Wednesday, April 20, 2011

To be a priest

I'm slowing down in preparation for Holy Week, focusing on Jesus.

Holy Thursday celebrates Jesus' institution of both the Eucharist and the ministerial priesthood at the Last Supper.

I love our priests. I mean, I really love our priests.

In the vocations video below, nine men from a Long Island diocese answer seven questions about the priesthood:




God bless our priests, who sacrifice their whole lives as an offering for us! Let us never forget to thank them and pray for them!

20 comments:

  1. Thank you for this. I respect and love the priests too. They work so hard. Yes, God bless our priests! Happy Easter. :-)

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  2. Amen! We LOVE our priests too. It's such an amazing brotherhood. Happy Easter if we don't "hear" from you again :)

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  3. Love our priests here, too.

    -Nubby

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  4. Great video! And if anyone hasn't seen the USCCB's "Fishers of Men" video, watch it! This is part 1 of 2:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqtOvt7d490

    After we showed it to our youth group, I had one boy tell me that for a solid month afterwards all he could think was, "I'll either be a priest or a fighter pilot." He's still discerning. :)

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  5. Fishers of Men is also created by Grassroots Films, a group of young Catholic men in the Bronx who do amazing work - also produced The Human Experience - both worth seeing.
    Thanks for the reminder LCB... was just wanting to drop my own pastor a note of encouragement - this time of year can be particularly demanding, and if these priests aren't getting the support and rest they need, the cross can seem truly overwhelming.

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  6. Excellent! I watched with a couple of my kids. God bless! +JMJ+

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  7. Amen!!!! There's a priest in our life that we need to say extra prayers for!

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  8. This is great! I also LOVE the Ordination video from 2009 (I think) with Archbishop Dolan. It gives me a chills every.single.time.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ1UygBT7SE

    Perfect for Holy Week. :)

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  9. How beautiful!! Last night at the Chrism Mass at our diocese it was incredible to see all our holy priests and seminarians together. The Cathedral echoed with the boom of their "yes!" as they reaffirmed their priestly vocations.

    St Jean Vianney, pray for us!!

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  10. OOH! I know what I'm watching at my 2am pumping session tonight!

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  11. Love this! Thank you for sharing.

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  12. Dear Leila,
    I must say, this is shocking. I know nobody who resembles these men whatsoever within the Catholic Church. In fact, as I was going to sleep last night, I was reflecting upon the idea that, growing up, as well as right now, I really didn't and don't know devout, religious men who come across as somewhat normal.

    Even in my church, other than the pastor, most of the active men (and there are much fewer than the women)are somewhat eccentric in different ways.

    There was only one truly Catholic boy in my grade (all the rest gave it up the minute they could, and looked at you like you had three heads if you ever tried to have a religious or philosophical discussion). The one true Catholic was very nice but was not interested in me.

    So, I will say, from my experience, these men are utterly unique.

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  13. Mary, I won't expose your state on this forum, but I think you live in a state that is very liberal and full of dissenting Catholics.

    These types of priests are very normal to me. Praise God! Maybe you should move? :)

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  14. Thank you for sharing! I so enjoyed watching that! Priests are really amazing! They do SO much for us.

    Clara

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  15. Great post, we often (at least I do) forgot to thank our priest for the selfless work they do. We were SOOOO blessed with awesome priests in the past, and currently trying to get used to a couple, but they are all gifts :)

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  16. These types of priests are normal to me too. In 3 out of the 4 states/communities I've lived in, I've always had priests like this. Not to mention knowing many young, normal men (often friends from college and parishes) who are considering the priesthood.

    Mary-I'm sorry you haven't experienced it.

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  17. I'll be honest- when other Catholic moms say things like, "I hope my son grows up to be a priest or daughter/nun", my reaction has always been, "I sure hope mine don't!!!" for purely selfish reasons. I have such a hard time imagining my children making such a huge sacrifice (and I want grandchildren!).

    However, after having watched this video, I feel much more at peace with the idea of one of my children having a vocation for religious orders. These men all seem so joyful and strong and peaceful... clearly they are not "missing out" on life!

    Thanks for sharing this video, and happy Easter!

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  18. I found the the following Meditation of the Day for Holy Thursday in the Holy Week Magnificat. It was written by Francois Mauriac, who won the Nobel Prize in literature and is acknowledged as one of the greatest Roman Catholic writers of the twentieth century.

    People say that there is a scarcity of priests.  In truth, what an adorable mystery it is that there still are priests.  They no longer have any human advantage.  Celibacy, solitude, hatred very often, derision and, above all the indifference of a world in which there seems to be no longer room for them—such is the portion they have chosen.  They have no apparent power; their task sometimes seems to be centered about material things, identifying them, in the eyes of the masses, with the staffs of town halls and of funeral parlors.  A pagan atmosphere prevails all around them.  The people would laugh at their virtue if they believed in it, but they do not.  They are spied upon.  A thousand voices accuse those who fall.  As for the others, the great number, no one is surprised to see them toiling without any sort of recognition, without appreciable salary, bending over the bodies of the dying, or ambling about the parish…
    For centuries, since the first Holy Thursday, some men have chosen to become objects of hatred, without expecting any human consolation.  They have chosen to lose their lives because  once Someone made them the seemingly foolish promise:  “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it”. ...But if they did not find their joy even in this world, would they persevere?  “What are you going to do?” said Abbé Perreyve to Christ, the day before he was ordained.  “You are delivering yourself; you are abandoning yourself to me.  You surrender your body to me. I shall use it for my needs and for the needs of other souls...I shall touch you, I shall carry you, I shall handle you and you will allow me to do it; I shall place you on the lips of whom I will; you will never refuse…”  Indeed, priests, holy priests, are repaid by an immense love.

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  20. Thank you for your post. It is really good to see such thoughtful prayers.
    on-this-rock.blogspot.com
    Fr. Hollowell could use some prayers. He seems to be under a lot of pressure/attack because it talks about the difficult topics.

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