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Priesthood in Religious
Life
By:
Fr. James Price, C.P.
Bishop Molloy Retreat House, Jamaica, New York
Many people wonder what a religious priest is. It doesn't mean that
I am a priest who is religious! I hope I already am! My vocation
is really twofold. I belong to a religious congregation called the
Passionists, and I am also an ordained priest. My religious community,
like all orders in the Church, emphasizes a specific aspect of the Gospel
and the life of Jesus. For my community, the Congregation of the
Passion, our main focus is the passion of Jesus. We do not focus on
gloom and doom. We focus on the memory of the Passion of Jesus as the
lens through which we look at life and faith. This means that our
preaching and ministry focuses on reminding God's people that the passion
of Jesus is an act of love that saved us a long time ago and saves us
today. We strive to teach others to look at the passion of Jesus as the
way that God says I love you and am always with you.
As a priest in a religious community my first commitment is to my
profession of vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and a special vow to
keep alive the memory of the passion of Jesus. I took my vows in 1989
after a six-year program of college education and preparation for
Passionist life. I was ordained a deacon by Most Rev. Joseph M.
Sullivan, Auxiliary Bishop of Brooklyn, in December of 1993, and the Most
Rev. Norbert M. Dorsey, C.P., Bishop of Orlando, ordained me a priest in
June of 1994. I live at Immaculate Conception Monastery in Jamaica,
Queens. I live with 35 other Passionist priests and brothers. We pray
together twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. We eat
together and enjoy each others company.
My first years of ministry were
at Immaculate Conception Monastery parish, which is attached to the
monastery. I served in the parish until 1997. I was then assigned as
the vocation director for the Passionists for the eastern United States.
In June of 2000 I was assigned as Retreat Director of Bishop Molloy
Retreat House, Jamaica, also attached to the monastery. The retreat house
has been serving the Diocese of Brooklyn for 77 years. This goes back to
the intent of our founder, St. Paul of the Cross, who wanted to invite
lay people into the monastery to experience solitude and prayer for a
short period of time. This would allow people to reflect more on God's
love so they could go out and live their lives in a new way.
My
vocation as a religious priest is like wearing a special set
of glasses, the glasses of the passion of Jesus. My focus is on community; community
by living with others who have the same vows and are committed to a certain
way of life; community by serving God's people in different kinds of
ministry in the Church. I feel privileged to belong to the Passionist Community
and to serve the Church as a priest. These two vocations allows me to experience
the Gospel being lived in the world through the lens of the passion of Jesus
that is alive today in the people of God who suffer and strive to have hope in
their lives.
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