I'm posting my prayer request to you, my blogger friends, to please pray for my very good and dear friend, Fr. G He needs special graces from Our Lady, as all our priests do. They need our prayers, NOT OUR CRITICISM. They do so much for us, the least we can do for them is lift them up in prayer, as a sacrifice for when we might be tempted to complain about them instead. That goes for anyone, really. We all fall short, but we can't let our priests come under such attack and not "hold up their arms" as did Aaron for Moses when he grew weary.
I will not let anyone within earshot criticize a priest and "get away with it" without a kind but firm rebuke from me any longer. We have to defend our priests and love them, not complain about them!
My heart broke in two for Father recently when we were talking at a restaurant. He poured out his heart, his frustration and all he had to do in ONE SUNDAY that made my jaw drop. I just wanted to cry for him. We shared much laughter, but I felt his frustration so deeply, it hurt me. It still does hurt and I'm going to hurt for him and pray for him that he'll find mercy and peace with Mary's mantle draped around him each night and morning to face all he as to face every day.
If we'd not been laughing that night at dinner, then we'd have been crying, the only other option, and being where we were, well, that would have made our nacho chips soggy and too salty.
The burden our priests bear for us in unimaginable! They truly do spend and consume themselves for souls! They have to bury parishioners one hour, and then marry a couple in a couple hours. Then go on communion calls, visit the sick, anoint the dying, run to meetings, get criticized for everything they do or don't do "right" according to some hyper-sensitive souls. The gamut of emotions he had to deal with is more than I face in a year! The crap is constant, as in non-stop.
If manly men, like Fr. G. get beat down, what the heck would women do? What they should do is stop clamoring to be priests, because frankly, they'd all stink at it. There's no way our nurturant womens' hearts/and tender pscyhes could withstand the onslaught of crap that our Priests have to deal with on a daily basis. My heart breaks for priests and seminarians who at times can assuage NO ONE in town it would seem.
And the next time someone chooses to criticize a priest for whatever reason, and they're near you, tell them to shut the pie hole and pray for the man. He's a Father, and shepherd, NOT a superman. He, too, gets hurt. Get a copy of the blue Pieta Prayer book and read about criticism of priests and take your gripe to the Lord...you might wanna duck and cover, but I bet you get whacked, because when a priest is criticized and slandered, Jesus is. Yeah. BIG OUCH!
Please pray for him, and pray every day for your priest.
Thank you.
PAX
susie
1 comment:
AMEN, Susie!!! Just the other day, I was talking with my history professor who also happens to be a Catholic. We were talking about how priests are the most under-appreciated people in society. We often times don't realize all they do for us and that their lives can be difficult too. Without them, we'd have no Mass and hence, no Eucharist. We'd have none of the other sacraments either. For me, though I'm sure there'd be someone else out there who could help me, I prefer to take my theological questions and issues to my priest. In fact, when I head back to school in two weeks, I'm probably going to miss Father more than I'll miss my family!!!
I would imagine being a priest is probably one of the hardest jobs in the world. I'd love to do it though. Being a female, however, I guess I'll have to settle for praying for them!!
I was touched when I was reading St. Therese's autobiography and she was talking about how since she can't be a priest, she decided to make it her job to pray for them. I think we'd all do well to do that.
I will keep Father G. in my prayers.
Post a Comment