Dear Friends,
With all the stuff about priests this last week, I think I need to explain a little. Back in the spring of last year, the Holy Father inaugurated the Year For Priests. Notice, it is FOR priests, not OF priests. It was not his intention for the priest to be set on a pedestal, or framed for attention and devotion. The reason for the year was to ask the worldwide church to pray for her priests – pray for them, not honor them, pray for their faithfulness, that they would be faithful to their promises and vows, pray for their holiness, that they would seek to deepen it everyday, pray for their surrender, to the will of God for them in all circumstances, and pray for their service, that they be more like Jesus, one Who came to serve, and not to be served.
In these last decades, in all sorts of circumstances and situations, we all have seen many instances where priests have failed in faithfulness, holiness, surrender and service. Some are too painful to recall, remember or recount. After the Holy Father inaugurated the year, the Archdiocese asked that each parish, in some very concrete way, implement a way to pray for priests. Here, at Mount Carmel, a group of parishioners came to me, totally on their own, with some ideas. Reluctant as I am for the spotlight (and I hope you know this), I could not ignore their interest and good will. They went to considerable effort to put the prayer for priests in the Breaking Bread, and to put together the Evening Prayer Service of last Tuesday and for that I am grateful, although such attention would not be my style. But in the long run, all of us priests do need your prayers precisely for the virtues the Holy Father makes the center of his particular concern for the priests of the world. Thank you for praying for us. I pray that it works. And thank you to all who planned and participated in the Prayer service. It was a beautiful moving moment of prayer. On behalf of all of the priests, we were deeply touched by your genuine care for us, to present us to the Lord for His blessings and graces which we need to continue serving Him through our service to you. It was truly a special moment for us.
On another note, I don’t want this opportunity to pass by without saying a word about a service the parish is conducting this Wednesday evening – our Advent Service of Reconciliation, our bi-annual penance service with the opportunity for individual confessions. I know that each and every one of us makes mistakes. Sometime we like to excuse them. Sometimes we like to deny them. Sometimes we like to hide them. Sometimes we try to forget them. But I’m sure that there are many times they keep gnawing away, coming back to haunt us at the most unexpected moments, until we own up to them and do something about them. But it need not be that way with our sins. God has given us the perfect vehicle for peace – of mind, and heart and conscience, the Sacrament of Penance. In it, we both confront ourselves and experience in a concrete way, through the action of the priest, himself a sinner, as I have noted above, the healing touch of the forgiving Jesus. No need to carry things around with us, no need for baggage, which might be so old the handles are coming off. No need to hope God understands and has forgiven us but… No need to hide from ourselves the fact that we’re not saints or to pretend that we really don’t care what we do, who we hurt, or how selfish we may have been. Confrontation with ourselves is the best way to breathe free. Try it again, even after ten or fifteen years, or longer. The priest won’t get mad, God won’t get mad. God will, as the first reading of today’s Mass says, “rejoice over you with gladness, and renew you in his love.”
Hope to see you all on Wednesday at 7:30.
God Bless,
Fr. Ron
