At ordination, a priest becomes another person, commissioned not simply to act in the name of Christ, but to be another Christ, an alter Christus. This teaching was not an original insight of the Second Vatican Council. It is the traditional teaching of the Church. In this book, Father Connor helps the priest to see once again, in fresh terms, that this is truly the essence of the priesthood. He shows how, in the Eucharist the priest finds his raison d'être for being a priest, the source of all his strength in the ministry, the summit of all his prayers. The role of the Cross and suffering in the life of a priest is one of the highlights of this book. Yet the suffering of a priest is tinged with joy because he suffers along with Christ, bolstered by Jesus himself.