My parents had our pastor(s) over nearly once a month when we were younger. It was sooooooooo much fun and really awesome to be able to get to know each priest as an individual person. They would play kickball, hide and seek, checkers, squirt guns, sing with us, etc. (Most of the younger, associate pastors, that is.
) They would answer questions, everything from “do you sleep in your clerics?!?!” to “do you ever wish you were married?” Granted, we were young kids, and they were very patient with us.
When I went off to college, it happened that the chaplain of my university’s Catholic campus center was a priest who had previously been assigned to my parish a few years prior. We reconnected, and he ended up hiring me for an outreach ministry position. Around my birthday, I received an “invitation” in the mail for “dinner at the rectory” and was asked to bring 4 of my friends, too. He said it was to “pay me back” for all the years I spent peeling carrots, cutting up potatoes, etc., to help Mom before one of the priests would come over for dinner.
He made a lovely meal (rosemary chicken, fresh green beans and carrots, homemade rolls, a fruit crisp) and the friends I brought along (3 of which were Catholic, 1 Baptist) didn’t stop talking about how much fun it was to get to know him, AND how great his culinary skills were!
I think it’s a wonderful idea to invite your priest over!
Each priest has always ended up telling my mother how great it is to feel “part of a family.” I think many priests sometimes feel a little lonely, especially if they are far away from their family of origin–they take part in all the wonderful sacraments right along side of all of us, then go home alone…after a baptism, a wedding, etc.
Something else my parents do, as they only priests over for dinner several times a year and no longer once a month–is go OUT for dinner and drinks with their pastor almost every other week. They pick him up, ask him to choose a restaruant and then spend a nice evening together. The pastor at my parents’ parish has been there for years, so they know each other very well and have a great time together. It’s being rumored that this might be his last year, so my parents are a little sad about that, but happy they have gotten to know and love their priest so well!
