A Day in the Life of a Priest

As a priest, I have often heard two contrary beliefs from parishioners:
• What does a priest do during the week outside of Masses and the weekends? It is light, right?
• You are so busy, so I don’t want to bother you. I don’t want to add to your stress.

So, where is the truth? Somewhere in the middle. Priests do a lot more than prepare for and celebrate Masses—for example, I am writing this for the bulletin! Priests desire to be there for their parishioners— please always ask if you need a Sacrament, counsel, or want to share a coffee or meal. Or in my case—share a cigar. To help demonstrate what a priest does, I would like to share a day in my life as Fr. Jeff. Let’s dive into a beautiful and joyful day, Monday, September 22:

First, I snoozed my alarm like a pro—it was already clear I had a case of the Mondays. I rushed out of bed late, prayed a morning offering and Angelus, quickly got a mug of coffee before the Communion fast, and began praying Morning and Daytime Prayer from Liturgy of the Hours. Then, I prayed 30 minutes of mental prayer before heading out to St. Charles for the 8:30am School Mass. I was proud of myself for walking in the door at 8:20am. I was ahead of schedule.

I celebrated Mass for the grade school. The students greatly rejoiced at my spiritual insights, bad jokes, and squirrel brain. Some of these may be true… After a series of high fives to the departing students and checking in with the staff, I made the trek back to St. Albert.

In order of and importance, I refilled my coffee, picked out a cigar, and sat down to do 30 minutes of spiritual reading. I dove into sections of John’s Gospel with the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible and continued with St. John of the Cross: Master of Contemplation. I normally do this before the morning Mass, however, my professional snoozing didn’t allow enough time. From there, I grabbed my laptop and did miscellaneous work until it was time for the Noon Mass at St. Albert. I may or may not have joked with the office staff somewhere in between…just maybe.

After Noon Mass, I grabbed lunch and worked for another hour or so before heading to Kettering Hospital Main Campus. I do rounds there every Monday afternoon for any Catholic patient who requests anointings. I had ten patients today—which tied the record. Although, as I was walking to the tenth patient, a hospital chaplain asked if I could anoint another patient who had just begun hospice care. Eleven patients was a record—although, I still had one to go. A parishioner and friend had contacted me earlier in the day saying that his wife’s health and taken a turn for the worse. So, I headed up to Miami Valley to anoint her. I successfully navigated that crazy parking garage and found the hospital connector on the f irst try. I visited and prayed with them after the 12th anointing of the day. It was time to return to the rectory, so I called Fr. Tom on the way to check in with him about a few items. I had prayed the Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet on my drives to, between, and from the hospital.

When I returned around 6 p.m., I scrounged up a dinner. Then, I settled down to pray evening prayer and anticipate Tuesday’s Office of Readings. I watched some shows for a bit before prepping coffee for tomorrow. It was time to head to the rectory chapel to pray Night Prayer and get ready for bed. I gave thanks for this full day loving Jesus, the staff, and parishioners.

This was a more full day than typical, however, it was a blessed day. Some days we don’t have much on the calendar (days to catch up on homily prep, emails, prepare for meetings, write, etc.); other days, we have the day booked. Please, always ask if there is something we can do to help. We were ordained to worship God, celebrate the sacraments, and walk with all of you—our parishioners—on the narrow path. It is a beautiful life that allows us to enter into the lives of so many sons and daughters of Christ. The priesthood is the best. Praise be to Jesus Christ.