Diary Entry #10: The Lector On my first day on the job at one of my assignments, I showed up to offer the daily Mass at noon. As I was vesting in the sacristy, I heard a knock at the door. “Come in!”, I said, as cheerfully as I could. (I am not a cheerful…
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The Diary of an Inner-City Priest #9 – El Diario de un Sacerdote Urbano #9
Diary Entry # 9: The Mystery Woman In the Catholic Church we use the word “mystery” to refer to something for which there is an explanation, but for which we do not have the explanation. To give a simple, natural example, we know that the pyramids in Egypt were, in fact, constructed. However, the last…
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The Diary of an Inner-City Priest #8 – El Diario de un Sacerdote Urbano #8
Diary Entry #8: The Guy who Drank the Wine. Perhaps the most impressive celebration of the entire liturgical year is the Easter Vigil. At this Mass, offered after dark on the night before Easter Sunday, all those who are being received into the Catholic Church, all around the world, are Baptized and receive the Sacraments…
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The Diary of an Inner-City Priest #7 – El Diario de un Sacerdote Urbano #7
Diary Entry #7: The Rest of the Story When I was young, there was a very popular radio program hosted by a man named Paul Harvey called “The Rest of the Story”. It consisted of stories presented as little-known or forgotten facts on a variety of subjects with some key element of the story (usually…
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The Diary of an Inner-City Priest #6 – El Diario de un Sacerdote Urbano #6
Diary Entry #6. The African Archbishop This is one of those stories about which one must say, “You can’t make it up”. Before the sex abuse scandals that rocked the Church around the year 2000, every priest carried with him what I used to call a “priest license”. Technically, it was called a celebret i.e.,…
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The Diary of an Inner-City Priest #5 – El Diario de un Sacerdote Urbano #5
Diary Entry #5: The Poor Clare My first assignment as a priest is the one to which I return in my mind when the going gets tough. I think this is true for most priests. In our first assignments we do not have the burdens which pastors have. We are free to be priests for…
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The Diary of an Inner-City Priest #4 – El Diario de un Sacerdote Urbano #4
Diary Entry #4: A Conversion Story Some years ago, I received a phone call from a young man who had recently asked a young woman to marry him. She agreed. He asked me if I would be willing to prepare him and his fiancé for marriage. I did not know the young man, nor the…
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The Diary of an Inner-City Priest #3 – El Diario de un Sacerdote Urbano #3
Diary Entry #3. Mr. Coffee Cup Man One of the responsibilities of the pastor of a parish is to take note of everything. EVERYTHING. This responsibility can be burdensome, but “God is found in the details” as someone once said. (This quotation has been attributed to many, including Friedrich Nietzsche who, if he said it,…
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The Diary of an Inner-City Priest #2 – El Diario de un Sacerdote Urbano #2
Diary entry #2 One Saturday I began the short walk from my rectory to the little grocery market two blocks down after the evening Masses. It was a beautiful midsummer evening, and I was looking forward to chopping some onions and jalapeños to spice up my supper. I find cleaning fresh vegetables and cutting them…
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The Diary of an Inner-City Priest – El Diario de un Sacerdote Urbano
The Diary of an Inner-city Priest For years I have sworn that I should write a book about all the unusual experiences I have had as a priest. These experiences extend from the mundane to the incredibly bizarre. I have decided it is time to begin writing my book. My title is lifted from the…
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