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Career for potential priest...(other than being a priest....)
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06-01-2012, 04:28 AM
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mirzaterak
Join Date
Oct 2005
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Keith,
You do not "choose" on your own to become a priest. The Church (in the person of your bishop) must choose you - your only choice is then to agree with that calling or to reject it. Thus, if you want to go to seminary to learn about the faith - that's great, but don't assume you will be allowed to enter the priesthood just because you think you might want to. My own leaning in such a matter is to avoid ordination at all costs - and if God truly is calling you to the priesthood, you will not be able to avoid it. OTOH, if ordination is borne out of your own will then by avoiding it, you have saved yourself an great trial, and possibly even preserved your own salvation.
In reading your comments, I think that perhaps you have an inaccurate idea of what a priest is supposed to be. The parish priest is the father of his parish. He is not the "employee" or the ruler or the manager of the parish - he is the father. Your parish will follow your lead, not because you are the priest, but because they see your love and compassion for them and in turn they love you. Any priest who is truly a father to his parish will seek to avoid working outside the parish for his outside job will rob him of the time and energy that should be devoted to his spiritual children. I say this as a priest who had to hold an outside job for nearly 15 years of my priesthood. As soon as it became feasible to walk away from my outside work - I did. During those "tentmaker" priest years, I worked one full time job (my secular career) and one "job" that demanded more than full time (my priesthood). It's burning the candle at both ends and sometimes in the middle. All of your "spare time" has to be given to the Church and to your spiritual children - and even then its not enough.
If you want a life that is independent of the parish or even the support of the parish, then I suggest to you that you do not go to seminary, but find a career that you enjoy and pursue it and be a pious layman. You will do more good as a support to the priest you do have than you could do as a priest who did not care for his people and did not depend upon them (as they depend upon him).
Fr David Moser
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mirzaterak
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