The Collar is A Special Yoke For Priests

Wow this is a great piece!! The Anchoress has Roman Collar as Yoke and Witness.

It is a great post so read it all. However I was struck by this.

At one point during a coffee break at last September’s Church Up Close seminar the subject of vocations came up, and someone noted the slow-but-steady (and world-wide) increase in seminarians since the “long Lent” of 2002 and the first disclosures of our too-poorly-addressed, too-poorly-handled scandals. One priest said–with a profound and almost palpable sense of humility–”it is miraculous! No one can say these young men are coming in unaware of the negatives they face, and the distrust, or that they will be burdened and tarnished by this. They are aware! And yet they hear the call and they come. It is a true mystery, and a mark of grace.”
Yes, the generation of priests being formed amid all of this scandal and controversy–and the ever-powerful lure of the secular life, and the ebbing away of those poorly formed in the faith–means that they are being challenged and humbled right from the start of their journeys. But perhaps this crucible they’re in will make them strong enough and resilient enough to bring reinforcements to what has been weakened. I pray for them–for seminarians and priests, and all people consecrated to God–every day.

In fact when we look at the history of the Church in what Pope Benedict called her "Unholy Holiness" do we not see this pattern repeated time and time again.