What does it mean to be a priest?
I’m not sure I can accurately answer that yet. I know what I have learned to expect from this class, but I am sure there are many areas and nuances to situations that I will only come to know in the future. There may be wide categories that priests can be lumped into – liberal, conservative, traditional, etc – but every one of our priestly lives will be unique to us.
That being said I think that for me being a priest means that I am no longer living for myself as the primary motivating factor of my life. I will be first living for God, giving myself over to Him and allowing Him to work through me. Secondly I will be living for His people, all His people, primarily but not exclusively those in the Catholic Church. Then will come my children and myself.
To be an effective priest I will have to be out among the people
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There are only three instances of deep joy and sorrow in life a baptism, a wedding and a funeral. A priest is invited to be a part of each of these as nobody else can. We will deal with friends and families that we know well to complete strangers to us. His priesthood makes it possible for him to share in these times. Weddings and baptisms give us the opportunity to join in a joyful occasion. It is a great opportunity to catechize and evangelize but we have to remember that these times are not about a teaching God but a welcoming celebrating God.
Wakes and funerals bring the priest into someone’s dark and hurting time. Here the compassionate side of the priest is called for. The comfort a priest provides at this time can have far reaching impact. Telling them that their loved one shares in the hope of eternal life and that God so loves each of us that He will not let that relationship ever die can be a simple thing that will open someone’s door a
Saunders, William P. Straight Answers: Answers to 100 Questions about the Catholic Faith. Baltimore, MD: Cathedral Foundation, 1998. Print.
must stand up in my pulpit and meet so many eyes turned up to my as if
Lawrence S. Cunningham's The Catholic Faith: An Introduction is a difficult book to muster up a response to. One is tempted to quip "there it no there there,"although more accurately I would say that there is little there that inspires much more than an indifferent shrug in response. Perhaps the blame lay in the purpose of the book, which is set out first to not be "an encyclopedia of Catholic trivia" (Cunningham, 8). I was disappointed to read this, since while an explanation of the meaning of the different titles and offices in the Catholic hierarchy, or an explanation of the various vestments and ceremonies may be "trivia" to some, at least it is information. Had I spent my time with this book acquiring a knowledge of these facts, I could claim to have added something to my education, albeit maybe only some banalities, lacking in profundity. Instead, what does the book set out to be? Cunningham seeks to "provide an account, as fully as space allows, of the texture of the Catholic experience and the bases for that experience" (9). I have learned to be a little nervous on reading words like "texture" used in this way; usually the author is unintentionally trying to warn the critically-trained reader away. Doubly so with the word "experience," as in hackneyed phrases like "the African American Experience" or the "Gulf War Experience." Such writings have established that they do not wish do deal in facts, nor in reasoned argument to support their conclusions. They deal in "impressions," to complement the "textures" that they will be skimming the surface of. Their primary justification for their existence is that each person's "experience" is of value, and no one...
highlights the importance of the sacraments and the clergy, can be seen as a response on
Giving then what you have and not caring if you will not have it, they will feel that they are not alone and it will strengthen their hope to be alive. Human life is a gift that God give us and that no one has the right to take it away and that’s why all humans should take care of each other no matter your race, language, ethnicity and gender. We have to be sensitive to other people pain and only through experience it we can become a human
· Goodbye – this I when the Priest tells you to go and spread the word
In the book The New Guidebook for Pastors, James W. Bryant and Mac Brunson do a magnificent job of identifying and explaining the practical nuts and bolts that make a successful pastorate and a fruitful church.
as it could be done, tell them that their mother had passed away but that she never gave up
attributes and takes on attributes of a priest without sacrificing the natural human tendency to
simple as a hand to hold, or saying positive things to them to reassure them that it is for the better
Dying Catholic patients may request to see chaplains to receive one or some of the seven sacraments, instituted by Jesus Christ, that enable them to experience Christ’s presence. A dying Catholic can receive the sacrament of baptism, penance, or anointing of the sick (Catholic Truth Society, 4). For example, a priest can baptize dying babies and adults at the bedside; however, a baptized adult can perform the ceremony in emergency cases
It seems as though the future of chaplaincy is in the balance. Do chaplains move with the times, accept change and development, work towards professional status or do they maintain the status quo, remain important to the well-being of the whole community but fail to communicate this and risk extinction or at best compassionate tolerance? More than ever society demands that employees prove their value through research, audit and refining of practice chaplains are part of this! Alongside retaining their distinctive role as those who are accountable to their faith communities chaplains need to ensure they articulate their distinctive role as those who care for the spiritual. This involves time, energy and action and being in many roles simultaneously. It involves being prepared to assess and review practice and above all to change.
The Church was organised into a hierarchical system that sustained the Church’s stability and control over the people and lower clergy, by organising them into different groups. First there were the ordinary believers, the citizens of the kingdom who followed the Christian faith. Then there was the clergy, the members who devoted their lives to the church. Each group of the clergy was assigned specific functions by the clergy nobles to help run the Church competently. Amongst all the clergy associates, the Pope was at the top, he had the equivalent if not more power than the ruling monarch and was in charge of all political affairs and administered the clergy. He was able to dictate political laws and even comment on the Monarch’s decisions. Under the Pope, there were the bishops. The bishops directed church courts and managed cases correlated to the public such as marriage, wills and other public predicaments. Priests held religious services that consisted of sacraments, baptisms and the usual Sabbath services. The monks and nuns received manual labour that required helping clean the monasteries and assist the needy. Educated monks copied manuscripts of medieval and ancient knowledge in the Scriptorium. Finally...
Thomas suggests that this priestly life is metaphorically pictured in two distinct manners, one in the octave, the other in the sestet. Within the octave, Thomas believes that the chivalric terms suggest the first metaphorical picture: a religious man as a knight of Christ. He adds, further, that both the terminology and the picture itself have their source in the Jesuit handbook Spiritual Exercises.... ... middle of paper ...
Growing up, I was raised in a southern Baptist church setting. Every Sunday you were required to attend church which included going to Sunday school, first service, and second service. You were also required to be active in the church whether it be ushering or singing in the choir. For my foreign experience of worship I decided to attend a Catholic church. At first I was a bit skeptical about stepping outside of my background history of worship because I thought that attending a Catholic church may change some of my beliefs or practices. I will admit before my attendance to this Catholic Church I had negative thoughts and was determined that my paper would be only about negative experience that I had. Once I entered the church all of my negative thoughts were out of my mind. Prior to researching background information I really didn’t think that Catholics and Baptist had a lot in common, besides their belief in the faith of Jesus Christ. In my essay about my Catholic Church experience I will describe the physical setting of the church, tell you about the church service, and lastly tell