I recently met our new Arch-Bishop and it was awesome! He is the most loving and warm man I have ever met, priest, religious or lay! He greets you with a hug and is very gracious and humble in all that he says and does. I cannot explain how much I love priests!
I know that there are some that don't do as they should, but there are people everywhere who do not do as they should. Any good priest will tell you that he is a sinner too and that he needs confession and the sacraments as much as the lay. Any good priest will serve the Church with humility and grace. But most of all will serve with love - Love for God and Love for neighbor.
A good priest will think this way because he knows that he is human too. No one is perfect except for Jesus. Priests are human and they make mistakes - some might be criminal too - but there are such people everywhere in this world...not just the Church.
Perhaps we think that a priest should be held to a higher standard because of his calling. Its funny how if a priest makes a mistake, such as possibly has an affair with a consenting adult, it is so scandalous and an outrage but if a married man does the same thing it is not such a big deal. Breaking a vow is wrong and both have erred, but through the love of Christ, both are offered forgiveness.
But I digress, I did not intend to post about priests except only to say that they need our love. They are human too and like anyone else, they have needs for community, for family and for friends. Don't see your priest as some abstract leader in your church - he is not a robot who comes in and consecrates the Eucharist and transports from place to place throughout the day. He is a flesh and blood man who has sacrificed his desires for a wife and children in order to serve the Children of God.
This position deserves respect, but moreover, he needs to be loved. Do not be afraid to invite your priest to dinner, to hug him as you leave Mass, to tell him how much you appreciate him, to send him a birthday card or a Christmas card. He is called father because he is our father in a spiritual sense and we ought to love him the way we love our own fathers. He is a priest because he stands as a representative of Christ Jesus, who loves the Church as a husband loves his wife (Ephesians 5:25). As the Church, we are called to love him as our spiritual husband.
So, I ask of you, love your priest. Show him you care, that his ministry is important, help him in his efforts to spread the love of God to the World starting with your parish and working its way outward to the local community. We were all created to be relational creatures, priests included. Next time you see yours, let him know he matters to you!
Common question-Why don't Priests get married:
"I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in both body and spirit. A married woman, on the other hand, is anxious about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. I am telling you this for your own benefit, not to impose a restraint upon you, but for the sake of propriety and adherence to the Lord without distraction" (1 Corinthians 7:32-35).
How could a priest be husband and father to his people if he is husband and father to hid own children. They would always be his first priority as a family ought to be. However, our priests can put their ministry as their first priority and truly dedicate their lives to God's service. He does not need to divide his prioroties.
As a lay woman who lives in the secular world but engages in Church ministry during my free time, I know that I could not do half the things I do if I were married and had children. My married friends are constantly having to balance their ministry with the needs of their families. Sure, I would like to marry someday, but as a single woman, I am so much more useful to my community because they are my priority. My ministry, my Love for God and my support of my priest is and will remain my number one priority.
I see myself as married to Christ and I honor that relationship the same way I would honor a marriage to a man. I support the Church, I support our priests and I support our mission. I truly see my parish priest as husband and father and I love him in the purest sense of the word.
Prayer for Vocations:
Loving God, You speak to us and nourish us through the life of this Church community. In the name of Jesus, we ask you to send your Spirit to us so that men and women among us, young and old, will respond to your call to service and leadership in the Church.
We pray especially, in our day, for those who hear your invitation to be a priest, sister, or brother. May those who are opening their hearts and minds to your call been couraged and strengthened through our enthusiasm in your service.
Amen
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