The right time of year to thank our priests

This is the time of year that many people are celebrating wedding anniversaries.  But, it is also a time when many of our priests are celebrating their priesthood ordination. Find out when your pastor and/or parochial vicar was ordained and make sure to find a way to celebrate his priesthood and thank him for his service.
The priest, by nature of his ordination is set aside to serve the people of God.  In some ways you can think of the Church as a lowerarchy.  The laity are called to go out into the culture and fight to evangelize it.  As we do so, we can become wounded, tired, hungry, disheartened.  The priest tends to our wounds and heals us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. He feeds us in the Eucharist. He preaches to us, he anoints us. The priest pours himself out for his flock, so that the flock can do our job which is to spread the Good News and evangelize.  In a word, the priest serves his people.
The priest does not spend his day at our place of work.  He cannot effectively evangelize there, and we don’t want to limit how many souls he can affect.  It is our job to evangelize.  Once someone is evangelized they will start coming to church and will therefore be impacted by the priest.
I am grateful to all of the priests who spend countless hours in the confessional so that they can heal my sins.
I am grateful to all of the priests who celebrate the Eucharist daily so that I can approach and be fed.  
I am grateful to all of the priests who preach and break open the Scriptures to me.
I am grateful to all of the priests who faithfully pray for their flock.
I am grateful to all of the priests who visit the sick, and visit the imprisoned.
I am grateful to all of the priests who have buried loved ones.
Our priests do so much for us and I think this is the right time of year to thank them.
— Pat Arensberg is the Director of the Office for Evangelization and Family Life. Email him at [email protected] 
For more information concerning the events of this office, visit us at mobilefaithformation.org