3/14/07

The need...

One of the things every Priest comes to face in the course of their service is the reality they'll never be everything everyone wants them to be. It won't be for lack of trying or soul searching. It won't be for a shortage of a certain sadness that some may be lost and others found. It just is the way it is.

If a Priest takes this personally they'll chew themselves up from the inside. It's just one of those things you don't have to like but have to get used to. Your life is a screen on which those for whom you care project their hopes and needs, their strengths and pathologies. And it can all change in a moment, in a word, in a second of something, anything, beyond your control.

The truth is that Priests should examine themselves, but sometimes they should be careful about examining themselves too much, or at least every time they find themselves up against the reality that despite their best intentions they can't be all things to everyone. At that point its not about growth but rather about banging your skull against an unyielding wall.

And its not worth the headache.




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