Homily: 5 Things I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me

Here it should be noted that no priest thinks, in the seminary "I can't wait to preach on sexual sins, or to tell people they need to get annulments."  It isn't fun, and not something anyone looks forward to.  But no one thinks when they get married "I can't wait to have a difficult but important conversation with my spouse" and no one, during the pregnancy of their wife, thinks "I can't wait to have all the hard conversations with my child."  Are these rules and stipulations about receiving the Eucharist the end of the story...or the map that one has to follow to enter into a vast and marvelous and wonderful life?

I turn to G.K. Chesterton: "On the view that priests darken and embitter the world: I look at the world and simply discover that they don’t.  Those countries in Europe which are still influenced by priests, are exactly the countries where there is still singing and dancing and coloured dresses and art in the open-air.  Catholic doctrine and discipline may be walls; but they are the walls of a playground.”