Thank you Father!

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George_Waters

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It seems that the vast majority of threads here are airing complaints about their parish priest. I want to take a moment to mention some of the wonderful things our pastor does and to thank him for everything he does for his flock. He’ll never see this, but you will and God already has!

Thank you for always finding the time to hear a confession or to say a blessing regardless of the time, day or night. Thank you for trying your best to care for us, sometimes in spite of ourselves. Thank you for saying Mass and administering the sacraments for us and for always doing your best to care for Jesus’ sheep. Thank you Father! May God Bless you and all his priests!
 
Beautifully said! We have two absolutely terrific priests in my parish. After quite a few difficult years in our parish, we finally have a wonderful man as our pastor, and our associate pastor is also just great. They are truly holy men. I don’t think most of us ever thank our priests for all of the wonderful things they do for us.
 
Thank you Father for the admonition I didn’t want but needed.

Thank you Father for weathering it out in an unairconditioned, old, urban church - in all those vestments, or in an even hotter confessional.

Thank you Father for staying up so late to touch-up that really great sermon.

Thank you Father for encouraging me to pray the Rosary, to consecrate myself to Jesus through Mary and to read “My Daily Bread”.

Thank you Father for teaching me reverence and reserved-ness in Church by your example.

Thank you Father for teaching me to adore God simply because HE IS, rather than for what I want or need in petition.

Thank you Father for the beautiful, abuse-free liturgy which helped me to discover God in the Mass!

Thank you Father for chant and the sacred polyphony.

Thank you Father…for putting up with all of our quirks and ways so patiently.
 
I don’t have enough room to thank our Pastor for all that he does. We only have 500 words afterall. So I’ll hit the biggie…
Thank you Dearest Father for personally inviting my Protestant hubby to mass, including instructions on how to come up for a blessing (so he wouldn’t feel out of place). Thanks for sending the Scott Hahn books and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Because of your welcome, my hubby who had been discouraged with Western Religions (he said Eastern Religions are more thoughtful), was taken aback. He told me that he had never been personally invited to a church by anyone of authority. That invitation cause him to find a home with us. He joined the church last Easter.

God Bless you Father Ben!
 
Thank you Father for explaining convalidation to my husband and helping him to feel comfortable with it.

Thank you Father for patiently answering all of my questions when I returned to the church after a 26 year absence.

Thank you Father for hearing my general confession and giving me such good advice.
 
Thanks to all Priests everyday especially the ones that need our prayers more.
 
netmil(name removed by moderator) said:
I don’t have enough room to thank our Pastor for all that he does.
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Amen, Amen and Amen!

Thank you, Fr. Ben, for taking the time out of your amazingly busy schedule to meet with me and help me come to an understanding of what the Catholic Church really teaches, especially when every other priest I contacted in our city couldn’t be bothered even to return my messages.

Thank you for visiting my wife in the hospital after the birth of our baby, and before we had been received into the Church.

Thank you for discussing my concerns about RCIA with Deacon, and for attempting to root out the problems in the class.

Thank you for making accomodations for our confirmation, first Holy Communion and children’s baptisms that were considerate of the fact that our little ones have autism.

Thank you for boldly proclaiming the truths of the faith from the pulpit, every single day.

Thank you for your holiness in the confessional.

Thank you for chastising the folks who had unkind things to say about the behavior of our children that one Sunday night after 6:30 PM Holy Mass.

Thank you for comforting my anxiety-ridden daughter in the vestibule outside of the Holy Mass on All Saints Day. You have a gift for making scared little ones feel comfortable in your presence, as if Jesus Himself were the one giving them His Holy embrace. And thank you for making her love coming to church on Sunday!
 
Hey D!
We’d bust the server at that “ThankyouFather” site if the word got around at our parish about it! 😃
 
OK, so I am not staying on topic, but I want to share this. During the children’s offering a very young boy, somewhere around two, two and a half, ran up at the very tail end and tripped and fell. He proceeded to crawl up and put his money in the basket then picked himself up and ran back to his parent smiling. A lady behind me stated how horrible that was and that his parents should have walked up there in the first place, but at least done something once he fell. I told her that I thought his act was a wonderful example for us all. While selflessly giving he stumbled and fell, but he crawled forward so that he may give his gift to the Church and then he stood up and in good cheer excitedly ran back to his folks. I still think it was wonderful!
 
George_Waters said:
OK, so I am not staying on topic, but I want to share this. During the children’s offering a very young boy, somewhere around two, two and a half, ran up at the very tail end and tripped and fell. He proceeded to crawl up and put his money in the basket then picked himself up and ran back to his parent smiling. A lady behind me stated how horrible that was and that his parents should have walked up there in the first place, but at least done something once he fell. I told her that I thought his act was a wonderful example for us all. While selflessly giving he stumbled and fell, but he crawled forward so that he may give his gift to the Church and then he stood up and in good cheer excitedly ran back to his folks. I still think it was wonderful!
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Oh come ON! This was a tiny boy!
Did the woman herself have children? He didn’t stand and do a cha-cha on the altar, he fought to do what he was supose to do.

God Love him! And a prayer for the lady as well. May she see Christ in the actions of a child from now on.
 
Great thread.

Thank you thank you to two wonderful confessors - Fr Henryk (there must be something in the water in Poland - all the Polish priests I’ve known are awesome!) and Fr Pat. Always good advice, even when I don’t want to hear it.

And to the priest who heard my first confession in about 10 years when I reverted. Sadly I was too unobservant to catch his name. His hair must’ve been standing on end at some points :o but bless him for being good to me.

And to the numerous priests in my local area, who in spite of not being in good health make a committed effort to looking after us.
 
Ah, yes indeed. Let us thank our priests.

Thank you father, for hearing my confession, but should you really be advising me that condoms are OK?

Thank you father, for providing an evening Wednesday mass, but should that woman really be reading the gospel and delivering the homily?

Thank you father, for the excellent music during mass, but is “Over the Rainbow” really an appropriate offertory hymn?

Thank you father, for keeping the church so beautiful, but was it really necessary to take out the kneelers, the statues, and move the tabernacle out to the - wait, where did you move it?

Why, oh why, must so many people take things that are good and attach to them things that are bad?

OK, philosophical question: what is the difference between a nationalist and a patriot?

A nationalist says, “my country, right or wrong.”

A patriot says, “my country, right or wrong; when right, to be kept right, and when wrong, to be set right.”

I hear a lot of nationalists in this thread.

Speaking as a person who does complain often about liturgical abuses, I can say that I do so because I want them to stop. Some dioceses are so bad, that it is almost impossible to find an abuse-free Mass. I have looked from Romulus to Sterling Heights and I still haven’t found one. I complain because, according to Pope John Paul II, I have the right to an abuse-free Mass. He said so back in 1980 when he issued “Inaestimabile Donum.”

So, in sum, let us thank our priests for the good things they do, but let us not bury our heads in sand in the process. Credit where credit is due; correction where correction is due.

MT
 
MichiganTrumbul, was it really necessary to take an entirely positive thread and turn it into a negative?
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MichiganTrumbul:
OK, philosophical question: what is the difference between a nationalist and a patriot?

A nationalist says, “my country, right or wrong.”

A patriot says, “my country, right or wrong; when right, to be kept right, and when wrong, to be set right.”

I hear a lot of nationalists in this thread.
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Do you personally know everything about each priest and parish mentioned here that you feel justified in offering blanket criticisms?
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MichiganTrumbul:
Some dioceses are so bad, that it is almost impossible to find an abuse-free Mass. I have looked from Romulus to Sterling Heights and I still haven’t found one.
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Then you haven’t visited SS Cyril & Methodius in Sterling Heights, Assumption Grotto in Detroit, or the Tridentine Latin Mass at St. Josaphat, also in Detroit. And if you have, and still think the Masses offered at those parishes contain abuses, then I have no idea what to say to you.
 
It’s nice of all of you to tell the forum how great your priest is, but why not tell your priest what you told us? He needs to hear these words of appreciation. Now that Christmas is coming, this would be an especially appropriate time. Send him a Christmas card with a note in it saying what you just said here. He will have a very happy Christmas!
 
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