Encourage the faithful to work with you in your Apostolic task be ready to listen to what they have to say. But also love the poor, the defenceless and those in need of acceptance and help. First the presbyters and deacons, your co-workers in the ministry. Love with a fatherly and brotherly love all those whom God entrusts to you. Do not forget your roots, those who have passed on the faith, who gave you identity. Do not forget that you have been taken, chosen, from the flock. The three aspects of a bishop’s closeness: closeness to God in prayer - this is the first task closeness to priests in the presbyteral college and closeness to the people. As the Father has placed you at the head of his family, always follow the example of the Good Shepherd, who knows his sheep and is known by them and who did not hesitate to lay down his life for them. In the Church entrusted to you, be faithful custodians and dispensers of the mysteries of Christ. And, through preaching and offerings of the Sacrifice for your people, draw from the fullness of the sanctity of Christ the manifold richness of the divine grace.
6:4) then all of the other administrative matters. Remember that, according to Peter, in the Acts of the Apostles, the two main tasks of the bishop are prayer and proclaiming the Word (cf. Proclaim the true Word, not mundane discourses that no one understands. Proclaim the Word on every opportune and inopportune occasion. Indeed, “episcopacy” is the name of a service, not of an honour, since a bishop must strive to serve rather than to rule, according to the Master’s commandment: “whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all”. Now, dearest brothers, chosen by the Lord, consider that you have been chosen from among men and for men not for yourselves but for the things pertaining to God. Remember Jesus’ words to the Apostles: “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Lk 10:16). Render to them the honour that is due to the ministers of Christ and the dispensers of the mysteries of God, to whom the testimony of the Gospel and the ministry of the Spirit for sanctification have been entrusted. Therefore, welcome with gratitude and joy these brothers of ours whom we bishops are about to receive into the Episcopal College by the laying on of hands. It is Christ who, in the wisdom and prudence of the bishop, guides the People of God on their pilgrimage until at last they reach eternal bliss. It is Christ who, through the paternal role of the bishop, draws new members to his Body which is the Church. Indeed, it is Christ who, through the ministry of the bishop, continues to preach the Gospel of salvation and to sanctify believers by means of the sacraments of faith. In the bishop surrounded by his priests, the same Lord, the Eternal High Priest, is present in your midst. Thus, through an uninterrupted succession of bishops this prime ministry has been preserved in the living Tradition of the Church, and the work of the Saviour continues and develops to our own day. Through the laying on of hands, they passed on to them the gift of the Spirit which they themselves had received from Christ, thereby conferring the fullness of the Sacrament of Orders. In order to perpetuate this apostolic ministry from one generation to the next, the Twelve chose other men to share in their work. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was sent by the Father to redeem the human race, in turn sent the Twelve Apostles into the world so that, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, they might proclaim the Gospel to all peoples and unite them under one Shepherd, and that they might sanctify them and guide them to salvation. Let us consider carefully the great ecclesial responsibility to which these brothers of ours are being raised.
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