Pastors

Thank you for bringing our children into the Church, and sustaining their souls with the Sacraments. Thank you for patiently listening to them, for taking such joy in teasing them, and for showing them the true face of Christ: the gentle one who said “Let the children come to me.”

Thank you for putting yourself in the unenviable position of dealing with us at our worst moments — when we’re anxious, upset, depressed, even a little out of our minds, focused on our own problems to the exclusion of all else. When we see the care you have to take in listening to the problems of so many kinds of people, we can’t imagine how you do it.

Thank you for sitting in empty confessionals. You wait there, not even knowing if we’ll come, like the Prodigal Son’s father. Thank you for all the times we hear “I absolve you from your sins”. This gift of God’s forgiveness brings the greatest joy back into our lives. We can give you nothing in return that even comes close to that.

Thank you, most of all, for bringing Christ himself into our lives. Where would we be without your astonishing ability to make the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ present on our altars and in our tabernacles?

Thank you, Father, for being Christ for us.

– Editors at National Catholic Register