Words of priests which you have heard and which stay with you

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Rob2

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In 2007 I was at Mass for All Soul’s Day , the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed .

My mum had died in May of that year .

At the end of Mass , as he was leaving the sanctuary , the priest stopped , looked at us and said , " You can go home with joyful hearts . You have just given your departed loved ones the greatest gift you could have given them , the Sacrifice of Calvary , "

I doubt I’ll ever forget those words .
 
Once in confession I was telling the priest about being stressed out and overeating and how bad that was for me. I think I was actually feeling sorry for myself, expecting some sympathy, words of wisdom, appropriate penance, etc.

Now he was a sort of gruff and blunt and practical-minded older Irish priest and he just said to me, “Well, don’t do that!” I chuckled to myself, thinking, “Yeah, dummy, don’t do that!” Never forgot that one.
 
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I have several but I will just post two.

A few weeks after my mother died I went to All Souls Day Mass and the priest (same one who had done her funeral) said in his homily that it was a very holy thing, or very important thing, or very good thing ,or similar words (I forget the exact words) to pray for the dead. After that I decided to start praying for the Holy Souls again like I used to do as a child. It was a work of mercy I could do from anywhere, without needing to make an appointment. It’s now 3 years later and I’m still praying every day for the Holy Souls.

The same priest told me while we were meeting to plan Mom’s funeral that he didn’t understand why people went to Europe on pilgrimage. He said you can see beautiful churches right in the city were in, that they were sitting there empty. No need to go to Europe to see beautiful churches. Before that I used to just go to the couple of churches that were closest to me to get the Mass obligations out of the way. But after that conversation I started going around to all different churches for Mass, and realized he was right. You don’t need to go to Europe to have this experience, there are beautiful churches all over the place especially if you have a car and can drive to them.
 
Today, the Bishop Emeritus said

God dwells inside us. In each and everyone of us

think about that.
 
Some that have been important to me

“I’ll pray for her”- (when hearing within the context of the confessional that I had a suicidal friend)
“You know it (that God loves you) in your head but do you know it in your heart?” (said with a London accent, also within a confessional)
“Courage!” (said within a confessional)
(paraphrasing) “The saints didn’t live in a field where everything was pink (idiom in my country) but they loved regardless… the devil tricks us by making us believe that we can’t love in this particular circumstance and by making us believe that it is impossible to love or be loved by God in this circumstance (whatever “this” is)”
“We’re supposed to love (the verb) every single moment”
“God should be our all”
 
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Our retired priest returned to celebrate the Eucharist this morning .

In his homily he said , " Advent is a time to let God be God ."
 
One of my favourites is also one of my kid’s favourites. She heard it from me but I heard it from a priest in a homily. He said, “If Jesus is just a man, then just a man died on the cross and we’re not saved. If Jesus is just God, then nobody died on the cross, because God can’t die, and we’re not saved.” It was the best explanation I’ve ever heard as to why Jesus HAD to have two natures and why He IS fully human and fully divine.
 
“God is not a jerk.” said to someone scrupulous who was freaking out over whether they were going to Hell for some “sin.”
 
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Another one that I just remembered from my last confession before I kinda quit going for 18 years. At the time I was worrying about admission to a certain school. Priest said, “If God wants you in that school, He’ll put you there.”

I think it was in the same confession when I said I was really down on myself and felt like a failure that the priest said, “God doesn’t make junk.”

I wish I knew who that priest was so I could tell him I remembered all that for over 20 years including 18 not going to confession. Don’t have a clue who he was, he was some extra priest brought in at Christmas to help hear the huge number of confessions at the penance service for dopes like me who went like 1-2 times a year.
 
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In the mid 1960s a Jesuit priest who was a refugee from Lithuania settled in England .

He led a retreat I was on in 1964 .

Two sentences he said many times .

" In the East they are harsh and cruel and in the West they are soft and lewd . "

" The more you have , the more you want , and the less it gives . "
 
Once, our priest forgot that there would be Dismissal of the RCIA member at mass. The RCIA Director, trying to remind him, started waiving the Rites book in the air. Then, our priest said, “Oh, wait everyone, I think we’re going to sing something from the red book now.” 😎
 
You could send what you wrote to the diocese magazine and ask them to print it in the “Letter to the magazine” or whatever it could be called column. Maybe the priest who said those words to you will read it. Other priests will also understand how important it is that we are given a good meeting with Christ in the confessional.
 
Some very powerful , stunning , glorious , transforming words - - - - - - " I absolve you from your sins " .
 
Some favourite words of a Benedictine priest I knew .

" Once you have shared in the celebration of the Mass you have forfeited your right to complain . "
 
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I was struggling with an habitual sin, and it was one of several items in my confession. When I was finished he just said “About [that sin] - never give up” and absolved me.

Another favourite I heard in a homily: “God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called”
BoomBoomMancini said:
“God is not a jerk.” said to someone scrupulous who was freaking out over whether they were going to Hell for some “sin.”
Click to expand...
Love it! 😀
 
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" When he was suffering you weren’t here , but now that he is dead you have come."

Our parish priest on the day of the death of Pope Pius XII who died on 9th October 1959 , the month when our parish had “October Devotions” each night of the month .
 
On my first Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes in 1965 our bishop said at the opening Mass at the Grotto : " Here we are at the Gate of Heaven ."
 
My pastor was announcing that The Apostles Fast was approaching. This is one of four fasting periods in the Byzantine calendar. In the US, the Ruthenian bishops do not require a particular fasting discipline beyond Friday abstinence,but the penitential season is to be observed. Father announced it by saying, “These days, the fast is voluntary. But then again, so is our faith.”
 
The first class I took in my Master’s program was taught by a well respected diocesan priest. He said,
“Pray as you can, not as you can’t. What matters is that you pray.”
 
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