Archbishop Jose Guadalupe Martin Rabago of Leon, Mexico began celebrations for the Year of Priests this week and said the vocation to the priestly life is not based on feelings or emotions, but on “divine plans.”

The archbishop presided at a ceremony with 400 priests at the Cubilete Cristo Rey monument, which is located on a mountaintop outside the city of Leon.

In his message, the archbishop said, “It is not easy to appreciate the true meaning of the priesthood in a cultural context that only exalts whatever is based on feelings or emotions, that tells us to do only what we like and not what we should, that exalts what is fleeting and not what is eternal.”

“How much we need this year of priestly grace in a time in which we are experiencing the brunt of a culture that has no sensibility or appreciation for what is definitive, for what appeals to the truths that are founded upon divine plans,” he exclaimed.