By Paul Dion, STL
You are reading this a day or two before Sunday, so you are being told now that this Sunday, October 26, has been designated "Priesthood Sunday" by the universal Catholic Church. And the "Burning Question" feature of your favorite Catholic magazine is jumping into the fray early.
Rest assured that you are going to hear at least one of the following from the pulpit when you sit back and turn your ears on:
a) It is important that we honor our priests and render homage to them.
b) There are few priests in the active ministry and this is a grave problem for the entire world. c) There will be pleas for prayers and sacrifices for more priests.
All three of these concepts are valid and true. As you read these lines you were nodding your head, "yes." There is more, but the priests themselves will refrain from saying them. Since we are a little removed from them, maybe we can bring up the subject to help one another through the concept of "Priesthood Sunday."
In the form of a question then, let's join together and put some thoughts on the table that reflect our attitude toward our priests.
What is a good priest?
How can we help the Church to maintain good priests?
How can we help the Church to develop more good priests?
Let's work at it together. By answering these questions with our opinions, we will be contributing to the forming of good attitudes in the priests and in the laity with and for whom they work. Let's do it.
We will forward the answers/suggestions to the bishop that you name at the end of your comment.
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I think that a good priest is one who has clearly established a relationship with Christ that reflects in his daily life. There severals ways this manifested namely: his attitude towards the people he meets (both strangers and regulars to his church), his commitment to his pastoral work, and above all his prayer life. Those for me are the qualities of a good priest.
ReplyDeleteDear Readers:
ReplyDeleteIt is the policy of ParishWorld.net to not post links in the comment section.
Paul Dion, STL
Theology Editor
A trad answers:
ReplyDelete1. A priest who celebrates the 1962 Mass of John XXIII
2. Novenas to St. John Vianney
3. Make sure they study the Summa Theologica in the Latin version
:-)
Seriously:
1. A priest who understands the nature of priesthood, and that is a man of sacrifice... A priest is a sacrificing priest, before he is a social worker.
2. We can help the Church to maintain good priests by praying for them, and respecting them, like the good ol days... Nowadays some parishoners would not think twice to give their priest a piece of their mind (what little of it there is, when all is said and done).
3. The Church needs to form their men well, good solid theology, philosophy, and psychology.
... and learning Latin won't hurt either.
AMDG,
Laurence Gonzaga