The Role of the Parish Priest

I came across a great post by Fr. Tucker over at Dappled Things on the Role of the Parish Priest today. I thought it would be an appropriate follow up to my comments earlier this week about how we don't appreciate our priests enough and need to be spending more time in prayer for priests!

On the whole, it was well written and gives an overview of the life of a parish priest. If nothing else, let me say once more, they need our intercession (prayer, not us taking over) in living out their vocation.

My only hesitation/objection about his post was with a long list of various topics people come to discuss with the parish priest when the priest is viewed as a general adviser/counselor. While I can see his point that people often bring to a priest what is beyond his expertise, knowledge, or priestly role, at the same time, I think that there is also a great need for spiritual direction. This being said, I agree that a lot of the things in Fr. Tuckers litany of topics are out of the realm of spiritual direction as well. Furthermore, I know that not all priests are qualified, trained, or called to give spiritual direction. I don't mean with regards to sacramental confession, but more in terms of ongoing spiritual guidance. I don't know what the solution is because there are not enough spiritual directors and there are many people who need direction, whether it be on a particular issue or ongoing.

I would assume that Fr. Tucker doesn't object to spiritual direction, and to be fair, most of his list of topics did appear to have nothing to do with the spiritual life. But¸ then again, to quote him, "My personal favorites are the people who want appointments to discuss the messages they get in dreams and the visions they have of the Virgin Mary or Baby Jesus." I think these people definitely need to be speaking with a priest who can help them discern whether their experience is legitimate or not. By coming to a priest with this experience, they are taking a right step - if they were to simply assume that the "messages" they received were authentic their spiritual lives would be at risk.

In his book "Seeking Spiritual Direction" Fr. Thomas Dubay, SM, speaks of "Extraordinary phenomena: authentic and inauthentic" and the need for spiritual direction.

Since both types [authentic and inauthentic] of unusual experiences are more common than many people suspect, the director must have at least a basic capacity to distinguish one from the other. There are genuine visions, locutions, revelations and "spiritual feelings" (as St. John of the Cross calls them), and there are not a few illusions about all these. Hence, a spiritual guide should understand what they are and how to distinguish the valid from the valid. Likewise important is the proper advice to be given both when they seem to be authentic and when they are not. People are only too easily led off into stray paths by undue attention to what they think are direct communications from God.

In other words, in my opinion, someone who thinks they've experienced an extraordinary phenomena is doing the right thing by approaching their parish priest. If the parish priest doesn't know how to deal with, interpret, or distinguish the authentic from the false, then he should refer the parishoner to another priest he believes could help. Either way, the parishoner is doing the right thing by approaching their priest. Much more worisome in my opinion are those who believe they have experienced extraordinary phenomena and seek no spiritual guidance in the matter.