Brielmaier,+Sam

Many people do not know how much work a priest must do to run a parish. Being a priest is not as easy as it looks, but it is still very interesting. A priest's job has many benefits and some drawbacks; there are three different parts to the job: teach, administrationi, and liturgy. There are many benefits of being a priest.  Fr. Peter said," A benefit of this job is working with people "(Berger, Peter.) They work with people every day. This work includes working in an office with other people, saying the mass for other people, visiting the school. Priests get a sense of helping other people. Also, Fr. Peter says that this job never gets boring. Priests are always doing something. "Priests do not spend a lot of time in your office either"(Berger.) Priests, do most of their work outside of their office. Priests go to hospitals, work in the church, the school, and do a lot of service work. There are also some drawbacks of being a priest. "A drawback of being a priest is the amount of work. Priests have to do a lot of work to run a parish. They must make phone calls, send e-mails, have meetings, and more to run a parish. Another drawback is that there are not very many priests today. Since there are not as many priests, the men who are priests have more work to do. Also, a drawback is having to say no to people. A priest has to say no to someone which is hard to do."(Berger.) Priests have to be teachers in their job. Priests help prepare people before they receive their First Holy Communion. Being a teacher would also be helping to teach people prepare for baptism of a child and preparing children before reconciliation. Priests also have meetings with teenagers that are going to be confirmed and help men and women prepare for the sacrament of marriage. Preaching in mass is also a form of teaching for a priest. The main part of a priest is saying the mass. The mass is a Eucharistic celebration. The most important part is the consecration. "The word consecration means to associate with the sacred"(Consecration wikipedia.) During the consecration, the priest changes the bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. That is called transsubstantiation. Priests are responsible for running a parish. That would include sending e-mails and phone calls. Priests must do a lot to run a parish. Sacraments and prayer is very self explanatory. Priests teach the seven sacraments and have prayer services. Priests do not have a schedule that they do the same thing everyday. They do go to mass or say mass every day. Usually a priest says mass in the morning. A priest will also probably have a meeting or appointment with someone, sometime in the day. A priest might have confessions. They might go to school. At the end of the day, a priest may have dinner with parishioners. Those are just some of the things that a priest might do on a typical day" (Berger.)

"Before you can become a priest, you must do some preparation work. This sort of work includes college. A priest goes to four years of college. At college, they get a philosophy degree. A priest must get a philosophy degree in order to go into the seminary"(Berger.) After the four years of college, a man who wants to become a priest must go into the seminary. The seminary is a school for people who want to become part of the clergy. Men stay in the seminary for at least four years. They receive their master of divinity degree at the seminary. "There are four main areas of formation at the seminary: academic, spiritual, pastoral, and humanity. Academic would be taking tests and writing papers. Spiritual is growing closer to God. Pastoral is service work, or being of service. Humanity is all about the virtues. The men get evaluated at the seminary by other priests and Arch-Bishops for approval to be ordained a priest"(Berger.) The work that priests do includes running a parish, teaching, and performing liturgies; doing these things has benefits and drawbacks. Now you know all of the work that priests do to run a parish, and and how rewarding being a priest can be.