For the good of the church, others say, I should have written the book. Let me turn for a moment to the inner life of the priest. We priests need to be honest about our inner lives. In support groups with priests and in small circles of trusted friends we need to find the courage to be appropriately open about the joys and sorrows, the hopes and disappointments that make up our lives. Too many of us, I fear, live in quiet desperation.
Priests don t like whiners, and rightly so.
But far too many of us are out of touch with the seasons and rhythms of our souls. Some of our best spiritual writers today remind us that we have some serious grief work to do. We know that if you want to keep a group from growing, keep it from grieving. The same can be said of the individual man, woman, or child. But we tend to be suspicious of grieving.