Part of the mission of the Dominican Order was/is in mixing with people, who will see by their lives and work that there is something wonderful in the story of the Gospels.
Observing commuters rushing to and from work on a daily basis one is tempted to ask where do priests, sisters and brothers encounter people in their daily lives.
Mixing and engaging with people exclusively when talking about God and the Gospels can be a rarified experience.
When one thinks about it when exactly are priests engaged with the public? Do they meet them in the workplace as equals, do they travel with them on crowded trams, trains and buses, do they meet them cycling on cycle lanes.
Religious sisters are at the vanguard of being in the workplace, sharing the ups and downs of the people.
The idea of the working priest in France was potentially a possible way forward. Why did it fail? Then again, why is priesthood as we know it today failing in the western world? Yes, it is still in some aspects attracting ‘the converted’, it also is attracting zealots. Does priesthood today speak in any real way to the commuter class of society?
1 comment:
Glad you made these observations Michael:
"Observing commuters rushing to and from work on a daily basis one is tempted to ask where do priests, sisters and brothers encounter people in their daily lives.
"Mixing and engaging with people exclusively when talking about God and the Gospels can be a rarified experience.
"When one thinks about it when exactly are priests engaged with the public? Do they meet them in the workplace as equals, do they travel with them on crowded trams, trains and buses, do they meet them cycling on cycle lanes."
Your words eloquently sum up my life since I first signed in, in January 1972, as a Male Night Telephonist (MNT). Remember, in the Posts and Telecommunications (P&T) telephone exchanges then, men worked the night shifts and women the days. I was beginning my requested leave of absence from the Order modelling the "failed" worker priest lifestyle so to speak. After two years I received a positive response to my requested laicization and departed for Canada where I have lived and worked in three provinces over fifty years in a variety of jobs; the longest being for twenty-five of those years as a workplace counsellor for injured and marginalized workers.
There are wonderful rewards for "being reduced to the lay state" i.e. laicization! You have blessed me, and many more, by your reflective commentary. Thank you.
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