What is the hardest part of being a Priest

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You did say that at some of these funerals the only Catholic is the deceased, and from that I assumed you meant he knowingly gave communion to the non-Catholics gathered
 
JuanCarlos said:
According to canon law, this is neither gracious nor patient, it is disobediant. Only Catholics (and Orthodox) are permitted to receive Eucharist
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vocatio said:
Within there own rites.
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Please explain what “within there own rites” mean.

Orthodox are free to receive the Eucharist at any Catholic Eucharistic Liturgy. All the Church asks of them is to follow their own Church guidelines.
 
Further, any Catholic of any particular rite may receive the Eucharist at any of the Churches sui iuris in communion with Rome. For example, a Roman Catholic is free to receive communion at a Chaldean Catholic parish, and vice versa (provided one is properly prepared–through fasting and confession–according to the canonical norms of one’s Church).

God bless,

Chris
 
I vote we go back to the original topic please, although I’m interested in learning about who may receive and under which rites, I’d really like to have more dialogue on the religious life. Maybe start a new thread in the Liturgy and Sacraments forum? Thanks in advance!
 
Agreed. It’s easy to lose sight of the OP sometimes. Mea culpa!
 
JuanCarlos said:
You did say that at some of these funerals the only Catholic is the deceased, and from that I assumed you meant he knowingly gave communion to the non-Catholics gathered
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Sorry I got off this thread, I was not upfront I was in the back and did see him approach the one’s sitting in the reserved seats in the front 3 pews. I will ask his opinion and see what he believes and get back to you. I have been sick since a day after christmas and am feeling good today:thumbsup: Will be going to Mass this evening . 🙂

But I have been to other funerals and the other priest I know from these just serves whoever comesup, how can they not ? Are they suppose to ask everyone?

This is a common thing going on as far as I see but have not myself learned who is and who isn’t and the NON-C are very bold these days. Next time I will sit near the front and see exactly what is going on or will just ask someone tonight at Mass.

There are many non-practicing Catholics that recieve though.

I do know something else about the funeral but I don’t want to really gossip, and the priests really are in a dilemma as far as I understand.
 
FrCorey said:
**Not even intense training can prepare you for what you are getting into. don’t let me scare you thou, You will see and go thru things that nothing can prepare you for. God does things that may only make sence to him alone. When I was ordained in 2003, it was into a independent catholic group, and my first ministry was hospital work. 7th call I got was to give last rites to a newborn that only lived 16 mins. I was on a list the nurses would call when a patient requested a catholic priest. it was at 2:21 am and they called me because they couldn’t reach a RC priest who could come in. I grabbed my priest bag and was on my way. the mother wouldn’t let them take the baby away without last rites, so I had to hurry. I got there in 12 mins, performed the last rites and prayed with the family as she let them take it away. I stayed for hours with her praying. I cryed for days after this. none of my training or anything had prepared me for this. I prayed each of my hours with tears in my eyes asking God if this gets easier over time. he said no. he said he will always walk with me and be with me. I am not trying to scare anyone off. a priest needs to be a special person.
**
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Fr. Corey, I know you posted this last year. I just get into this thread and read what you said and my heart is so moved. God bless you Father, and God bless all the priests!

Yes, priests are special people. Being a priest is hard, period.
You must have a special call to walk the journey. I love priests, they are representatives of Christ. I do pray for priests, but not enough, I ought to pray more for them. We should love priests unconditionally like we love Jesus.

God bless!
 
vocatio said:
Fr. Corey, my wife, a new convert, constantly prays for priests. She says rosaries all the time for individual priests. I can empathise with your struggle. Tears run from my eyes constantly for things I don’t understand. You are added to my prayers for strength and guidance. I cry constantly at the loss of the number of children aborted in our country. I work among wolves, some former Catholics or non-practicing at least. If breaks my heart to see women reduced to nothing more than objects for sexual pleasure. We are a pathetic gender that despirately needs transformation.

I’m amazed that priests don’t complain about the laity in a much more severe way. It clearly shows that they are called to serve us, a broken people. Our Franciscan Friar pastor claims that we inspire him. That baffles me, because I’m one of them.

The last time I went to confession, a week and a half ago, I said that I felt like I was driving him crazy with my emails [tons of reflection going on after returning]. He insisted “NO! No! Not at all”. My dear sweet wife started this and I joined in with her. The man is amazingly spiritually rich. This must be unusual for a priest to hear our life stories as we journey…deeping our faith. This must be difficult or really neat for a preist. He never crosses the line. He’s somewhat well known for his intervention of protecting children in the “scandals” - highly over stated even though I was one of the teens - young adult that turned in a preditor - killing my vocation in my diocese. I did the right thing and ultimately paid the price. His order paid the price and he paid a severe price for his faithfulness to his vocation by protecting inocent children. My wife knows of many Protestant victims too. This is not predominantly a “catholic problem”. It is a human problem. Which brings up. How has the 'scandals" affected the priestly vocations?

If you looked up my posts, you’d see the reflective nature of my toughts and where I’m coming from. That’s why I’m on here, to write my thoughts out to figure out what’s happened and where I’m going. My wife’s family does not know of our conversion and she is not telling. This is a struggle for me because I see God calling our oldest boy for sure it seems. And he does not take this lightly. However, for charitable reasons he is obedient to his mother’s desire to withhold the information to avoid scandal in their Church. Her father was an elder in the church of Christ - they’re not eccumenical at all and would either begin proselytizing us or cut us off. Eventually, she will have to trust that God will take care of it.
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Welcome back I was a way for awhile also, am glad to be back and am horrified by some things going on in the Church.
I almost felt like leaving again:blush: but I am sticking it out. there are those who are really faithful to the magesterium and the Church, you just have to look hard. Where would I go the truth is here and Jesus has it through the Church of the apostles.
I pray God will take care of you both.
My families think I have gone off the deep end of the ocean.
But it is their problem internally . Our priest was very upset when the decision came down recently ( a month or so ago) about that priest being convicted of abuse. He told us at Mass that he had went to seminary with him and couldn’t believe what has happened, he said he doesn’t know what he is going to do. I was worried he was going to walk out. We need to show our priests that we really appreciate them. I pray for your family as well.
 
I kind of wanted to ressurect this thread for its original purpose, what do you think is the hardest part of being a priest?
 
A priest i know, when i asked him about the most difficult part of being a priest answered thus. he said he was about to enter in a church to attend a Station Mass for the RCIA, and he got a call to go and visit a dying woman and give her the sacraments. He didn’t get there in time and she died. The family basically accused him and the Church for neglecting her, as she had served the Church faithfully and had been let down when she was needy. The priest said he went terrible about it, but there was no way he could have got there.
 
Wow I have never even thought of it from that level before.
 
I can’t know this for sure since I’m not a priest, but from what I observe in my parish, it seems to me that the hardest part of being a priest is the demands on his time.

Everyone has some important meeting or phone call they HAVE to have with the priest. Everyone wants to shoot the breeze with him after Mass. He’s got meetings, sacramental prep, meetings, sick calls, meetings, reports to write, meetings, homily prep, and on and on. A day in the life of a busy priest…🙂
 
I can say that for me, it will probably be vists to the sick and elderly–hopefully i get over this though, I live in FL, retiment capital of the world:D . It just makes me so sad. At a funeral, you know that the person is headed somewhere better, but in the hospital bed, they are helpless, with no idea of what the next day or even hour will bring.
 
SenorSalsa said:
I can say that for me, it will probably be vists to the sick and elderly–hopefully i get over this though, I live in FL, retiment capital of the world:D . It just makes me so sad. At a funeral, you know that the person is headed somewhere better, but in the hospital bed, they are helpless, with no idea of what the next day or even hour will bring.
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I am assuming that you are not yet ordained. Have you done any CPE yet in your formation? My husband is a hospital chaplain and he finds his visits to the ill and dying most rewarding. He was anxious about it when he started thinking it would be depressing. Sometimes he does feel bad for the people but having someone to talk to about his feelings helps a lot and knowing that you are helping people spiritually makes it all worth it. Of course some people want nothing to do with him when he visits, but he has learned to deal with that and respect the person’s wishes and he simply prays for them when he leaves the room.
 
Joannm said:
I am assuming that you are not yet ordained. Have you done any CPE yet in your formation? My husband is a hospital chaplain and he finds his visits to the ill and dying most rewarding. He was anxious about it when he started thinking it would be depressing. Sometimes he does feel bad for the people but having someone to talk to about his feelings helps a lot and knowing that you are helping people spiritually makes it all worth it. Of course some people want nothing to do with him when he visits, but he has learned to deal with that and respect the person’s wishes and he simply prays for them when he leaves the room.
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im still a long way from being ordained. I graduate high school this month
 
At a faith formation class we were told by 2 priests that time was the major one for our priest and the lack of faith by the people was the major frustration for the guest priest… I was thinking AMEN!!! to that… if I was a priest I think I would be wanting to knock heads together sometimes.

SD
 
My priest told me when I asked him last Sunday the bureaucracy of the administrators and the pettiness they have was what is the hardest part of being a priest. Interesting…
 
I spoke with a priest on line and he said it was when he had consoled a woman and could not renew her to the church or her new marriage. I am speculating but I think she was divorced and then her ex became catholic so she wanted to reconcile and get married again in the Church. Wow, this was for me, as I was thinking of divorce and I gave it a couple years and with some counseling have decided to be more patient and with more understanding we are staying together or if worst does happen just separate for awhile, take some retreat time out, and don’t do anything too impulsive. The priest said there were so many hard feelings about it but they finally worked through it. I don’t know the canon law on it, but the Church wants us to take the Sacraments seriously, so it is best we proceed cautiously, and carefully. Priests have our souls best interest at heart. Bless you JL
This happened about 2 months ago and I am just getting back LOL.
Blessings!
 
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