PRIEST LIFE
Year: 2025

My ninth anniversary of ordination recently passed by, and it's given me cause to reflect. The magical first two years, the next two years from Hell, and trying to find some sort of balance ever since.

I guess the first two years were sort of a honeymoon period. I had an amazing pastor, good living conditions, the whole gamut of pastoral experiences to get my feet wet, and some wonderful parishes (I'm still under the assumption that all parishes are wonderful, I've been assigned to eight so far, and they've all been great). There were some shadows, a parish secretary who (upon further reflection) psychologically abused me, a LOT of driving between parishes, and a stint of Bells Palsey.

But those next two years were almost all shadows. I had two pastors, one for each of those years. The first was an alcoholic who was laundering money through the parish and gaslighting constantly to hide his drunkeness; the second was a climber who had no time for advising his associate, or really even for his parishes. On top of that, I learned how little my diocese and bishop cared about these sorts of things being reported. Report after report went ignored. And then on top of all that, Covid hit in that second year. With non-existent guidance from my pastor, I got to solo navigate the church closures, reopening, livestreaming the mass, shifting schedules, and the inevitable isolation. There were some bright spots though. Parishioners who, though they couldn't do anything to relieve the situation, were very kind and did all they could to alliviate suffering.

At the end of those four years, I was made Administrator of two of the parishes I was at, and given how little my last pastor had been involved, it wasn't much of a change. But being made pastor the next year was a catalyst.

We were fully out of the social upheaval Covid had caused, and it was time for me to start thinking about future plans for my parishes, and I had the mandate to actually carry changes out. I moved slow, trying to fix gaps in office administration in order to free up some of my time for other tasks. That has proved to be an ongoing, Sysiphusian task. Though after four years, I've got enough time to start dedicating to larger endeavors.

And time is the thing I want to end with.

The balance I've been trying to find since becoming pastor, is how to achieve the highest level of attention and care in my pastoral activity. And I knew from the beginning of this endeavor, that it requires rest and liesure, as well as the nutrition and living conditions, to support a high level of presence.

Here's what I have settled on at this point: exercise twice a week (weight lifting one day, kettlebells the next), Sabboth rest for two hours on one day of the week, having some liesure time each day (no screens, ideally outside), keeping to an eight hour workday as much as possible, cooking as much of my food as possible, keeping in regular contact with friends and family, spreading my vacation time evenly throughout the year, and monthly meetings with my support group.

The latest addition to that cocktail, was the Sabboth rest. I was inspired to add this at a conference for priests. The speaker discussed how important it was; and since as priests, Sunday was our busiest day of the week, we needed to make it happen at some other point in the week. After that conference I started adding two hours a week for Sabboth rest to my calendar. I sepnd the time in prayerful reading, or in artistic projects. It has become an oasis of life-giving water every week.

I know, me being who I am, that I will continue to try different things, change up activities, and experiment. But I want to set my current mix down in pixels, because it is working so darn well! I have the energy to give the level of attention I want to give to pastoral matters, and I have not felt overwhelmed or out of control for some time.

Deo Gratias!

---fin---