This weekend we celebrate Priesthood Sunday and thank God for our pastor, Fr. Keith Wolfe and our senior priest, Fr. Bill Cullen who minister to the spiritual needs of the people of St. James the Apostle Parish. May we pray for all priests, especially our parish priests and express our gratitude for them, letting them know how they have positively impacted us.

“Behind the collar, behind the altar, behind the patient smile and constant availability, there is a man…. and we often forget that. The priest is not a lone hero, nor a sacrament vending machine. He is a man who answered a radical call, who gave up so much – family, career, affections – to serve. But to serve does not mean to disappear. And consecrating oneself does not mean to become vulnerable. And yet the communities that are supposed to be family to him often turn into cages, or worse, “lion dens” and “viper dens.” They become tribunals where every word is judged, every choice questioned, every defect magnified. Everything is expected from him, without granting him anything: neither the right to fragility, nor the time to rest, nor the space to simply be human.

Mission is mistaken for perfection. It is thought that being a “man of God” makes you indifferent to loneliness, to misunderstanding, to injustice. But it is not like that. The priest never ceases to be a man, and a wounded man, abandoned, neglected in his deepest needs, sooner or later collapses. Let us honestly ask ourselves: how are priests treated in the communities they are sent to? Do we support them as much as we criticize them? Sometimes a kind word would be enough. A look that says “you’re here and we love you”. A simple yet authentic gesture, because the most painful loneliness is not the absence, but the one experienced among many, without being truly seen. Community is not a crowd. It is not an evaluation committee. It’s a home. And if it’s not a home for your pastors too, it’s not the Church.

Those who love the Church today must learn to love their pastors too. Not idealizing them but being truly close to them. With kindness, with respect, with the same mercy we expect from them.”

—Reflection attributed Deacon Greg Kandra

St. Therese of Lisieux’s Prayer for Priests

O Jesus, eternal Priest, keep your priests within the shelter of Your Sacred Heart, where none may touch them.

Keep unstained their anointed hands, which daily touch Your Sacred Body.

Keep unsullied their lips, daily purpled with your Precious Blood.

Keep pure and unearthly their hearts, sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood.

Let Your holy love surround them and shield them from the world’s contagion.

Bless their labors with abundant fruit and may the souls to whom they minister be their joy and consolation here, and in heaven their beautiful and everlasting crown. Amen.