Ponder: "flows from the Altar"

“As Saint Thomas Aquinas tells us, the priest’s power over the corpus mysticum follows from his power over the corpus physicum of Christ.  It is because he consecrates the Body and Blood of Christ that the priest can teach, govern and sanctify the members of the Church.  Practically, this means that he walks into the confessional from the foot of the Altar, that he mounts the pulpit after having enacted the mystery of Redemption.  Every sick call, every word of counsel in the parlor, every catechism lesson taught to children, every official act in the chancery flows from the Altar.  All power resides there, and the more shortcuts we take from the tabernacle to our other priestly duties, the less spiritual strength we have for those duties.”

Fulton Sheen, The Priest is Not His Own (1963), 231.