When our Lord established his first priests at the Last Supper, he did so independently of the ratio between their number and any cultic or missionary necessity. In his actions and decisions, friendship seemed to occupy at least the same place as pastoral needs. Those who were to become priests were simply to be "the ones the Father gave him" and whom he himself chose at the beginning of his ministry "to be with him".
(Father Jerome /1907–1985/, monk of the Trappist monastery in Sept-Fons,
treatise on Monastic Vocation and Priesthood)
