This poignant reminder of our pastor's role truly struck home today. This past week, my pastor flew half way round the globe to visit his family, to baptize a new nephew, console a friend on the loss of a loved one, and attend to some personal matters. As a Maronite priest, it is impossible to find another priest to say the Maronite liturgy in his absence. As a pastor, he watches over and cares for all of us. He postponed this trip for more than 1 year in order to find a substitute priest to say the Latin Mass for his Maronite congregation. The last time he went away, many in the congregation did not come to church. The suggestion that perhaps he sould simply assign us to a RC parish in his absence was met with a resounding "No!" He would not leave until he had provided for his congregation.
This priest gives 1000% of himself throughout the year. He does not own a set of golf clubs, but he does have a ladder and we have had to call the bishop to get him down from the roof at both our current and future parish. He counsels, guides, sacrifices and pulls us all together as a family. The greatest tribute we can pay him is to come together to worship with the priest he chose to be our 'pastor' during his absence. And so today, we celbrated the Feast of Corpus Christi, replete with Maronite chants and hymns, much to the pleasure of Fr. Barker who delivered a beautiful homily and spent time with us afterwards, sipping coffee and delighting in the refreshments offered.
Thank you, Abouna, for the love of Christ that you have shared with us. And thank you Fr. Barker for stepping into his shoes and serving as our pastor for the next few weeks. Happy Father's Day to you both!
good article. God bless our priests and send us more holy vocations. Happy Fathers Day.
Memo from Virginia to NYer's Abouna:
Sir, you are a shining example of a priest and a father in more ways than one! God bless you real good!