Holy Orders

What’s Your Next Step? Reflect on Church Leadership and Ministry.

Think about the church leaders and ministers that have meant the most to you in your spiritual journey. Who are they? What qualities or commitments made them effective in their ministry?

• Take a minute to offer your gratitude to God for these key figures.

The purpose of a priest is to offer sacrifice. (Note: the defining characteristic of a sacrifice is not that it is difficult or painful, but that it is pleasing to God.)  In our baptisms, we join in Christ’s priestly offering of his entire life as a work of love to the God he named Father. What life works do you offer to God?

• Take another minute and rededicate an upcoming task or two to God, recognizing your baptismal priesthood at work as you do so. 

When we gather for Eucharist, we bring our weekly works, our troubles, our hopes, and our fears -- our selves, our relationships, our worlds. In the power of the Spirit, the celebrating priest collects us, uniting us with the whole Church inunion with Christ our head. The priest offers the whole person of Christ, present on the altar and in the pews, to the Father as a single, perfect prayer of gratitude and praise.

• Take a final minute and let yourself feel connected to the parish, to our priests, to the whole diocese, to the bishops and the church throughout the world, to Christ acting in and through his members. Let this feeling of belonging become a prayer.