How often have you gotten to the end of the day and been totally exhausted and unfulfilled? You’re tired, but not because you spent time counseling a couple preparing for marriage, or because you spent an hour in the confessional after several pastoral visits, or because you visited the parish school and had to dominate on the basketball court. You’re tired because in between each of those personal moments of encounter so many tiny logistical and administrative things had to be taken care of that you know you weren’t as present as you could have and should have been.
When it comes to parish life and evangelization, we need to talk about the elephant in the room: there isn’t enough time. Between celebrating the Mass, pastoral visits, marriage prep meetings, visiting the parish school, giving a talk at a Theology on Tap, and somehow finding a moment to pray, priests barely have enough time just to make it through a normal day. Having lay people on staff and in various ministries is extremely helpful, but even they can often be overworked. Plus, at the end of the day, there are certain things only a priest can do and a presence only a priest can have.
Life for new associate pastors can be crazy. Not only are they adjusting to a new public life as a priest, they are meeting hundreds if not thousands of new people, trying to figure out the workflow of the parish, learning how to follow the guidance of their pastor, administering the Sacraments, and trying to be fully present each step along the way. It can quickly become overwhelming. Take for example, the story of one young priest and a demanding pastor.
