Priests: A Spiritual Fatherhood

priest, ordination, priests, Fr. Kapaun

Pixabay_PriestCollar

As we pause to give thanks today for our fathers, those with us and those who have gone before us, let us take a moment to thank our spiritual fathers, the priests in our parish and those who have made a positive impact on our lives. This article highlights three aspects of the spiritual fatherhood of the priesthood.

Priests Are Life-Givers

Being a father is purely a relational identity. A man cannot be a father without a child. Just as the existence of God the Father necessitates the existence of God the Son, so too, a man is only called a father when he has a child.

Similarly, we rightly call priests “fathers” for their spiritual fatherhood because they are spiritual fathers to the many souls entrusted to their care. Priests, as in persona Christi, are able to mediate the gift of eternal life. Priests are present at the beginning of our spiritual lives as the ordinary minister of Baptism, much like the father of any family. Through baptism, we have the Christ-life within us and are given a particular life in God.

This is also done in the role of a priest as confessor. In his power to offer absolution from sin, the priest is able to revive us when we are spiritually dead in sin. The priest is there to help reunite us to God, much like the father of a family helps settle disputes among family members. Like a father who listens to his child, a priests listens to his spiritual children, offering them counsel to live a virtuous life.

Finally, the priest is able to bring to us the Eucharist, the very “source and summit of the Christian life” (Lumen gentium, no. 11). Through reception of the Eucharist, we are fortified and strengthened and are united more closely to Christ. Without the priest, we could not have the very presence of Christ in the Eucharist. How sad that would be!

Priests Are Exemplars

I was a kid when the acronym “WWJD” started appearing everywhere: on bracelets, T-shirts, journal covers, wall art. It was meant to be a “cool” reminder to pause and consider “what would Jesus do?” Personally, I thought it was pretty silly. While I believed in Christ and the teachings of the Catholic Church, it was pretty hard for me to envision what Jesus would do when watching TV or sending emails to my friends or doing any of the other things that occupied my 21st century life.

Even the lives of the saints fell short, in some ways, of being an image of what to do. St. Francis, St. Therese, and St. Joan of Arc seemed to live in a world so remote and unlike mine that I couldn’t imagine how they could inform my actions today. I didn’t have a wealthy family’s money to give to the poor or have the desire to beg a Pope to let me enter the convent or speak with kings.

Somewhere along the way, however, it hit me that I did have a model: my parish priest. In the priest, I could tangibly see what Jesus would do. I saw what Christ would do in the priest who, after spending hours preparing, assisting, and cleaning up after a bishop’s Mass, is still willing to sit in the confessional for an hour to hear the confessions during a young adult holy hour, forgoing his usual dinner hour. I realized that I could see what Christ would do in the priest who gave his own money to help a single mother pay for her kids’ school supplies when she was unexpectedly laid off. I knew what Christ would do today in the priest who would sit quietly praying in the chapel early in the morning. Over the years, I have been able to see Christ’s love for his Church made visible through the actions of the many priests I have encountered.

When I need encouragement or inspiration to do the “hard stuff” or make a sacrifice, I can draw on these countless living examples of what Christ would do, embodied in the priests I have known. While priests are not perfect, in them is an energizing desire to show forth Christ in their lives, whether or not it is recognized by anyone. Their commitment to serve Christ provides us an example of sacrificial heroism.

Priests Are Sacrificial

I recall being at one of the local outdoor ice cream stands with a priest friend one day when a complete stranger came up to the priest to ask for a blessing. The stranger, it turns out, was on a cross-country trip and wasn’t even Catholic, but saw the priest in his clerics and was moved to approach the priest. Of course, my priest friend gave him a blessing for his travels and chatted with him for a few more minutes before the stranger departed.

While the gesture from my priest friend was not grandiose, it reminded me of the numerous hidden sacrifices priests make for the good of souls. How often their slumber is interrupted by the need to be by the bedside of a dying person or how often are they called away from a brief hour of leisure by a parishioner’s need! Even greater, they have sacrificed their personal ambitions, worldly possessions and honors, and time with loved ones to answer God’s call to serve his people. It is certainly not a “job” that carries with it a great paycheck or public platitudes; however, the priest sees the greater good in their sacrifice.

Indeed, the very presence of a priest is a reminder to us that there is something greater than what is valued by our society; there is something beyond consumerism and competitiveness. Priests remind us that our goal is to become like Christ and so to spend eternity in the joy of heaven. It is a reminder to us that, like the priest, all of us are called to surrender ourselves in service as Christ did.

Thank You, Priests!

Too often, we can forget the meaning behind the title “Father” we used to address a priest. The priest, however, is very much a father in ways we often take for granted. On this Father’s Day, remember to thank a priest who has made a difference in your life. Thank them for their spiritual fatherhood to the Church. And remember to pray for them!

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75 thoughts on “Priests: A Spiritual Fatherhood”

  1. Douglas Ayers-Spicola

    “Actually,” Tymoshenko wrote on Twitter, “the passage of the 8 million Russians in Ukraine is a montage. In fact I told the Russians in Ukraine are Ukrainian. ” And then she wrote: “Hello FSB (the Russian secret service, ed).”

  2. Douglas Ayers-Spicola

    The Patria leaders did not deny that he had contacted the opposing deputy, but pointed out that the part where you are thrown against the Russians of Ukraine is false, the result of retouching to put it in a bad light.

  3. Douglas Ayers-Spicola

    To unmask the former prime minister has been the web: the call of the pasionaria, in fact, was intercepted and published on the internet.

  4. Douglas Ayers-Spicola

    Let me repeat that “I will use all my relationships, I will lift up the world because of this Russia will not remain even a burnt field”, he added the same voice.

  5. Douglas Ayers-Spicola

    “The situation is going beyond all limits. We must take up arms in hand and go out to these damn kazap (very old Ukrainian derogatory term for Russians, ed) together with their leader, “we hear from a female voice that has been attributed to Timoshenko in the phone call made known by the Russian media. “I will use all my relationships, I will lift up the world because of this Russia will not remain even a burnt field”, he added the same voice.

  6. Douglas Ayers-Spicola

    But it is not over, because always on the phone the heroine of the Orange Revolution would be called “ready to pick up a gun and shoot in front of this rascal,” referring to the president of Russia Vladimir Putin, accused of having taken over the Crimea ( the question whether it is talking also to G7 the Hague).

  7. Douglas Ayers-Spicola

    What’s more tensions between Kiev and Moscow, to feed the crisis we might as well put the former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko that he would set out his ‘solution’ talking to Nestor Shufrich, a deputy of the Party of Regions (is training of deposed President Viktor Yanukovych).

  8. Douglas Ayers-Spicola

    In this regard, the Minister believes that one of the objectives of national governments should be cooperation.

  9. Douglas Ayers-Spicola

    Puchkov noted that natural, technological and biological-social threaten not only the development of individual regions, but sometimes whole nations and even continents

  10. Douglas Ayers-Spicola

    The main risk factors, according to him, are the growth of the world population, rising migration, the increase in resource consumption and waste production.

  11. Douglas Ayers-Spicola

    We believe that the European Commission should take an active position on this issue, because its key tasks are to protect the interests of European consumers, “Putin said, speaking at the meeting with managers of the leading companies in the energy sector at

  12. Douglas Ayers-Spicola

    The European Commission needs to take an active position to build the “South Stream” to protect the interests of European consumers, he said on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

  13. Douglas Ayers-Spicola

    every time, my eyes are closed exhausted from sleep, and they are forced to go to sleep, I feel like someone who has stolen something, as someone who has not given everything of themselves.

  14. Douglas Ayers-Spicola

    On behalf of the father, the son and the Holy Spirit +. Amen! Drink your poison made by yourself. Alleluia

  15. Douglas Ayers-Spicola

    Holy Cross be my light: and: is never the dragon my Duce. Back to Satan! Non mi persuade you, vanity. Are bad things, which you offer me, drink yourself your poison.

  16. Douglas Ayers-Spicola

    What you give, it’s bad. I.V. b. Ipsa Venena Bibas, drink yourself your poison. + In nomine Patris, and Fili and Spiritui Sancto. Cross of St. Benedict.

  17. Douglas Ayers-Spicola

    Holy Cross be my light, N. S. D. Mr. D. Draco sit mihi dux not. Who: the Dragon is not my Duce c. r. s. Vadre Retro satana. Satan deleted! Mr. S. N. V. Suade Mihi Vana not persuade you that I, q s vanity. m .. l. Sunt Mala Quae Libas.

  18. Douglas Ayers-Spicola

    There is something, to be delivered by you! Now, you pray with me, my dear! C. s. p. b. Crux Sancti Patris Benedecti Cross of St. Benedict. Mr. S. L. C. Crux Sacra Sit Mihi light.

  19. Douglas Ayers-Spicola

    satana burn! There is no law of civilization, outside of natural law! and this is certainly not the organ dedicated to defecation, which could become a normative day of love! Certainly, we’ll talk about sexual perversion!

  20. Douglas Ayers-Spicola

    Pharisees Illuminati by Lucifer cult Baal Owl synagogue Rothschild, Grand Rabbis of Israel – well, you can always come to fight against me, on this page, who you stopping you?

  21. Douglas Ayers-Spicola

    Prior to this gunfight Kiev announced a truce at Easter: the special operation to crack down on the protests has been suspended for a few days

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