Parish Life

kids with candlesThe parish is where most people experience what it means to belong to the Church. Although there are various special ministries for priests outside of parish life, most priests spend their life moving from one parish to another.

No parish the same

A parish is a family, a living cell of the one family of God. No two parishes are the same, any more than two ordinary families. Each has its own special challenges, its own problems, needs and blessings. An inner city parish is very different to a rural one. Even in a single town or city there can be great variety: one parish may have a strong multi-ethnic dimension; while one may be in a relatively affluent suburb, another may have serious problems of poverty, unemployment and homelessness; another may have a sizeable student population, several major hospitals or a prison. One parish may have two or three Catholic schools, while another may have none at all. All parishes call for the same fundamental ministry of the priest, but each in its own distinctive way. The priest needs to be very flexible and adaptable in the way he lives and works.

A faith community

In any parish, the priest’s ministry is to build a community of faith, of truly faith-filled people. It is there that they encounter the living Jesus in the Scriptures, in the Sacraments, in the whole prayer-life of the community, and in their fellow parishioners. Parish unity is not meant to be just a cosy fellowship: it is to be a communion of faith and witness. The parish is supposed to be a servant community, a community for others. In other words, it is meant to be a small-scale version of all that the Church is called to be.

All together

One of the main tasks of priests in a parish is to help people to discover the part God has given them to play in his work, and the gifts he has bestowed on them. True pastoral leadership involves allowing people to be really adult and responsible members of the Church community, and creating a sense of participation and interdependence. This includes sharing decision-making with parishioners. Most parishes now have a Parish Council or similar body, but there are also many other levels of involving people in genuine team ministry. A priest today must be happy with this kind of leadership, and show signs of having the necessary gifts.

The parish family: a community of communities

We have also seen that small groups of one kind or another are increasingly important. These are not alternatives to parish life, but help to transform the parish itself into a real community. These groups vary from traditional ones (e.g. Catholic Women’s League, St Vincent de Paul, Legion of Mary, Catenians, Knights of St. Columba, Justice and Peace Group) to more recent neighbourhood groups or home groups. New models of parish life are developing and will continue to do so. The parish has always been a family of families. Whatever happens in the future, every parish will be in some way a network of smaller communities woven together by the ministry of the priest and centred on the celebration of the Eucharist.

Pastoral care

For the parish the priest is their shepherd, bringing them the care of the

Good Shepherd. His ministry tries to create an atmosphere of prayer and of loving care, a community where people feel they belong, where they are valued and accepted. Every parishioner has a role in building such a caring family, but the priest has a central ministry here. He must be open, welcoming and friendly in his attitude to all.

On the other hand, a priest cannot do everything. He has his limitations, like anyone else. Jesus himself did not heal all the sick, feed all the hungry or touch the lives of everyone who came to him. Nor can the priest. He has to learn to leave some things undone. When Jesus chose to visit Zacchaeus’ house (Luke 19. 1-10), he decided that this man needed him there and then. The others were left disappointed. In his pastoral care, the priest will have to make such decisions, and his priorities should be the same as those of Jesus. In the Gospel the good shepherd leaves the ninety nine to go in search of the sheep that was lost. It often seems more appropriate today to leave the one faithful sheep to go in search of the other ninety nine! He cannot possibly do this alone, nor should he, but the little he does manage to achieve will often bear more fruit than he could possibly imagine. The ‘five loaves and two fish’ he has to offer can nourish a multitude if blessed by the Lord.

Visiting the people

The priest can only make such decisions if he really knows his parishioners, as a good shepherd knows his flock. Visiting people in their homes is a vital part of his ministry. Jesus himself did a lot of visiting; St Luke in particular seems to highlight this (5. 29f; 7. 36f; 10. 38f; 11. 37f; 14. 1f; 19. 5f). He spent so much time with people of all kinds that he was seen as ‘a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners’ (Matthew 11. 19). He sent his disciples out ahead of him to places he himself was to visit (Luke 10. 1). He continues his visiting ministry today in many ways, but especially through priests who visit as his personal ambassadors. He says to priests today about their parishioners: ‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me’ (Matthew 10. 40). Visiting is not always easy. A priest never knows what reception he will get. But it is a tremendously fruitful ministry, bringing the presence of the Good Shepherd into the lives of people and helping them to discover that he is already there with them. Through the visiting of his priest, Jesus himself knocks at the doors of their lives and waits to be invited in (cf Revelation 3. 20).

The rich variety of parish life

Most priests adopt some kind of routine once they get used to each parish, but their ministry remains very varied and unpredictable. The God of surprises never allows anyone to become too settled! The priest never knows what will be the next call on his time, who will be the next caller at the door or on the phone. People come for a chat about almost anything. They come for help with a problem, for prayer, for spiritual direction and for the sacrament of reconciliation. They come to invite the priest to supper, or to ask for money for food or for the fare home to Glasgow!

It is often difficult for the priest to be at home in the presbytery long enough to be available for callers. He has so much else to do! He visits the sick in their homes and in hospital, bringing them the healing touch of the Lord. He cares for the dying, leads the funeral Liturgy and comforts the bereaved; this is often a difficult ministry, but vital. The priest will also spend time in the local Catholic schools (where he may well be a governor). There are all kinds of ministries to young people to support and encourage, from Scouts and Guides to the youth club and more spiritual activities. There may be special institutions such as a prison or military base to serve. His teaching ministry will include many forms of preparation for the sacraments and of adult education. There are parish social events which call for his ministry of presence, as well as an increasing number of groups and committees as lay people take on more and more responsibilities in the parish. Besides all these things, and many more besides, there is parish administration to be done, especially by the parish priest.

If he tries to do all this alone, his ministry will be very brief! The pastoral care of a parish can only be truly effective if the ministry of caring and teaching is shared. This is not just a matter of ‘helping Father’, but parishioners exercising their own special forms of service. The priest gathers together a team of people who work in many ways to carry forward the work of the Lord. One of his own main tasks is to teach the teachers, to care for the carers, to lead the leaders, all in the name of Jesus himself. His whole ministry, with and for his parish team and all his parishioners, is centred always on the Eucharist - in other words, on Jesus himself, the centre of all ministry and life.

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT

CELEBRATING THE SACRAMENTS

At the very heart of the Catholic faith is the idea that God touches our lives through human signs and gestures, in a way suited to us as human beings. We use signs and symbols all the time to express our inner self to others, making the invisible (for example, our love for another) present through something visible (perhaps a gift, a letter or a touch). This is our natural human way of reaching out to others, flowing from the way God made us. God freely chooses to give himself to us in this truly human way: the invisible through the visible.

Sacraments are the deepest and richest signs of all. In them, the risen Jesus is personally present to us through his Church. They do not limit him in what he does, but they are central, visible ways in which he acts. The sacraments are the personal touch of Jesus at key moments of our lives. They are powerful instruments of the Good News, Jesus himself.

A week of sacraments

In a parish, the sacraments will provide the key moments in the weekly ministry of any priest. He celebrates Mass every day in the Church, as well as the occasional Mass in a school or hospital, or in people’s houses. Every Sunday is centred on several celebrations of the Eucharist, the high point of the life of the Catholic community. Often on a Sunday there are also infants to be baptised. During the week he is called upon to anoint the sick in hospital or at home. Usually on a Saturday he is available at set times for the sacrament of reconciliation, but he is always ready to celebrate this great sacrament whenever asked. On Saturdays too there are often weddings, celebrating the weaving together in love of a happy couple. Many of these sacraments require a lot of preparation, for the priest himself and the catechists who work with him, and for those who are to receive them.

The touch of Jesus

We can see from this why celebrating the sacraments is so central to the priestly ministry. The priest proclaims the presence of Jesus in the sacraments. He is a source of personal contact for people with the Lord himself. And it is above all in the sacraments that the priest himself is a living sacrament of the Good Shepherd. It is Jesus himself who is the minister of the sacraments. When the priest baptises, anoints, consecrates and absolves, it is the Lord himself who is at work through the words and actions of his friend and servant.

Jesus himself continues the same ministry today as we see in the Gospels:

The Eucharist - heart of the priestly ministry

Sharing a meal with his friends was central to Jesus’ life, as it was for any Jew. He and his apostles often broke bread together and shared each other’s company. The Passover Meal on the night before he died was the last of many suppers with his friends, although richer in meaning than they could have imagined.

‘Then he took some bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it and gave it to them, saying ‘This is my body which will be given for you; do this as a memorial of me’. He did the same with the cup after supper, and said, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood which will be poured out for you’.

(Luke 22. 19-20)

Jesus himself continues this great gesture today when we gather together for the Eucharist. He draws us deep into his sacrifice and gives us his own body and blood, the gift of himself. Through the words of the priest, Jesus speaks the same words today as he did at the Last Supper.

There is no greater or more humbling ministry for a priest. In the Eucharist he is the living icon or image of Jesus as our great High Priest offering himself to the Father, as our Head uniting his body to himself in his sacrifice, and as our Good Shepherd nourishing his flock with the sacrificial gift of himself. The Eucharist is the heart of the life and ministry of the priest and of the community he serves. Everything else he does flows from it and leads back to it, and it is there above all that we see the priest’s role most clearly.

No one can ever be worthy of the priesthood. After all, you stand at the altar, today and in countless days to come, and you say, acting in the very person of Christ, ‘This is my body’ - not ‘his’ or ‘yours’ but ‘my’. Then a remarkable change takes place in the bread and in the wine. Think again of how you sit in the confessional and say ‘I absolve you from your sins’ - ‘I’, with all he authority of God himself.

(Cardinal Basil Hume)

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT