St. Dumitru Staniloae: How can Clergy Reinvigorate the Church?

This is the testament that I wish to leave for our servants of the Church...

A priest should not be a distant and aloof man of prayer, but should seek to draw and inspire all the faithful to prayer by his own prayer. He should not be preoccupied with receiving recompense for his contribution. The faithful will neither let him nor his family suffer any want. 

The faith must especially be made known to young Christians, in whose minds were forced all kinds of arguments against the faith. Priests should not wait for the faithful to seek them out asking for help, but they too should seek occasions to meet, speak, and exemplify the truth and importance of the Christian faith: by meeting people on the streets and alleys, seeking them for different reasons in factories and offices, speaking to them while traveling, but especially visiting them in hospitals. They should call adults and children to church for catechism classes in the afternoon. Christ and the Apostles did not wait for people to seek them in order for them to teach them the faith, but they did it themselves all the time by walking among people. 

It is fitting that preaching Christ and His example of love for people be united with practical examples of this love shown by priests. Orphans should find a replacement for their parents in priests; the elderly, poor, and sick should also feel that they are not alone in the world because of priests. 

This activity should be stimulated and overseen by bishops themselves. It would be very beneficial if bishops returned to the way of life of the Apostles, whose descendants they wholly are—a way of life that has been preserved throughout every age by some. They should not forget that deep down they are monks who took the vows of humility and poverty. It would be wonderful if they walked among the faithful with simplicity, like the Apostles, for each bishop to be in a parish like the bishops of the early centuries who were the head of each parish—the parish priest only being his deputy. It would give a real and practical basis to the title that the Pope of Rome gave himself long ago: servus servorum Dei, the servant of servants (of priests and the faithful) of God. He who is greatest is he who serves others, as Christ served (Matthew 20:26-28).

Even in theological schools, pastoral theology should not be only a theoretical course, but a way for students to become familiar with and engage in charitable pastoral activity in the field; just as the department of church music should also become the department of pastoral theology. 

This is the testament that I wish to leave for our servants of the Church: always have your mind on Christ and seek to serve Him, winning people over to faith in Him and to their salvation through all of your deeds. In this way you will be able to acquire blessed, eternal life for yourselves and those for whom you have a great responsibility. This is the conclusion at which I arrived at my age, which is nearing its end.

I sought to serve Christ by the hard work of writing, seeking to draw to faith in Him those who were tempted by writings alien to the faith, so widespread since the time the printing press made it easy to spread, especially in the last two-three hundred years, and especially for us during the Communist period.  

But sometimes I think that it would have been better for me to have been a parish priest in order to put what I wrote into practice. 

[St. Dumitru Staniloae fell asleep in the Lord on Oct 5, 1993]

Excerpts from “Fr. Staniloae’s Spiritual Testament for the Reinvigoration of Christian Life”:

https://atitudini.com/2017/10/testament-duhovnicesc-al-parintelui-staniloae-pentru-revigorarea-vietii-crestine/