The Exegete
Paul Murray

More head than heart
more pride than sense,
I tried to sift
God's word like wheat,
hungered for absolute corn.
It was a pointless task-
Since, with the vain
and with the vulgar,
God has shared his bread and,
through his poets and his saints, has said:
"To me nothing human is alien."

Rev Dr Eamonn Conway, Limerick

My vocation, both as a Christian and as a priest, is grounded in the conviction that to God nothing human is alien. This is precisely what the incarnation means. I am spending my life - more accurately, I am trying to spend my life - discovering God in the complexity and mystery of human existence.

My vocation, as I see it, is to enable people to recognise God's graciousness in their everyday experience. In my case, this is being done largely through the service of theology.

What does it take to be a priest?

Faith, of course, but not in the narrow sense of a rigid adherence to certain truths, more in the sense of a trusting that one's life, with all its real failures and as yet unrealised possibilities, is in God's hands.

But today, faith is not enough. The church needs priests who are also leaders. People who can inspire, challenge, motivate, enable and empower others, intelligently. Added to this must be the conviction that the Church can make a difference and that you can work within it, knowing that it is not much different from yourself, a body of genuine strengths and obvious weaknesses.

There may be people thinking of priesthood who are asking themselves if they are strong enough, holy enough or perfect enough to be priests. But is priesthood about perfection? I am not so sure. God knows we have enough evidence that priests are not perfect people. Have we seen convincing evidence that Christians are better people than others are?

What characterises the Christian, I suggest, is not perfection. Instead, in the face of imperfection, it is the conviction that God through Jesus Christ comes to us in the weakness of absolute love offering to penetrate our solitariness, and leaving us in no doubt that we are loved, loveable and capable of giving love.

The priest stands at the foot of the cross, and through the prism of his own humanity, calls others to see their lives as gifts (not merely projects or tasks to be achieved as contemporary culture might have it) and live their lives to the full.

Pope John Paul II has said something similar. According to him, the Church "needs heralds of the Gospel who are experts in humanity, who have penetrated the depths of the human heart" and who, at the same time, are "contemplatives in love with God".

Finally, a vocation is not about giving up one's happiness but rather finding it in depth: "Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do.

The place God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet" (Frederick Buechner).

Rev Denis Carney, C.C., Westport

I see my Priesthood as a gift from God, not only to me but also to my parents, family and all who helped to form me in my faith.

I see it as a privilege to serve God and His people - to be called to bring God in some way into the lives of parishioners and to be entrusted with the task of leading people to God.

Privileges though in today's world bring responsibilities and challenges. The responsibility to deepen my own faith and awareness of God and the challenge of trying day after day to identify with people and where they are at in life, and to respond to them in a Christian way.

I feel that in our society today people need hope - a hope that only God can offer to them. I see my priesthood as a vehicle of that hope - I am the instrument that God has chosen to bring his message of hope to people. That is not always easy but for me to be able to comfort a sick or dying person, to support the bereaved, to be "there" for people who are experiencing personal or family difficulties brings great fulfilment.

Of course all this demands that the priest is close to the Lord in prayer and like everyone else in life I can find that difficult at times too.

While in some ways it is a difficult time to be a priest I honestly think in many ways it was never more challenging and that is good. I came into priesthood out of a desire to live a life committed to God and his message and to help others to respond to God's love in their lives.

I came from a family where there was daily prayer and a deep commitment to their faith on the part of my parents. This and the example of some priests in the locality played no small part in my decision to enter the seminary.

Rev Pádraic Standún, C.C., Tourmakeady

The question: "Why am I a priest?" can be answered in two words: "Jesus Christ."

I trace my becoming hooked on Jesus to the story of the widow's son at Nain as told to high infants in Clogner School in the early fifties.

I thought then that Jesus was great. I still do. I'm not a very conventional priest. A child (still) of the sixties, I am drawn to the social and political, from street protest to electoral politics.

I feel part of the Church of the catacombs, the church in waiting, waiting to cut through outdated laws and conventions that refuse women equality at the altar, or priests to marry, while millions are deprived of Eucharist.

As a priest, novelist / newspaper columnist / soap opera (Ros na Rún) writer, I am a follower of Jesus the storyteller.

I don't believe in telling people what to do. Listen to or read a story. Make up your own mind. "Let those who have ears hear."

Very Rev Stephen Canon Ludden, PP. Clonbur, Co Galway

The priesthood is a calling to certain men to serve God in worship, leadership and friendship. It is to make known that God loves all his people and this love in ongoing. The priest must show, by his lifestyle and example, that God is love. If the priest can convince people that they are a loved people they will respond, they will seek reconciliation and amend their ways. Here the priest is the bridge between God and the people. He goes from the people to God and from God to the people. What an honour! What a privilege to be entrusted with this sacred work!

On reflection, my journey to the priesthood began in my home and in my parish of Clifden.

In my home, I witnessed my parents as prayerful people, where high standards of behaviour were expected from us. Like a good brown cake, a vocation is homemade.

In my parish, the priests were dedicated to their priesthood, never missed their duty, always approachable and very kind to us when we were alter servers. We always regarded them as faithful Disciples of Christ. They made an impression. It is great to be a priest today, to be a light shining in darkness, a salt preserving the flavour of holiness in an unsavoury world. To live every day serving people - the sick, the neglected, the addicted, the less well off, the youth and the common people who form our parishes.

In serving these people, we serve Christ. They are the people for whom He died. Therefore they mean a lot a Him. Again, what a privilege! What an honour to be a priest today.

Father Raymond Flaherty C.C., Dunmore

Well it's hard to image that my first year amongst the people of Kiltevna and the parish of Dunmore has just passed so quickly, time flies when you are having fun.

Well I don't know if all my work is all fun but I can say I've enjoyed it immensely. I suppose you won't stay in any job or career if you're not happy and content.

My vocation as a priest was always at the back of my mind from a very young age. People will have a great influence on you whether you realise it or not, my grandparents, parents, local school priest, neighbours, all had a hand in my vocation.

The environment you grow up in has a lot to offer too. I didn't come from a Holy Joe family background; it was as normal and abnormal, as you'll get in any family.

I'm the eldest in a family of four. I went to National School in Renvyle and from there I went to Clifden Community School and then after doing my Leaving Cert. I went straight into Maynooth College where I spent 6 years.

Looking back over all those years at school I really enjoyed them, they were different stages along life's journey.

My first two years of Priesthood has taken me to three parishes Inis Oirr, Milltown and Dunmore. I've just completed one year in Dunmore Parish.

My first impressions were how am I going to get to know all these people, different surnames, different townlands, but bit by bit it begins to fall into place.

I found my chaplaincy work in the Community School very rewarding. It is a shared appointment with Sr. Assumpta of Dunmore Mercy Convent. I hope that the young people have gained something from our experiences and our working with them. With the Chaplaincy work halved from Fr. McGuinness time it has left me more free time for the parish.

My aim is to visit all the Homes in the catchment of Kiltevna it will take time so please be patient with me. The reason I've undertaken this task is to get to know the people of the Kiltevna area and that they would get to know me.

The priests' vocation is varied from Baptising, Forgiving people to saying Mass to Anointing and burying the dead. Often times people will say to you how could you become a priest in this day and age. Priesthood is not a job or a career but a vocation, a calling something you do for the love of it, not for any financial gain or promotional prospects.

Priesthood is a bridge between the divine and the ordinary life where you make some sense of the various burdens people carry through life.

There's a saying in the Bible from St. Paul "We have to be fools for Christ," fools in the sense that being a priest will often times make no sense to people. The modern world sees your calling as a waste of talent, foolishness, people just can't comprehend why you want to be a priest. It all comes back to having Faith and placing ones total commitment in God.

There will be times when God may seem far away but the Good Days, the Happy and enjoyable times, the encouraging words people give you from time to time will keep you going.

A priest doesn't have all the answers, he is only struggling to make some sense of life too, a line from T.S. Elliot the famous English poet comes to mind, "For us there is only the trying the rest is not or business."

That's what life is about trying, picking ones self up when we fall, and starting again. That applies to all walks of life, farmer, housewife, teenager. The priest.

Very Rev Colm Kilcoyne, P.P.,Cong

Old fellows like me have lived priesthood through remarkable and turbulent phases.

Our year had a reunion in Rome last year. All 40 years ordained. Funny thing, very little grumbling. All prepared to accept failings as well as successes.

One thing we regretted. That we didn't know prayer well enough to help people be a praying community. Behind that is a suspicion that what a priest has to give more than anything else is some sense of intimacy with Jesus Christ.

Some of his powerlessness and nose for broken people.

Very Rev Kieran Waldron, P.P.

"Never grow tired of doing what is right."

The line from the Psalms is an encouragement, as well as a challenge, to any priest to tell him he is still on the course God wants, doing what he is supposed to do.

After almost forty years of priesthood, I am increasingly aware that I am one in a line of priests in the continuing history of the Kingdom of Christ in this diocese. I am conscious that I have served with priests who were ordained almost one hundred years ago, and priests ordained only last year.

Our work goes on into the third Millennium and it is the Lord who sustains us.

When I came to this rural parish of 1500 people seven years ago, I knew only one person in it. It is a reassurance nowadays when I am occasionally asked who such a one is. In fact, I find I am the only one in the parish who feels an obligation to know every single one, old and young - no matter how hard this is.

In tending to the old and infirm on First Fridays, I feel a unique bond, as I listen to them, talk to them and give them the Sacraments of Jesus Christ.

There is, thank God, no house in the parish where a visit from its priest would not be a welcoming one.

Being with my families in all sorts of situations - in joy to sorrow - from Baptism to First Communion, to Marriage and even to the grave and above all celebrating the Sunday Eucharist for an intent congregation constantly makes me realise that we are dealing with the marvels of God and that the priest still has a unique and trusted role in Ireland and the tangible support of God's people.

Very Rev Tony King, P.P., Athenry

How I see my Priesthood?

Ordained in June 1963, we were prepared for a different Church to what we met after Vatican II.

The past 37 years for me as a priest of the diocese has been a time of enormous change - some of it painful, but most of it promising.

Personally, I find it a worthwhile time to be a priest. The links with people are more real in parish life and my sense is that they appreciate the efforts you make to keep ' the rumour of God alive.' They tell you their situation as it is and they expect you to be yourself and up-front with them.

As I see it, priesthood is about relationships - my own personal struggle for harmony within myself, with people and with God.

So often, I find it is by offering some insights into that rugged landscape that people are encouraged to keep up the effort.

To realise that God is out there, up to his eyes in the lives of people, long before I arrive has lifted a burden that was once real for me.

There was a time when I thought I had to be there before Him! A growing number of people, are taking a better sense of ownership of parish and the mission that we all face of handing on the faith.

That gives me the bit of courage and inspiration to shake myself to a better effort. To take time with them, pray and reflect, look at priorities and relax and enjoy their company.

It is a different kind of leadership I am slowly learning.

How I came to it?

There was no flash of light! If anything, watching a setting sun spreading golden rays on Cleggan bay as I was walking for a shoal of fish to come close to shore - a sense of the mystery in a beautiful setting stays with me.

The influence of Frs James Glynn and Seamus Downey, God rest them, and my parents. There was no push. When I sounded the idea with my mother, she asked me did I talk to my father? I had to abide my time.

I was going down the road to Sellema beach that I tentatively mentioned it. There was a long silence. "You must make up your own mind" he said, "it is your life. But I want you to remember this, if you ever find it is not for you, come back here home. We'll have a lot of work on hands."

The imprint of his words will never go away! Looking back now and remembering the waves of emigration in those years, and being one of the lucky ones to have got the chance of secondary education, there was also the urge to give something back.

I felt that being a priest was a way to give people a lift - some kind of leadership on the ground.

What it means to me?

What continually inspires me is all the 'quiet goodness' that is going on in a parish - support in times of bereavement, keeping an eye on an elderly neighbour, visiting people who are sick. And then, there is the extraordinary amount of time and effort and talent that people bring to a variety of clubs and organisations, sport for young people and a lot of caring groups.

A quiet 'underground movement' that goes on where the kingdom of God is simmering away.

As a priest, you pick up the scent of it in the most unlikely corners and from some unusual people. It certainly raises my spirits.

I feel it is important that Sunday Mass makes connections with all of that. It needs to be recognised and appreciated and celebrated. Isn't it a way of nourishing the spiritual hunger around us?

The understanding and kindness of people in the parish, some great old and new friends and the support of a group of classmates is enormous. It makes many things so worthwhile.

Father John Kenny, C.C., Achill Sound

How do I see the Priesthood?

The role of the priesthood is not just about the dispensing of the sacramental and liturgical life of the Church.

A priest is a minister in the community helping to make Christ present in people's lives and alerting them to His presence in each other.

The mission of the Church is the responsibility of all who are baptised and the priest is ordained to support them in that work.

Baptism is the key sacrament to the Church.

Ordained priesthood brings out the common role and responsibility of all the baptised to be the Body of Christ.

Why I came to the priesthood?

I did not become a priest as a result of any "Damascus experience." It was far less dramatic and far more gradual.

Growing up in a rural area with traditional family values part of everyday life the seed of priestly vocation took root in my life.

On leaving secondary school I went on to do an Arts Degree in University College Galway. I soon felt I had not made the right choice.

There was a need in me to find out if I had a vocation to the priesthood, so I applied and transferred my studies to Maynooth. After that it was a term at a time until I was ordained in 1988.

What does priesthood mean to me?

I look to Jesus and I see how He opposed the Pharisees and their over emphasis on the Law and its corollaries. He clashed with Sadducees and how they reduced religion to ritual. The way of Jesus is neither the way of ritual: it is the way of Love.

Priesthood for me is about making that reality more effective and relevant to the lives of people today.

Very Rev James Kelly, P.P., Caherlistrane

In 1948, my Leaving Cert year, I saw a play about the Famine. In it the young woman, to feed her family, did wrong, and for that was thrown out in anger. I felt at that moment that to be able to give dignity to such a person would be worth giving my life. During the week before the Tabernacle, a sermon comes.

It is privilege to preach the joy that gives courage to souls-to so many starved of life's meaning. A person is dying; a family bewildered.

The priest comes and he always brings peace.

Priests of this day are precious to Jesus: we are servants.