An Admonition to Priests

Some Sarum Missals, used in England from the XIIIth cent. until the Reformation, offer priests this sobering and salutary thought:

Presbyter in Christi mensa quid agis bene pensa: aut tibi vita datur aut mors aeterna paratur.

Translation:

Think carefully, Priest, of what you do on Christ's table: Either life is given you or eternal death is prepared.

We can also put it in verse to match the Latin:

Think you Priest with trepidation

What you do at the Consecration

For given you is Life Eternal

Or made for you is death infernal.

Taken from this fascinating, detailed description of the Use of Sarum, courtesy of the AngloCatholic.