As Steven’s Summer 2022 assignment draws to a close, we reflect on his experiences. During the Summer, Steven worked an internship at a local parish.
Steven previously worked Summer assignments but now that he has a few years of experience he has additional perspective to appreciate and understand the work that is entailed.
Parish culture plays a key role in pastoral life. The parish where Steven was assigned has a priority of evangelization and discipleship. The parish has several initiatives in place and Steven got to see the fruit of these efforts.
An added bonus was that Steven was able to serve as a chaperone for high school students who attended a Summer teen conference.
A key lesson from this experience was that parish priests need to learn time management and leadership skills. To be effective, the modern priest can not micro-manage. It’s impossible for priests to do everything. Instead, they must learn to lead.
Another lesson is that priests need to make time for their own prayer life. In contrast to seminarians who have prayer time part of their school schedule, a parish priest must work to carve out time for prayer.
The biggest takeaway for Steven this Summer is the desire to nurture a parish culture that is evangelizing.
We would also like to give a shout out to the Shine Bright Like the Firmament podcast by Madeline Shepley. This podcast features conversations with scientists who are practicing Catholics to show that faith and science don’t need to be mutually exclusive. The show can be found at the following link:
https://shinebrightlikethefirmament.buzzsprout.com/
Here is an episode of Dad being interviewed on Shine Bright Like the Firmament:
https://shinebrightlikethefirmament.buzzsprout.com/1997204/11145462