In about one month, the Church kicks off Her "Year of the Priest." As with any of our "Year of..." series, the focus will be on celebrating and - hopefully - strengthening the priesthood. I am sure that there will be many programs and parish resources made available to help schools, youth groups and parishioners celebrate well this year. The other day, I was talking with colleague in youth ministry, Scott Miller, about his thoughts for this year and how that will be expressed on his blog (I'll leave the full revelation of that to him for his readers). As for me, I have had some thoughts on the matter as well.What I would like to do here in my corner of the Blogosphere is to provide my own thoughts on the priesthood from my perspective. I don't want to push any agenda - except to give an insider view of this vocation that I love and try to live. What I would love to hear from you, dear reader, is what would you want to see in that regard? Want to know what priests do all day? Want to know what living celibacy is like? Do priests have "real lives," or are we just hatched in some ecclesiastical laboratory somewhere? Let me know. I promise to be honest and appropriate from my end.
And while you're at it, make sure to celebrate your priests too!
5 comments:
Dear Andrew,
That is definitely one of the points I will address (so I hope you can bear with me until June!). This is no small issue - and it really DOES matter, so I will say this now: loneliness is a part of the priesthood. It is not a huge part, unless you allow it to be, but it certainly underscores the value of friendship and, above all, a prayerful relationship with the Lord.
Keep up the discernment; God does not call us to anything He does not also give us the grace to accomplish!
Andrew while I know loneliness is indeed an issue for Religious Life. It is also apart of all vocations. You can be married and have a house full of kids and kaos and still feel alone. You can be confined to bed with an illness or left in a nursing home where you know no one and feel alone. There are so many callings in life that can be lonely. But in all the situations it is HOW you deal with it that makes the difference.
There are no guarantees in life. There are many people who marry only to have their spouse pass away. Young or old it leaves you feeling alone.
I am not sure we as humans can escape loneliness altogether. And of course we ultimately have our God as our comfort through any of these and countless other scenarios.
Of course only Father can answer about religious life but having been married for 20 years I can tell that while it is truly a wonderful vocation it can be a challenge just like any other vocation.
Praying for you and all who are hearing God's call.
God bless
Ok, here goes.
What do priests do during the week? Do they have daily schedules? How do they afford vacations (particularly overseas) and cars? How much vacation do they get? Do they have to live in rectories or can they live in private homes? Can they accept money from their families? Can they choose the career they want inside the priesthood? How do they decide which branch of the priesthood to join (not sure if “branch” is the correct term)? What improvements do they want to see made within the priesthood? What is their greatest challenge? What do they want to see more of (or less of) from parishioners? What annoys them most about lay people?
Thanks.
Wow, Mikki! That's a lot to comment on! Thank you! Those questions should be good for several posts, so stay tuned!
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