As he did last week, Cardinal Sean has allowed one of the newly ordained priests for the Archdiocese of Boston to blog about his experience. This week, it’s Fr. Mark Barr, who serves at St. John the Baptist Parish in Quincy:
When first I began to seriously consider the priesthood, it seemed a nebulous and distant reality. I thought God was calling me to a priestly vocation and I wanted to pursue it, but I really had no idea who the priest is or what he does. I attended Mass regularly and Mass I understood. I could even see myself acting as a sacramental minister but I could not grasp what it would mean, for me, to actually be a priest the other twenty-three and a half hours of the day.
Fr. Barr comments on the difference that attitude can make in a priest, reinforcing the need to support priests in their chosen vocations:
…a joyful priest is a better encourager of vocations than one who is very experienced, very skilled and able but angry or dour. It is not how good we are at our “job” that makes the priest a better priest, but how much we love. How much he loves, loves the people of God with Christ’s own pierced and Sacred Heart, the heart he receives in ordination, this is the measure of a priest. And this is not a distant or nebulous thing, but a real and good life, a life that ought to be pursued by all who are called, something that is concrete and doable.
The full essay is available on Cardinal Sean’s blog entry: ‘Quis Alter Christus Es’ (scroll about 1/5 down the page).
Thanks to Fr. Barr for sharing his experience and insight into the priesthood, and to Cardinal Sean for sharing his blog with the new ordinandi.