What's the Best Advice You've Received From a Priest?

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While I’m still going through RCIA (baptised Catholic) and have increased the time I’ve spent with the members of my parish and clergy, I would be interested in knowing what the longtime Catholics here would consider the best advice they’ve received from a priest. I hope this is in the correct forum. My apologies if it is not.
 
Paraphrased,

"The will must be trained and it is trained through mortification of the apetites"- Rev. Eduard Perrone, OCDS, Pastor Assumption Grotto, Detroit, Michigan.
Fr. Perrone is a 3rd order Carmelite, in addition to being a diocesan priest. He is the spiritual order of the secular Carmelite Community in which I have entered into formation. He gives talks every month, and several of his homilies have driven this point home in various ways, but that paraphrase sums it up. Apetites are attachments we have to things.

Much of what I have heard through 43 years, and before getting to Grotto was a lot of emphasis on love, mercy, community, peace, charity, etc. which is great, but to the exclusion of other equally important things.

Fr. Corapi summed it up perfectly in a talk he gave I heard on EWTN radio today. He said that for electrical current to run you need a positive and a negative. It won’t work with just a positive.

The negative is often missing today. I didn’t realize it until I heard him talk a few times and discuss it in confesssion. What are the “negatives”? Basically, the things that are more uncomfortable to talk about and for people to hear. That is: Mortification, sacrifice, judgdement, hell, sin, sacrifice, “offer it up” etc.

Christ died on a cross and after much persecution. Who was more innocent than our Lord. He showed us the path to holiness. It was not one of constant comfort seeking. Many come to Church to find comfort without giving thought that it is the Lord that they must “comfort”. I know, I was one of them, and I spent time around others with similar attitudes. This is the biggest reason, I believe why people don’t go to Church. They feel they can get just as much out of being at home reading scripture. This doesn’t take the kind of sacrifice to get up when you don’t feel like it, or to go out into bad weather, or to have to go at times when you’d rather be watching TV or resting after working all week. What greater time to offer up a small, personal sacrifice of getting up when we don’t want to than to go participate in the Greatest Sacrifice of all?

We were all born with the effects of original sin. This makes us prone to take the easy path, not fight the urge to stay in bed. It makes it easier to watch TV or stay on the computer for hours on end when you know time would better be spent spending time with family, spiritual reading, or doing a little house upkeep. It drives us to sometimes want the very best tasting coffee each and every day and the willingness to pay several dollars for the pleasure. Constantly giving ourselves what we want grows more fierce the more we give ourselves.

Mortification forces us to think, how would I feel if I “offered up” the sacrifice (for some intention - a sick person, a lonely person, and most of all, to accept His will in all things) of not having any coffee at all on a Friday, or drank the cheaper less better tasting coffee. Or, didn’t add sweetner if I normally like it sweet. Or said “no” to that piece of chocolate I’m craving. Mortification drives us to deny ourselves a favorite TV program or skipping computer time for a day or here and there. I will have control over my will, not my will over me. Mortification can be to use an old farm clock with no snooze on it, rather than allowing yourself to snooze 3 or 4 times, and using that little extra time to get in a rosary, mental prayer, or some other 10-15 minute devotion.

Mortification is about doing things you don’t want to do, and not doing things you do want to do. It aids us in training the will so that the will does not control us. It is not about saying “no” to certain food and drinks we really love for the sake of our health, but for our spiritual health.

When we can do this in the little things, it begins to affect our ability to say “no” to serious sin. Like a muscle, the will must be trained, and mortification is its exercise. It’s Catholicism’s hidden secret. And, it is so secret, you unfortunately will not hear the word in many, many parishes today. But you will find talk and explanations in the works of St. John of the Cross, his collected works.

Since learning this from him, and with reinforcement from the other priests in the parish and their encouragement to use mortification, I have made so many positive changes in a very short time. And, it is a real challenge at times. But there is true joy with the smallest of victories when done in the name of the Lord.
 
Our priest said in a homily that once a young man had come to him with a problem about how to handle his life. He wanted a rule of thumb to go by. Our priest told him:
  1. Go to Mass.
  2. Pray.
  3. Live a good life.
  4. and when you don’t, Go to confession.
 
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jpjd:
Our priest said in a homily that once a young man had come to him with a problem about how to handle his life. He wanted a rule of thumb to go by. Our priest told him:
  1. Go to Mass.
  2. Pray.
  3. Live a good life.
  4. and when you don’t, Go to confession.
Click to expand...
That’s cute :rotfl:
 
A great young priest recently told me in the confessional that I was too hard on myself.

I loved it.
 
The Jesuit priest who taught me Hebrew (Fr. Pacwa at Loyola) told us we had to get juicy with the language to speak it properly. (Hebrew, like Arabic, has some rather expectorant sounding consonants).

Pax,
Amy
 
a priest who was also a journalism professor at U of Detroit told me the way to be a writer is to write every day for an hour, and to read good books. I have seldom let a day go by without writing since then and writing has always been a factor in how I make my living, and in who I am.
 
My pastor told me last April (regarding my newfound enthusiasm for the faith), “Take baby steps.”

Another told me when I was having some doubts about myself, “Look at the Cross, and see Who is up there.” 🙂
 
The best advice I ever got from a priest was to be skeptical about the advice I get from priests… 😃
 
My best advice was the following:

If you are going to be a philosophy you will have to become a priest or marry a rich woman.

😃

God Bless,
Matt
 
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marty1818:
My best advice was the following:

If you are going to be a philosophy you will have to become a priest or marry a rich woman.

😃

God Bless,
Matt
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'Skip the esoterics. St. Joseph was a meat and potatos kind of guy." Serves me well, especially when I delude myself into thinking I am truly contemplative. 😃
 
How about this one, when I was so concerned about all the stuff I was going through at that time in my life…

“What makes you think you’re so darn special? Get a grip! Even Christ spent only 3 hours on the cross!”

That straightened me right up!
:o
 
Originally Posted by jpjd
*Our priest said in a homily that once a young man had come to him with a problem about how to handle his life. He wanted a rule of thumb to go by. Our priest told him:
  1. Go to Mass.
  2. Pray.
  3. Live a good life.
  4. and when you don’t, Go to confession.*
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Lux_et_veritas:
That’s cute :rotfl:
Click to expand...
I’m sorry you think that is “cute.” I think it’s profound.

If you read the Catechism of the Catholic Church, you will notice that the priest has boiled the parts of the Catechism into their basic essence:

Part 1 of the Catechism deals with the profession of the faith. The priest’s advice itself allows the young man to profess his faith.

Part 2 of the Catechism deals with sacramental life. The sacraments Catholics partake of on a repeating basis are Eucharist and Confession, both mentioned in the priest’s advice.

Part 3 of the Catechism deals with moral obligations. The priest’s advice tells the young man to live a good live.

Part 4 of the Catechism deals with prayer. The priest advice tells the young man to pray.

Not to pick on you, but this just illustrates what I’ve thought for so long about many people on this forum: they can’t see the forest for the trees. There is so much preoccupation with minutia, that they can’t see the big picture.

What difference does it make, for example, if we receive on the tongue or the hand, or hold hands or use the Oran’s position. To the family struggling to make ends meet, the lonely widow, the abused child, it certainly doesn’t make any difference. The big picture is: what have you done for our fellow humans today? How have you served the Lord?
 
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jpjd:
Originally Posted by jpjd
*Our priest said in a homily that once a young man had come to him with a problem about how to handle his life. He wanted a rule of thumb to go by. Our priest told him:
  1. Go to Mass.
  2. Pray.
  3. Live a good life.
  4. and when you don’t, Go to confession.*
I’m sorry you think that is “cute.” I think it’s profound.

If you read the Catechism of the Catholic Church, you will notice that the priest has boiled the parts of the Catechism into their basic essence:

Part 1 of the Catechism deals with the profession of the faith. The priest’s advice itself allows the young man to profess his faith.

Part 2 of the Catechism deals with sacramental life. The sacraments Catholics partake of on a repeating basis are Eucharist and Confession, both mentioned in the priest’s advice.

Part 3 of the Catechism deals with moral obligations. The priest’s advice tells the young man to live a good live.

Part 4 of the Catechism deals with prayer. The priest advice tells the young man to pray.

Not to pick on you, but this just illustrates what I’ve thought for so long about many people on this forum: they can’t see the forest for the trees. There is so much preoccupation with minutia, that they can’t see the big picture.

What difference does it make, for example, if we receive on the tongue or the hand, or hold hands or use the Oran’s position. To the family struggling to make ends meet, the lonely widow, the abused child, it certainly doesn’t make any difference. The big picture is: what have you done for our fellow humans today? How have you served the Lord?
Click to expand...
Wow, what an overreaction to my statement. My statement was a positive one, not one that would make light of it. What I especially liked was at the end how the priest encouraged confession. It was “cute” because it was very simple. The most simple statements can be highly profound. I apologize if it came across as poking fun. I had actually chuckled at the simplicity of it, hence the laughing smiley.

And, it is truly a shame that the whole liturgical baggage had to be brought in. This was just unnecessary and inflammatory so I’m not even going to contribute to its escalation and I hope no one else does. That statement was a nice way to invite thread drift. Your argument about “what have you done for the Lord today” is also a sad commentary. There are contemplatives in this world, whose primary job in life is prayer - prayer for others. The work they do for the Lord is not visible, therefore, how can you judge those whom you do not see at work? By their words here? I suppose if you really want to discuss that issue, it would be best to start a new thread.
 
I will make one response, then post no more here so as not to get off-topic. Contemplatives do serve the Lord by their prayer. I’m frustrated on this forum by the threads of nitpicking complaints that in no way serve the Lord. But you’re right, that is another thread for another time.
 
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jpjd:
I will make one response, then post no more here so as not to get off-topic. Contemplatives do serve the Lord by their prayer. I’m frustrated on this forum by the threads of nitpicking complaints that in no way serve the Lord. But you’re right, that is another thread for another time.
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Silence is one of the best gifts a contemplative has, wouldn’t you agree? that is why Our Lady of Solitude is so frequently held up as a model. 😃
 
Best advice, in confession, God forgives you, trust in His love and forgive yourself.
 
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Lux_et_veritas:
That’s cute :rotfl:
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That was my same reaction too. Yes its profound and very true, but still cute. 😉 Lighten up jp! 😛

Back to the topic at hand, a priest once told me to “chill out” when I was being scrupulous. Just those two little words helped me to keep things in perspective. 😉
mary bobo:
Best advice, in confession, God forgives you, trust in His love and forgive yourself.
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Very good advice!
 
From a cd by Father Larry Richards: You should desire going to Mass more than anything else in your life. If you don’t, pray for that desire.
 
During spiritual direction, I got this advice:

“There are two ways to get to heaven: the hard way, and the easy way. The hard way is to live a good and holy life for 80+ years, and the easy way is to have a really bad couple of hours.”

Yours in Christ,
Thursday
 
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