How do I view myself as a priest?
By Odell Sneeden Hathaway, III.
|
How do I view myself
as a priest? Copywrite ©2008 by Odell Sneeden Hathaway, III The title of this paper asks a
monumental question like asking a man here on the earth to step out side of
the milky way and say what the galaxies look like one can never really know
what one looks like one can only look around and try and see things in the
universe that act like my self and see what they look like and what they are. For me the decision to try to become a
priest is one that I have tried to avoid for over 10 years I have many
reasons not to be a priest, I am shy, I am introverted, I am ..., but I have
only one real reason for being a priest and that reason is that something
inside of me has been telling me to be a priest since I was in high
school. For me being a priest is not a
choice of an occupation or a job it is what I feel I am supposed to be a dog
is a dog, a cat is a cat, and something inside of me says that I am a priest. As to what roll or ministry I will work
in as a priest I do not know, I can see many rolls that I could work in I could
be a parish priest in the last 3 years I have tremendous practical experience
in running a parish as a member of the vestry of our parish, junior warden of
our parish running the youth program of our parish each of these jobs has
given me incite into the workings of a parish. I also can see that there are other
areas that my skills could be used one area that I feel that the church needs
to take an active roll in and remove from the domination of the medical
industry is the area of hospice care.
It is a part of the sacred office of a priest to help people deal with
death. Both the death of others, but most of all there own deaths. I could see my self staying behind in
the seminary as a theologian. The
future is going to change forever the way society works and there for the
church needs to start considering how it is going to fit into the new
order. The church also needs to look
at how it can help guide man kind from its childhood to the point that it
will be making children of its own. With in the next 100 to 200 years mankind
will be able to create machines that will think for them selves and other new
kinds of life. Is the church ready to help mankind deal with these facts,
have we taken the time to look at the results of killing our own creations (each
time we throw a switch). What do you do with a humanity that can justly
compare it self to its creator because it can create. We are approaching puberty it is not the
churches job to tell us not to play with our selves for we are going to
hell. But it is the churches job to be
ready to help guide us form infant to responsible adult. Finally I can see my self as a worker
priest holding down a normal job during the week and helping the church in my
spare time just as I am doing for church now.
Who knows I might even work for the diocese bringing my business skill
to the aide of the church. I do know
that if I were to go into the parish ministry it would also be like being a
worker priest my occupation would be running a church but I would give to the
church my skill as a priest. As you can see what I will do as a
priest is quite up in the air. I
thought that I should end this paper by telling the most important thing that
I will do as a priest and that is serve god from his alter. All my life this is what I have wanted to
do, when I was a young boy I became an acolyte to serve god in this important
way as a man I am a lay reader, lay Eucharistic minister and run our
acolyte's because of the passion I have for the time I have at the alter. It is so much a part of me that I was very
surprised to find out that everyone dose not feel that way that that most
people would rather not serve at the alter, that the acolytes do not want to
acolyte but do it because they are force to by there parents. To me serving at the alter is an honor and
most of all it is a very large part of who I am, a priest (I hope). Note: I wrote this paper when I started
training for the priest hood. A few
years after I started my training I was forced by the church to choose
between a friend and my calling. I
chose the friend. |
Thank you for Surfing by. If you would like to write to me press = osh@teleport.com
Even on the NET I can't spell Tree, updated