FR EAMONN MC CAMLEY - SACRAMENTS

Prayer within the life of a priest

The role of every priest is to celebrate the sacraments and to pray. One of the commands of Jesus to his disciples, who were to carry on his work, was that they should be a people of prayer. Time and time again he took his disciples away from the hustle and bustle of daily life to find a quiet place where they could pray and be in touch with God - talk to God in prayer. Jesus taught his disciples to pray to God as Father in what we now call the Lord's Prayer. He promised that whatever they would ask of the Father in his name they would
receive. Whether our prayer is personal or communal, vocal or silent, we have access to the Father through the name of Jesus.

There is a hunger within people today to nourish the soul and prayer is the way. People sometimes ask a priest for a remembrance in prayer. They understand in priesthood, and should be in the priest a man of prayer who
follows the teaching of Jesus. They understand too that the priest is called to imitate Jesus by words and actions - in persona Christi. Prayer is our means of communication with God and so prayer is essential to priesthood because communication is necessary to sustain any relationship and to allow it to grow. We are all called to live lives that are holy and a priest is called each day to holiness so that he may more worthily celebrate the sacraments in the Lord's name.