Could I live the life of a priest, especially in a parish?
During all those years in seminary I had heard that parish
ministry could always be the hardest. You have to be there for so many people.
St. Paul’s life of “being all things to all people” is more
a phrase for sainthood than priesthood. How can anyone live up to that, then or
now?
For almost every religious person, male or female, there
comes a time before you take those vows when you question whether you can really
get up there and do it.
As a priest you almost always have an anxiety attack
wondering if can you celebrate a funeral.
Can you celebrate a funeral for a child?
Can you survive a wedding with all the ever changing
details?
An old priest once told me, “Don’t worry, the first hundred
are the hardest.”
After I realized the true meaning of that advice, I was
ready to try.
One of the most difficult yet lifelong rewarding
experiences came during a hospital summer internship at St. Mary’s Hospital in
preparation for a two-semester seminary internship at Johns Hopkins University.
I was scared to death of hospitals. Once over
Christmas vacation I was going to a movie with some classmates and (then) Fr.
Thomas Shreve. He received an emergency call to go and administer the Sacrament
of the Sick to a parishioner.
He asked if anyone wanted to go and help. Well, you know
who was the only one to say yes.
The poor man was very sick and very, very loud. Fr. Shreve
handled the man’s needs with such professionalism. He pastorally helped the poor
man and his family in their hour of pain.
I, on the other hand, remained standing only by the grace
of God and the privacy curtain that was around the bed.
If it had not been for that curtain, I would have been on
the floor.
Later, on the first day of orientation at St. Mary’s
Hospital, 10 student nurses and I were being given the tour. While in the
elevator, the head nurse asked me why I looked so green in the face.
I told her that I was afraid of hospitals. That was the
best thing I ever could have said. Those nurses looked after me, cued me in, and
taught me all the ropes, an experience I have used throughout my priesthood.
