Sunday, September 01, 2013

Father John

I am blogging from my Galaxy S3 while parked outside a person's house where my wife is inside bringing Communion to the homebound. I spent the morning watching English Premier League soccer and wasn't quite sure what I would post to the blog today, but God provides.

One of the things that always struck me about Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II was how they gave their bodies completely to Christ. They did not end there ministries until they were physically unable to go on. It was a fantastic example to the rest of us of how to completely devote ourselves to God.

At our parish we have a very elderly priest named Father John. He is old and infirm he struggles to walk and most of the time he is in great pain. He said Mass this morning for the first time in probably two months. There were other priests who could have said Mass in his place, but he chose to do so. I don't know what his motivation was, whether it was something he loves to do and wanted to do again or whether it was an act of devotion. Whatever his reason, it was tremendously inspiring and moving.

His homily was given in a clear, ringing voice and spoke of humility. He spoke with humor and feeling. It was great.

You don't always need to look to famous nuns or popes for inspiration. Sometimes a simple parish priest will do.

2 comments:

tom said...

I helped one of our nuns get her wifi network cleaned up this afternoon. That's gotta be good for something.

Someday I'll find out the backstory of the priest we had over the summer. Based on the stories he tells, it sounds like he was in the Army (possibly as a JAG), spent time as a trial attorney and a judge, got into motorcycling, had a family, and became a priest late in life. And we just lost him because another parish needed a Spanish speaker. You never can tell what skills a person has just by looking (and he looked like Uncle Fester).

K T Cat said...

I looked it up. Helping nuns with wifi counts for 12 points. 8 for the nun, 3 for the technology, 1 for the heat and humidity of South Carolina.