesthetical and mystical life. Nothing is little, nothing is insignificant in the service of such a Lord and King. Let us always be aware of this. It is a very efficacious means of the apostolate. If the Liturgy is before all else the praise of the Most Holy Trinity, offering the Sacrifice, source of divine life, it is also the Catechism, in its most efficacious and living form. Happy are the faithful whose priest is enamored of the Liturgy of the Church.

The spirit of the Society is the spirit of the Church, the spirit of faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ and in His work of Redemption. The whole history of the Church in the past twenty centuries manifests the fundamental principles of the Church, animated by the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Our Lord. The priest is at the heart of this work of the rebirth of souls, of their divinization in view of their future glorification. All his thoughts, his inspirations, and his actions ought to be inspired by this spirit of Faith. This spirit of faith is essentially a spirit of contemplation of Our Lord Crucified and Glorified.

How I wish that all Society members have a thirst of the contemplative life, that is to say, this simple and ardent gaze upon the Cross of Jesus. May everyone acquire the spirit of prayer, of the interior life, in the image of Our Lord Who Himself lived for thirty of His thirty-three years retired from the world. The profoundly interior, spiritual, and supernatural aspect of our life, of our piety, the contemplative aspect of our life, is that which has justified all the contemplative foundations. From thence comes the spirit of prayer of the Society, the necessity of spiritual exercises in common, of mental prayer. The consequence of drawing closer to God in His Redemptive Sacrifice will produce in the souls of the Society members the same effects, with due proportion, felt by privileged souls who received the Stigmata of Our Lord. These effects are multiple: an ardent desire of total oblation as a victim with the Divine Victim; love of God, of Our Lord, up to self-sacrifice; a total abandonment to the Holy Will of God; an ardent union with the pierced Heart of Our Lord.

If contemplation is a loving gaze at Jesus crucified and glorified, it transfers the soul into the hands of God. This cannot be realized except by a complete abandonment of our will into the hands of God. That is to say, a consummate obedience to His Holy Will: the Will signified by God and by those who participate legitimately in His authority, and rightly use this participation; His Will of Good Pleasure, manifested by God Himself in the course of the events which touch us during our lives—illness, trial. Let us meditate on these great teachings of the Church and let us strive to put them into practice in the circumstances of our lives.

This assumes that we are truly humble. This explains the Benedictine spirituality in its entirely, founded upon the progression of the virtue of humility. Contemplation, obedience, and humility are the elements of one reality: the imitation of Our Lord Jesus Christ and participation in His Infinite Love. The effects of the Spirit of Love which manifested Himself on the Cross are continually manifested on the altar and in the Eucharist. They separate the soul from the world. The soul despises passing goods to attach itself to the eternal; it shuns material goods to attach itself to spiritual ones. The soul has a great horror of sin, a profound contrition of its faults, an immense desire to expiate for itself and for others. We must give thanks to God for having communicated His Spirit of Love and immolation for the glory of God.

The Society members will found their missionary and apostolic zeal upon the conviction that they are “useless servants.” Our Lord could very well do without them, but He wills to use them, and it is an unmerited honor. They will always remain in this profound awareness of their nothingness and of the greatness of God, trusting only in His grace. The apostolate is essentially a supernatural work of grace. Grounded on these convictions, they will go courageously to the souls entrusted to them and are waiting for them. They will preach with confidence, evoking the aid of Our Lord and of the Virgin Mary.

Their preaching ought to be simple, with conviction, that which will edify and lead souls to convert to God. If souls do not come, they will go to meet them with a compassionate and humble heart, trusting in His grace, excluding no one. They will avoid every form of domination or contempt. They will be everything to everyone, taking care not to fall into the error of those who think to adopt the foul language and vulgar looks of certain circles. Even these people expect a good and simple attitude from us, one that is always worthy of our priesthood.”