…..Continued

                                       Your Pastor

As a boy, your Pastor had a dream. It was a dream inspired of
heaven, a dream in which he pictured himself at the altar and in the
confessional, helping thousands of human beings to save their souls.
As a youth, when the pleasures of this world were most attractive, he
buried himself in a seminary, devoting some twelve or more years to
hard study, discipline and prayer. In the course of that exacting
preparations, he saw more than two-thirds of those who started out
with him towards the same goal, give up their quest. Finally on the
day of his ordination, he knelt before his bishop and stepped back an
alter Christus (another Christ), with all the powers of the priesthood.
All priests are called Father, but it is your Pastor and his Assistant
Priests who pre-eminently deserve that title. As much as a natural
parent has a fearful responsibility in rearing his children, so much
greater is the burden of a good Parish Priest, because he must answer
to God for so many souls committed to his care. He is the man who
has given up the delights of family life, to take upon his shoulders
the worries and spiritual destinies of all the families of his parish.
Not for worldly fame or pleasure or riches did he become a priest, for
there is very little of these to be found in his calling. The only real
reward of a good Pastor in this life is the knowledge that his parishioners
are trying to be good Catholics and making their way towards
heaven.

An extract from the pamphlet by D J CORRIGAN, C.S.S.R.
Published by Liguorian Pamphlet Office, Liguori, Missouri, 1948