What Is A Priest's Calendar Like?

For people who wonder how a parish priest spends his time, here is my calendar from July through February of this year. 

Some parishioners are more connected than others, but I often find a lot of parishioners form very strange ideas about how I spend my time and what I do within the parish. The more connected a parishioner is the more understanding they usually are. Sadly, the vast majority of parishioners are not that involved in the parish and lack a lot of information, not just on how I spend my time, but also the time that other staff dedicate to serving the parish. We have many staff who are incredibly dedicated and make a ton of sacrifices for the parish. 

Time management is always a challenge for me. There are a lot of things about the parish I like, and some things I don't like. In general, I wish people would step back and be a little more understanding about how many demands and expectations are placed on their parish priests. We are in short supply and I don't have people knocking my door down asking how they can be supportive or more encouraging of promoting vocations to the priesthood. One priest in our Archdiocese is in charge of 5 parishes and 1 mission. Click here to see more information about this challenging job. 

On a positive note, we should be having 4 men ordained to the priesthood this summer. However, a number of priests are planning on retiring and we lose a few each year who complete their earthly pilgrimage.

Good Leaders/Good Shepherds has been an excellent opportunity for me to grow in knowledge in how to manage a parish. This has been a two year program sponsored by the Catholic Leadership Institute that allows parish priests to take some time away from the parish to focus on being a better parish priest. I am grateful for the skills I am learning through this program. It would be great to have access to this program during seminary formation. 

My prayer time, homily prep-time, some sick calls, and drop-in appointments aren't listed on the calendar but are part of the plan. A parishioner once told me, "a priest who doesn't pray isn't even a moving target." True!

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