Pray, Fathers pray!

BY: MGR PAUL NADAL

What exactly do we mean by shared or collaborative ministry? Time and time again we have spoken of ministerial priesthood as one of leadership and service.

This ministry involves theological charisms and human charisms. We cannot, and should not, reduce the priestly office to a purely consecratory sacramentary function.  If we did it would hardly be described as a human vocation.

At the same time it is quite possible (and sometimes is the case) that the ordained minister does not have some of the human charisms of leadership and all that this entails. Priests are not all leaders or administrators or organisers. In spite of what St Paul says, on a human level we cannot be all things to all men.

Nevertheless, even if the priest lacks certain human qualities and skills, he still has the leadership role of holding together in order and stability the ministry of all within the community.

Shared or collaborative ministry begins on the part of the priest by recognising this fact and discovering the needs of the people of God. He has to discern and release the gifts that are there in the community. He has to affirm and support those who exercise these different ministries. He has to coordinate the work in the parish and work for unity within the diversity that exists in his parish.

In no way should collaborative ministry be seen as the threat to his own role of leadership.

Priests have to discern their own gifts, graces and weaknesses. They do not have every leadership gift by virtue of ordination. Simply to understand this will release priests from the unreal expectations that are so often laid upon them as priests and pastors.

All that I have said about the priest and pastoral ministry counts for absolutely nothing if priests are not men of prayer.

In Luke 11: 1-4 we are told that his disciples asked Jesus: “Lord, teach us how to pray.” They had noticed that Jesus prayed and prayed often, and strangely enough when he seemed to be most in demand. He taught them the simplest and greatest of Christian prayers, the Our Father.

Just as Jesus taught us how to pray, those of us who claim to carry on the ministry of Jesus must teach our people how to pray. We cannot do that unless we pray ourselves. To do this we priests must be men of prayer.

In spite of all the faults and failings, people expect priests to be men of prayer.

The world in which we live and work is generally action-filled, with little time or taste for stillness, quietness, meditation or prayer. Unfortunately this attitude has sometimes affected us priests in our ministry.

I have heard priests say: “I do not have time to pray; my work is my prayer.” While there is a sliver of truth in this, functionally it is meaningless. In my experience many who subscribed to this view are no longer with us. It is true that the priestly ministry when done in a prayerful spirit has a nourishing quality to it. Liturgical and official prayer, as good as they are (especially when celebrated beautifully and prayerfully), are no substitute for personal, private prayer.

Ministry without a foundation of prayer easily becomes social work. The priest is not primarily a social worker, nor is he a professional man. The priest should be professional in the sense that what he does, he does well. He is not a professional man in the sense that he is pursuing a professional career.

The priest is essentially a man of God who, according to St Paul, “holds this treasure in pots of earthenware, so that the immensity of the power is God’s and not our own” (2 Cor 4:7). His ministry should be permeated with Gospel values. In prayer he is open to the Spirit who animates his life and ministry. It is in prayer that we open ourselves to the Spirit.

In our priestly ministry there is always the possibility that an outward appearance and performance as seen in the exercise of our ministry does not coincide with our inner reality— of who we really are.

To a certain extent this is true of all of us, but if the discrepancy between what we say and do, and who we really are so great, then something is radically wrong. There is no way we can rationalise or justify a fundamental and permanent discrepancy. Something will give way and we eventually crack.

That discrepancy, if it exists, can only be overcome in and through genuine prayer. We can deceive others, we can even deceive ourselves, but there is no room for deception when we stand spiritually naked before God in prayer.

Many years ago an old priest (I am his age now) said to me: “If we as priests do not pray we become no more than disgruntled, selfish and crusty old bachelors.”

Please God, that never happens to us priests. So, my brother priests, pray—and pray often!

This is the second part in Mgr Paul Nadal’s series on the priesthood and ministry.