My Fourth Birthday

I suppose that, alongside the liturgical calendar, we each have our own private calendar marking key moments in our life, especially relating to the life of grace (baptism, confirmation, marriage, conversion, etc). Today, the Feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians, is the fourth anniversary of my priestly ordination at the hands of Bishop George Stack. How time has flown!

I think it's the first time I've been in the parish for my anniversary: last year I was on a conference at Ushaw and the first two years I was on holiday. But what better way is there to spend an ordination anniversary? - celebrating Mass in the parish, visiting the school, dealing with all the requests that come via the door and phone, writing sermons and classes, etc - all the things that fill most days but which I never write about on the blog because (a) it's not appropriate and (b) it would be rather boring!

For my meditation this morning, I turned to Leo Trese's A Man Approved and came across this timely passage:

Sometimes we priests feel that we are very busy men - and, within our own limited environment, quite important persons. We may be in parish work, instructing converts, visiting the sick, catechizing youngsters, administering temporalities....However, regardless of which group may claim me, it is profitable for me to remind myself again and again that there is only one thing I do which pertains essentially to my priesthood. There is only one thing that is of transcendent importance, and that is my offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. By eternal standards, nothing else I do matters much.

Looking at my posts last May, I was reminded that today is the first anniversary of the sudden death of Fr Todd Reitmeyer, a fellow priest and blogger. May he rest in peace.