With Your Spirit

Remember when we once said, prior to 2011, "and also with you," when the Mass celebrant said, "The Lord be with you."  Now we respond with "and with your spirit."  With your spirit is not only closer to the original Latin, but it also makes more sense.

And also with you was merely a polite response, much like:
           How are you?
            Fine, how are you?

That what I thought.

But now, and with your spirit, we are respecting the priest's position as alter Christi.  The people are praying that the Holy Spirit guide this priest as the celebrant of the Holy Mass.  This is what the priest was ordained for, to be a priest for us now.

Think about this.  It's a big difference.

10 Priests to Pray For

Good Idea!    10 Priests to Pray For: August 4th marks the feast day of St. John Vianney, the saintly priest of Ars, and patron saint of parish priests.  This day affords us the opportunity to pause and pray for our priests.  Here are ten priests from your life you should pray for.

and prayers especially for Father Gordon MacRae.

The Charism of a Diocesan Priest

A charism is a talent one has.  It's something one finds easy to do.  Some call it a gift.  People join religious
orders because they feel called to work with that order's charism.  Franciscans work with the poor.  Carmelites pray contemplatively.  Dominicans preach.  Jesuits teach.  Get the idea?

What charism does a priest who works for a diocese have?  This was a question that Father Wally said he once had.  One day, as he looked over his congregation he saw:

• the family whose husband wasn't Catholic but came to Mass anyway
• a man who had cancer and only months to live
• a young lady who was struggling with alcoholism
• a teen who thought he had a vocation

Looking over his parishioners, he realized his charism.  He was to minister, or serve, the many different people, with their unique and different problems.  

The charism of a diocesan priest is to serve the people.

A Parish Priest's Life

Fr. Frank Campo

The author, Edwin O'Connor wrote The Edge of Sadness in the 1960's.  But it might have been written, today, even though some of the references are pre-Vatican II.  People are people and they always seem to wrestle with the same problems.  Father Hugh Kennedy, the main character might as well be your own pastor, now.

If you ever wondered what your parish priest’s life is like, you’ll get your answer in The Edge of Sadness, by Edwin O’Connor.  The major character is Father Hugh Kennedy, the pastor of an old, tired, and run-down parish.  Father Kennedy feels comfortable there.  It suits him.

Dinner with the Carmody’s, is the first time the reader meets the patriarch of this clan, Charlie.  Father Kennedy is one of the Carmody’s family.  His best friends growing up were John and Helen Carmody.  John is a fellow priest and still Hugh Kennedy’s best friend.  Like all families, Hugh and the Carmody’s lives are interwoven, and complicated.

We learn as we read that Hugh is a recovering alcoholic.  Everyone is rooting for him, yet watchful for slip ups.  Fr. Kennedy not only overcame his addiction, we see him mature as a priest.  He grows to love his parish, his vocation, and his present life. 

In The Edge of Sadness, the reader learns of not only Fr. Kennedy’s struggles, but other priests, as well.  Issues of the parish, pain-in-the-neck parishioners, the associate priests, and the competition among the clergy, the relationship between the bishop and his priests, and family pressures, are all met in this novel. 

Although the book’s date is 1961, it still seems current.  It is timeless because the faith is the same.  We still have priests that struggle and fall.  Catholics still support their priests and pray for them.  The support of love ones, and of course, that includes the family priest, is what our faith is all about.