While discussing Father Dave’s duties as First Consultor for the Paulist Fathers, Father Dave, Brett, and Krista talk about handling the more mundane moments of one’s vocation.
Father Dave shares a number of managerial tasks he needed to complete for a series of recent meetings. Brett asks, “When you get caught up with the small things and minutiae of dealing with [other Paulist priests] who you love and you work with, do you say to yourself, this is for Jesus? Do you ever have to just take a time out and be like, I’m working for this goal that I made decades ago?”
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Father Dave compares this experience to the knowledge parents gain as their children grow. “As a celibate priest, I have really no idea what it’s like to be a parent, and I don’t mean to say I have a parental relationship with the rest of the Paulists. But Krista, now that you’ve already had a child, when the second [baby] comes along…you’re not going to be surprised or upset that there’s crying in the middle of night.”
“This is what I’ve been asked to do. When I joined the Paulist Fathers and I made my life commitment, like a parent or spouses, we’ve committed to ‘us.’ I’ve committed to these guys, yes for the sake of the Lord Jesus, but ultimately, I’ve made my life commitment in my final profession to these guys,” Father Dave continues. “For the first 20 years, I didn’t have to act in this role [as First Consultor];There was somebody else doing this for me. When I would show up at a meeting, there was somebody making sure that everybody got checked in, and those kinds of things. Now that falls to me.”
Krista echoes Father Dave’s sentiments and the forms of Christ-like service. “It’s all part of your given vocation of how you’re serving. You probably didn’t think you would be buying chips for your brother priests, but this is how you’re called to serve in this particular moment, and you’re going to be called to serve in a different way in a couple years,” she notes. “What you said regarding ‘someone did it for you before’ resonates, because as a mom I now appreciate and recognize what my mother did for me and the emotions of what she was feeling. You don’t want to think that your mom wasn’t super happy taking care of you, but she was probably relieved to put you down when you stopped crying. She probably was going through a lot.”
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“I had a very wonderful and loving childhood, and that’s because of what my mom did,” Krista continues. “So now it is on me to give that to [my daughters], even when it feels really rough, and I don’t feel like waking up this morning to get one ready to go to preschool at 7 a.m.”
Brett shares similar sentiments about his clinical hours required to be a licensed clinical social worker. “I know that I’m called to do therapy for people, and I know that I’m going to be good at it, but some things are part of the job,” he says. “It’s for a bigger goal. The smaller things play a role in that, and you can become more peaceful about those things.”
