Over half term my parish priest was kind enough to arrange 2 days of activities for me to shadow him and see what the reality of the vocation was. This post is a reflection on day one.
The day started at quarter to 9, meeting at the church for to pray the office of readings and morning prayers. It was my first time using a missal for it as I usually use an app on my phone, so there was some initial confusion about which page markers to use and when. It's a lovely way to start the day and saying the psalms aloud with another person is markedly different from hurrying through it on your own. Definitely gave me time to properly think about the messages in the readings.
After that we celebrated morning mass in the lady chapel and I assisted as a server.
Following the service a man came to fix the flooring in the vestry so we quickly visited the charity shop to see how it was doing and then went to the vicarage to walk the dog before heading to the local crematorium for a funeral.
I found out about the etiquette behind running funerals and I sat in the back next to the organ for the service. My parish priest has a selection of prayers and blessings in a folder that he uses for the occasions, and had met with the bereaved family beforehand so he could construct a homily.
On the way back from the crematorium we visited the local graveyard and saw where the different denominations had areas reserved and we discussed how funerals for children work and saw where they were buried.
We returned to the vicarage and had some lunch. Then my parish priest started doing some paperwork, creating a document for the Sunday school meeting the following day and I went on a pastoral visit to a retired priest who has recently had a knee replacement.
Father Brian and I had a really good conversation which ended up being more pastoral for me than for him. He had plenty of experience with vocations and curates so he helped me think through some of the harder questions I will have to face. He helped me see that my stubbornness is both a blessing and a curse and gave me suggestions for careers I could follow. He left me with a very easy question that is actually quite difficult - why do we need Priests?
Myself and my parish priest met up back at the church to pray vespers each taking it in turn to read the psalms. I found it very calming, much the same as when I was on my SCP weekend.
We went back to the vicarage for some tea then it was off to the homeless food drive in the community centre. I assisted in giving a warm 3 course meal for those who attended and had great conversations whilst doing so.
The final stop of the day was the local air cadet squadron. As it was raining the cadets were running their own activities so we had the chance to sit down and talk with the officers and staff. Again it was very enjoyable and we also helped figure out what to do to help a cadet who was shortly going to be too old to remain a cadet but desperately wanted to.
Overall it was an incredibly busy and hectic day. I know some of the activities had been especially planned for me to go alone to, but even discounting them an average day can be very packed!
I'll tell you all about the second day in part 2!
The day started at quarter to 9, meeting at the church for to pray the office of readings and morning prayers. It was my first time using a missal for it as I usually use an app on my phone, so there was some initial confusion about which page markers to use and when. It's a lovely way to start the day and saying the psalms aloud with another person is markedly different from hurrying through it on your own. Definitely gave me time to properly think about the messages in the readings.
After that we celebrated morning mass in the lady chapel and I assisted as a server.
Following the service a man came to fix the flooring in the vestry so we quickly visited the charity shop to see how it was doing and then went to the vicarage to walk the dog before heading to the local crematorium for a funeral.
I found out about the etiquette behind running funerals and I sat in the back next to the organ for the service. My parish priest has a selection of prayers and blessings in a folder that he uses for the occasions, and had met with the bereaved family beforehand so he could construct a homily.
On the way back from the crematorium we visited the local graveyard and saw where the different denominations had areas reserved and we discussed how funerals for children work and saw where they were buried.
We returned to the vicarage and had some lunch. Then my parish priest started doing some paperwork, creating a document for the Sunday school meeting the following day and I went on a pastoral visit to a retired priest who has recently had a knee replacement.
Father Brian and I had a really good conversation which ended up being more pastoral for me than for him. He had plenty of experience with vocations and curates so he helped me think through some of the harder questions I will have to face. He helped me see that my stubbornness is both a blessing and a curse and gave me suggestions for careers I could follow. He left me with a very easy question that is actually quite difficult - why do we need Priests?
Myself and my parish priest met up back at the church to pray vespers each taking it in turn to read the psalms. I found it very calming, much the same as when I was on my SCP weekend.
We went back to the vicarage for some tea then it was off to the homeless food drive in the community centre. I assisted in giving a warm 3 course meal for those who attended and had great conversations whilst doing so.
The final stop of the day was the local air cadet squadron. As it was raining the cadets were running their own activities so we had the chance to sit down and talk with the officers and staff. Again it was very enjoyable and we also helped figure out what to do to help a cadet who was shortly going to be too old to remain a cadet but desperately wanted to.
Overall it was an incredibly busy and hectic day. I know some of the activities had been especially planned for me to go alone to, but even discounting them an average day can be very packed!
I'll tell you all about the second day in part 2!
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