The pattern of a priestly life is in essence no more mysterious or difficult to understand than that of any Christian, which by definition is a “being dead and risen in Christ”, an “I no longer live”, an existence that comes from gratitude and which is at one with the task undertaken, whatever the Christian calling of the individual.
Hans Urs von Balthasar
Sponsa Verbi, Esistenza Sacerdotale
Morcelliana, Brescia 1985, p. 405