Why are priests always in a hurry?

[jameslasner]

I’m almost never on this forum and don’t know what is going on, I’m just asking an innocent question.

 

[CradleCath]

Praying the Liturgy of the Hours is what I had in mind when I asked this question. I thought that maybe prayer might be one of the reasons.

Thanks to all for answering my question! I really didn’t mean to offend anyone and sorry if I did but I thought I was asking an honest question. I’m not trying to put down priests. I see where I could have asked this question in a better way. I live and I learn.

My parish is small and Father is the only priest there. We had some guests priests and they have left right after Mass also. It is not a big deal, really. I was just asking and thought this was a good place to ask. I do not want to ask Father and make him feel guilty or anything because he’s not doing anything wrong! Just asking out of curiosity here.

As I said, my parish is small, and so I go to the Cathedral for RCIA. My DRE told me to ask Father about the Rite of Acceptance, and she told me this three weeks ago! I still haven’t gotten around to asking him and I was going to ask him after Sunday mass but he left.

I knew that priests are busy and hard working but never realized just how busy. My lesson learned! I’ll just make an appoinment because I believe this will need more than a few minutes to address and I will respect his time.

I don’t know him very well and I’m not sure what kind of order he is but I do know that we have a lot of people who are listed in the church bulletin who are sick, so he more than likely brings them the Eucharist.

Again, thanks to all that answered and for opening my eyes to just how busy and dedicated our wonderful priests are.

I learn something new everyday!

I think you’re doing just fine & that your’s was a legitimate question. I belonged, for 20+ yrs. to a parish with a pastor who was just like your’s. He didn’t process out of Mass & stand & visit. IMO., he simply wasn’t a “people person”, but had many other virtues that offset that. I’d have rather had him praying for my intention than any priest I’ve met since that time. He was a very holy man & took some courageous actions, for that time period. He held a Catholic funeral Mass for a parishioner who’d committed suicide & made sure that she was buried in Catholic ground.

He was by nature, shy & reticent. I think that being a parish priest was hard for him & perhaps he’d have been better off, personally, in a Monastery. However, the Bishop appointed him to a parish & he did his job as faithfully as he could.

He told me once, that the biggest source of joy in his life was the praying of the Mass. The second was feeding the squirrels that lived in the yard of the rectory.

 

[Holly3278]

It is entirely possible that he goes to the local nursing home after Mass to give the Eucharist to the elderly and to give them the Anointing/Last Rites if needed. It is understandable why he might be in a rush to do something like that.

 

[JReducation]

I think you’re doing just fine & that your’s was a legitimate question. I belonged, for 20+ yrs. to a parish with a pastor who was just like your’s. He didn’t process out of Mass & stand & visit. IMO., he simply wasn’t a “people person”, but had many other virtues that offset that. I’d have rather had him praying for my intention than any priest I’ve met since that time. He was a very holy man & took some courageous actions, for that time period. He held a Catholic funeral Mass for a parishioner who’d committed suicide & made sure that she was buried in Catholic ground.

He was by nature, shy & reticent. I think that being a parish priest was hard for him & perhaps he’d have been better off, personally, in a Monastery. However, the Bishop appointed him to a parish & he did his job as faithfully as he could.

He told me once, that the biggest source of joy in his life was the praying of the Mass. The second was feeding the squirrels that lived in the yard of the rectory.

I think that you bring up another very valid point that we should add to our list of expectations that we should not place on priests. Never expect every man who is a priest to be gregarious. Some people are naturally shy and reserved. I have a son who is very funny and very enthusiastic when he’s with his sister and about four or five friends. With the rest of the world he’s very shy and bolts as soon as he’s finished doing whatever is going on. Some people are like that. They function better in small groups.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[pismopal]

When police officers are in a hurry it is always because they are “going for coffee”…or “if I did that I would get a ticket”…priests are doing their job and I thank God for them.

 

[CradleCath]

I think that you bring up another very valid point that we should add to our list of expectations that we should not place on priests. Never expect every man who is a priest to be gregarious. Some people are naturally shy and reserved. I have a son who is very funny and very enthusiastic when he’s with his sister and about four or five friends. With the rest of the world he’s very shy and bolts as soon as he’s finished doing whatever is going on. Some people are like that. They function better in small groups.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

Absolutely. We have to keep in mind that every priest is also a person & that every person has their special gifts. The priest that I spoke about…well, I firmly believe that his prayer life was such that he was a very holy man. I knew if he was praying for someone, God was listening VERY CAREFULLY.

 

[teeveem]

Well, I would like to add my two cents here. I was a parish secretary in a town with only one Catholic church (2 priests) with about 3,000 families. I think many people would be shocked at what the schedules of the priests I worked with looked like. It was incredibly crazy. I know many people always asked us about what they could possibly do all day long. Well, let me tell you…

Once they were up at 4:45am, it was nonstop until around 11pm (when many times they had their dinner, after having lunch at 12:45pm, even though lunch was at 12). It was very rare for the priests to use up their whole hour for themselves to just eat. They used their lunch hour, when the office was closed, to return phone calls. That is, if the 11:30 appointmet didn’t run long or if someone didn’t sneak in for a “quick word” or if there wasn’t an “emergency”-type of appointment scheduled for that time.

I only assume that the blank spaces between 11pm and 4:45am on their calendars were when they slept. Except, of course, during the times when they were called at 1am or so to the hospital or nursing home to see someone who was gravely ill, which happened regularly.

I’ll give you an idea of what you would see in the planner of my priests: morning mass, appointments with parishioners for spiritual guidance, marriage preparation, counseling, school issues, funeral planning, concerns about the mass, special planning for upcoming events, new ideas for parish events, sick calls, visiting the homebound, meetings related to the everyday workings of the parish (school board and school functions, parish functions, religious education for youth & children, RCIA, finance, faith communities, etc.), the list goes on and on and on. You have no idea how many times a day I would get calls from people that wanted to talk to a priest for “just one minute.” He wouldn’t sleep if we scheduled every “one minute” request. Luckily, there was a support staff that could answer most questions.

Then there are those people that feel “entitled” to take up the priest’s time, who just walked in and expected to talk to a priest just because. It sounds rude, but I don’t know how to describe these people. Perhaps because they have socialized with the priest or volunteer a lot and thus spend a lot of time at the parish or, well, I don’t know why – but, these people really made things difficult for us. They always expected special treatment or wanted us to reschedule other people’s appointments to accommodate them.

Now, we always made concessions for people in crisis (spiritual or otherwise). We understood that what seemed like a problem that could wait a few hours or days to us, probably felt like the end of the world to someone else. We always did what we could, even if it meant standing outside his door before he ran out through the backdoor for a meeting at the school or in the church or with the pastors from other town churches, etc.

Oh, wait, did I forget to mention that priests have relatives and family obligations, too? Yup, on occasion they would visit their parents or other relatives, perhaps even attend a birthday dinner. One even moved his father to the town because it was getting difficult finding the time to drive an hour one way to see him.

Perhaps my descriptions sound exaggerated, but they really are not. No regular person would be able to live such a life with so little personal time. I do pray for priests and nuns all the time. I saw them make so many sacrifices, that I know would be difficult for most. It always made upset when people would complain about the most mundane things or always find something to criticize. If they only knew.

So I am not at all surprised that the priest is always running. Sometimes that’s what they need to do in order to get to everything or everyone that needs or demands their attention. If they didn’t run, they would be working 24 hours a day.

Maybe you should drop off some cookies to him or mail/drop off a “hello” note so that on his next lunch hour when he’s returning calls or filling out paperwork or working on his homily or…he can take a minute to know that one of his parishioners was thinking of him and appreciates all his hard work and sacrifices. (And I mean that in a nice way because I know you were asking out of curiousity not because you were criticizing.)

(Maybe there should be a separate post about what the secretaries do all day…)

 

[puzzleannie]

If your priest is a religious, he must get back to his community ASAP. If he is a diocesan, his duties are over as soon as he finishes the mass. Th)

not true at least not here.
He may have on any given Sunday to take communion to the sick or those in prison, immediately after Mass often which is why he does not stop to chat.There are 7 jail facilities and 3 hospitals in our boundaries which the parish priests must respond to when the (part-time) chaplains are not available, and the on-call for that rotates.

Just looking at the 3 pastors of our surrounding parishes, their Sunday afternoons include besides this duty,
visiting the youth, young adult, campus ministry or confirmation gatherings, if not running those events. all 3 parishes have lifeteen, confirmation meetings or other youth events on Sunday
if they have diocesan responsibilities preparing for early Monday morning meetings
visits to the colonias for Mass, catechetical instruction or pastoral care
blessing homes and cars
attendance at civic, community and parish events, celebrations, fundraisers etc. to give benedictions or at least make an appearance
one them is also the chaplain for campus ministry so has extra Mass and functions there on Sunday evening

 

[JReducation]

not true at least not here.
He may have on any given Sunday to take communion to the sick or those in prison, immediately after Mass often which is why he does not stop to chat.There are 7 jail facilities and 3 hospitals in our boundaries which the parish priests must respond to when the (part-time) chaplains are not available, and the on-call for that rotates.

Just looking at the 3 pastors of our surrounding parishes, their Sunday afternoons include besides this duty,
visiting the youth, young adult, campus ministry or confirmation gatherings, if not running those events. all 3 parishes have lifeteen, confirmation meetings or other youth events on Sunday
if they have diocesan responsibilities preparing for early Monday morning meetings
visits to the colonias for Mass, catechetical instruction or pastoral care
blessing homes and cars
attendance at civic, community and parish events, celebrations, fundraisers etc. to give benedictions or at least make an appearance
one them is also the chaplain for campus ministry so has extra Mass and functions there on Sunday evening

You have a very unusual situation, because most parishes don’t have that many institutions attached to them or in their boundaries. This situation is special. The usual thing is for the committees and other ministries to be run by lay people or permanent deacons.

In parishes with religious, a lot is going to depend on what kind of religious they have. If they are monastic, they wouldn’t take on all those duties. They would delegate them to the laity. If they are clerks regular, then they usually adjust their schedules to fit all of this into their day. The difference is that communities that keep a monastic schedule cannot change their schedule. They can change the time that they pray Vespers from 4:30 to 6:00, as an example, but they cannot dispense with vespers. Everything has to come to a stop for the LOTH. The same it true for community recreation and community meals. These horariums can be adjusted at the local level, but these activities cannot be done away with. They are the essence of the conventual life. The conventual life is the means for the grace that the religious needs to serve the Church and to be in the Church.

Do you see what I mean?

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[yaHalyna]

I can see your honest innocent question.
I read in posts above (in my parish too), 1 priest for 3 churches with masses 1/2 hr apart and depening on how many people receive the Eucharist, how many people are in line for confession in the next church prior to mass, he can run late. (and then wouldn’t people talk more?)
But then too there are things we may not know:
maybe he got word of a person in a nursing home near death…
maybe he has a parishoner who is dangerously depressed…
There are so many things that it could be.

I used to attend daily mass before going to work & there was a priest there who enjoyed his title as “Father Speedy”. His mass was only 15 minutes! However, he made rounds in 3 hospitals and who knows how many nursing homes every single day and still spent time with the children in that parish grade school before their dismissal at 3:00.

 

[puzzleannie]

You have a very unusual situation, because most parishes don’t have that many institutions attached to them or in their boundaries. This situation is special. The usual thing is for the committees and other ministries to be run by lay people or permanent deacons.

actually it is not at all unusual in this diocese or the last 3 where I have worked, where most pastors have duties and commitments beyond their own parish, or are responsible for cluster parishes and/or missions, but simply run of the mill that unless a priest builds in some time off in his schedule he gets no rest at all. I simply cannot think of a pastor of my acquaintance who does not have multiple responsibilities beyond his own parish. A priest has to guard his time off jealously or risk health and spiritual consequences. Even some members of religious communities have assignments that keep them away from the community prayer life of their order, and from their communal monastery or convent, to the detriment of that life.

 

[JReducation]

actually it is not at all unusual in this diocese or the last 3 where I have worked, where most pastors have duties and commitments beyond their own parish, or are responsible for cluster parishes and/or missions, but simply run of the mill that unless a priest builds in some time off in his schedule he gets no rest at all. I simply cannot think of a pastor of my acquaintance who does not have multiple responsibilities beyond his own parish. A priest has to guard his time off jealously or risk health and spiritual consequences. Even some members of religious communities have assignments that keep them away from the community prayer life of their order, and from their communal monastery or convent, to the detriment of that life.

Bold is mine.

I know this happens. Superiors are trying very hard to consolidate houses so that no one has to be out or away on a regular basis. This has mean that some parishes had to merge. In some cases the superiors have pulled their men out of the parish and given them back to the bishops. I know that we have left about 300 parishes around the wrold to consolidate our guys or to serve in ministries that are more approriate for us.

A lot will also depend on what kind of religious community you have. Remember, the clerks have much more flexible community life than do monks and friars. Don’t assume that because they are religious, they are all the same kind. There are orders and congregations. There are monastic, mendicant and clerks. The demands and expectations are going to be very different and the penalties are different. Clerks do not get penalized for praying alone or even living alone. They continue to remain part of their community. Monks and mendicants can be penalized, depending on their rule. Some rules allow this only as extraordinary and others do not allow it ever. That’s going to vary. Some communities allow it for a period of time and then rotate their men so that no one is ever tied to this kind of situation forever. You must always refer to the constitutions and to the superior. Ultimately, it is the superior who is responsible for implementing the constitution.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF