Material Possessions in the Priesthood

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Gizmo said:
Thanks for insinuating that the poster could have meant an impure website. But then again it would be wrong if I visited something like that every day or just once a month - so I doubt that was the person’s intention.

The question here is more of what type of material possessions are alright to have (especially as a priest) and whether there can exist an appropriate use of them without having them become a part of your daily life. I went into more detail about specifics in the first post.

But thanks for your … advice?

Peace
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To set the record straight, both puzzleannie and I have been here since the beginning of this website and I can say definitely for myself and will assume for puzzleannie based on her post count, that we both visit (hafta visit) this website (CAF) not just every day but several times a day. It was just a little old-timer insider joke.

Betsy
 
Gizmo said:
As a member of the laity how would you feel about your priest if you knew that in his free time he watched movies or played video games rather than spending an adequate amount of time in prayer and in further studies or spiritual reading. … I am just stuck on what type of hobby a priest should allow himself to have.
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As a member of the laity, I might be a bit uncomfortable if my parish priest were heavily into video games or any other solitary form of entertainment. I would want him to be engaged with his own friends during his leisure time, giving and receiving support and friendship. Perhaps golf or fishing? I know a couple of priests and a bishop who have been going on a weekly fishing trip for many years. It’s working out for them really well. (Well, actually the bishop doesn’t get to go very often any more now that he’s moved far away, but you get the idea.)

Betsy
 
baltobetsy said:
As a member of the laity, I might be a bit uncomfortable if my parish priest were heavily into video games or any other solitary form of entertainment. I would want him to be engaged with his own friends during his leisure time, giving and receiving support and friendship. Perhaps golf or fishing? I know a couple of priests and a bishop who have been going on a weekly fishing trip for many years. It’s working out for them really well. (Well, actually the bishop doesn’t get to go very often any more now that he’s moved far away, but you get the idea.)

Betsy
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Betsy brings up some excellent suggestions for you, Gizmo. Sporting hobbies, etc. I agree with her. I too, would find it a bit unsettling to discover that our parish priests were sitting in front of a game system in their free time… battling fake demons and monsters (I’m basing this on the games my nephew plays). There are too many of the real ones in the world for our priests to worry about.

But of course, priests are human too… and they need to have recreation and interests to follow in their spare time. Remember our late Holy Father John Paul II… was an enthusiastic outdoorsman. He would take the youth group of his parish… and they would all hike into the mountains where they would go boating or skiing. I know that one of the priests in our parish is an avid tennis player, too. There are so many others I can think of. The arts, music… etc.

I know this is probably a rough thing for you. Did you mentioned your age? For many people under 30, video games are a way of life. They don’t remember a time without them. But there are surely many other forms of healthy recreation that a young priest (or deacon) can find out there. I just personally feel that video games can be somewhat dangerous… due to the subject matter of many of them. Even those that might seem relatively harmless… can sometimes have evil overtones. The devil often uses subtle measures to hook us in. So… I would repeat… please be very careful. I’m praying for you, and all priests and deacons. And thank you, for keeping us in your prayers. God bless.
 
Limit youself to only playing it with other people. It is a good way to connect to some younger people. As a young priest you should use that. But dont fiddle your time away on it alone. Maybe donate it to the first church you are perminatly assigned to. You can use it with the youth group there. Remeber if a priest spends all his time hiking by himself, he is equally distant to his congregation. If he spends all his time on a boat by himself he is equally distant. Granted you need time away, and you should take it, but it should not dominate your time, and it should not take away from your ministry. If you keep the system make sure the games are not ones that would hurt your spiritual life. A priest playing grand theft auto :eek: would be a bad thing, and a bad example. Again, you have to look at how having this would affect you. Some priests could have a game system and be completly fine, and fully devoted to their ministry, others could not. So you need to look within yourself and decide if it will be a positive, neutral or negative influence on your ministry?
 
MarieVeronica said:
I know this is probably a rough thing for you. Did you mentioned your age? For many people under 30, video games are a way of life. They don’t remember a time without them.
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Actually, I am 30. I also am one of those people that does not remember a time without a system. As a kid I grew up playing the Atari, then moved to the Sega Genesis, then to all the Nintendo’s (minus the Wii), then the original X-box to now the PS3. This is why this is such a tough decision to make; whether I moderate myself in the amount of time I play it or sell the thing. I am half tempted to do neither and just box it up so that it is no longer a distraction and then make up my mind when I get into the parish.

So, I don’t know. I am gonna keep praying about this. Thanks for the help.
 
Actually I was thinking - maybe this will turn into another thread - of how much time does one make for oneself in order to have an adequate spiritual life. Does anyone who plays video games on a regular basis find that they have become successful or unsuccessful in maintaining a healthy prayer life?
 
Gizmo said:
Actually I was thinking - maybe this will turn into another thread - of how much time does one make for oneself in order to have an adequate spiritual life. Does anyone who plays video games on a regular basis find that they have become successful or unsuccessful in maintaining a healthy prayer life?
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We discipline ourselves by spending more time praying and doing other devotional practices, but there is no such amount being set to have an adequate spiritual life.

Whatever you do, if you do through Jesus, in Jesus, with Jesus, and for Jesus, then you are in union with Him. Then, I believe you could consider your spiritual life is adequate.

If a sick person lying on bed for years, doing little praying but offering up every bit of his breath, his pain and his trust to God, he might do a lot better than me trying to read so many spiritual books or pray so many Rosary and not practicing my faith faithfully.
 
I don’t feel entirely comfortable giving advice to a transitional deacon. I’m a little bit farther down the ladder than that.

I think the safe assumption is all things in moderation. I don’t play video games myself. They give me terrible headaches. Pounding, migraine type headaches. However, I probably have other things that occupy way too much of my time. Prayer is essential, but so is recreation.
 
Seminarian_X said:
Of course. I’m blessed to know a few holy people who actually consider prayer a form of recreation.

I haven’t reached that point yet. :o
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Or is it the case that they have chosen not to have all the distractions of TV or games to get in their way so that in their free time (the time where people like me sometimes play video games) they literally have free time to pray - a time that is free from distractions? That possibly they don’t see it as recreation but the time we would use to recreate - they are praying?

That is where my conscience keeps eating at me - that I am in no way wise about my free time. But I guess that is why the good Lord has our conscience bug us at these times - so we can put ourselves in check.
 
Gizmo said:
Or is it the case that they have chosen not to have all the distractions of TV or games to get in their way so that in their free time (the time where people like me sometimes play video games) they literally have free time to pray - a time that is free from distractions? That possibly they don’t see it as recreation but the time we would use to recreate - they are praying?

That is where my conscience keeps eating at me - that I am in no way wise about my free time. But I guess that is why the good Lord has our conscience bug us at these times - so we can put ourselves in check.
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I’m sure that’s all true. But these people seem to genuinely enjoy prayer and actually look forward to it.

I’ll be honest here. I don’t enjoy prayer. Not even a little bit. I have to force myself to pray. And I do it because I know it’s good for me. Which has led me to some serious doubts. I mean, if I don’t even like to pray, how can I say that I love God with my whole heart, soul and mind? And if I don’t, what am I doing here anyway?

Which brings me back to your problem. God knows that we need leisure time. That’s the way he made us. But, if your conscience is bothering you, this may indeed be something you need to look at. I can’t imagine that spending a few hours a week playing video games is too bad. Just my opinion.
 
Seminarian_X said:
God knows that we need leisure time. That’s the way he made us.
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Sure we need leisure. I just guess my concern is what types of leisure are typical of a priest. I know that I could play video games every night during the week without it ever phasing (sp?) me. Maybe I am just being too concerned but at the same time I can’t ignore what my conscience keeps eating at.

I’ll say a prayer about you’re prayers - don’t get down about that, we all hit dry moments in our prayer life. Keep persevering.
 
MarieVeronica said:
I too, would find it a bit unsettling to discover that our parish priests were sitting in front of a game system in their free time… battling fake demons and monsters (I’m basing this on the games my nephew plays). There are too many of the real ones in the world for our priests to worry about.
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I want to thank you for saying this in your post. This was one of the things that was making me uncomfortable; that I was spending a lot of time battling the forces of evil in my video games and I found myself spending little time and effort fighting the fight that really matters. My spiritual director said something very similar.

As a future priest I have decided that I don’t want to be stuck living in those electronic alternate realities anymore. To do justice to the souls that God will put in my care I have decided to sell my PS3 - in fact it is already sold. I have come to the decision that playing video games has become a huge hindrance to me in fulfilling the responsibilities that I have and that I would rather know (in the future) that, as a priest, I am giving the people of God the service and dedication that is due to them.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread.
 
I can only speak from the experiances I’ve had with the priests who had material possesions and the ones who had not. My experiance has been that the ones who had alot of things were generally focused on material goods and wealth in the parish, and the ones who were poor were focesed on the spiritual goods of the parish. of course you need your own hobbies and relaxation time, but two roads seem to be diverging here. you may not want to take a vow of poverty, but it may help to make a conscience effort to practice it. try not to be pampered by parish life. alot of parishes i’ve seen have maids and cooks for the priests, and that seems to pull them out of touch with the “ordinary man”. St. Benedict was the one who coined, “ora et labora” and I think he was right.
 
Gizmo said:
Sure we need leisure. I just guess my concern is what types of leisure are typical of a priest. I know that I could play video games every night during the week without it ever phasing (sp?) me. Maybe I am just being too concerned but at the same time I can’t ignore what my conscience keeps eating at. QUOTE]

PS. if your conscience is bothering you then you should follow it. A better option to having a gaming system in your room is to have one in the parish youth group. it will give you an outlet for ministry that way, since most kids are plugged into this stuff nonstop anyways. my brother and mother and wife are all youth ministers, and you can get great results and build community this way.
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