THE LAUGHTER OF A PRIEST TO BE (A DEACON)

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With his hand on his jaw, he sits in dilemma as the shadow of doubt crosses his feeble mind. His life seems a mystery. He sees himself dumped in a maze. Like in a big ocean, he can swim no more for his forceps and biceps are weary. Who am I? What am I? He asks. He is a deacon, newly ordained whose vocation has reached the state of mystery and misery. The expectations and the joys have faded like a beautiful bouquet before the sun.

Who is a deacon? Deacon is usually associated with Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox Churches. A deacon is an ordained minister of an order ranking below that of priest.

I want to be a priest, he said to his youthful self. What seemed white now looks black. Like yesterday come and gone, ten years have swiftly passed by. Will no child bear my name? Will I never enjoy the pleasure of a woman? It is a sacrifice! A solemn voice consoles him. Will I derive joy and satisfaction for my soul if I make this sacrifice? Why not I take another option perhaps. Is it too late? Questions rhetorical enough boggle his mind. He is cut up in the web. He thinks aloud, “what happens to my sexuality? Why did I take this decision?”

Ignorance fills his mind. He suffers from the poverty of the mind. He experiences dark moments of his life. In the shadow, he chuckles in grief. Pain is his lot. His bones are broken. What a wasteful time, he thought. Hopelessness becomes his friend and despair embraces him. All his efforts had been like a fruitless gaze into an empty future.

Behold, out of the dark cometh once a ray of light, a beacon of hope. A reassurance, a strength-giving peace and joy. The flowers shall yet blossom for the time of drought is gone. Birds shall chirp and fly out of their nests for the sun has risen and dew now falls on the hills.

Trumpets shall yet blast and mountains shall dance. Leaves shall flap and the fields green yet again. Your intentions shall be purified says the one who calls. Eyes have not seen and ears have not heard of the glory he has prepared.

The new moon shall illumine the dark night. There shall be an uninterruptible incessant flow of the stream. It shall be as paradoxically beautiful as the ox-bloody and reddish-yellowish sunset and sunrise. The glory shall be like the steaming of streams like the stems of aerial shrubs.

Have a retrospective introspection amidst retinue of galaxies of hope and tombs of despair. It shall be like the rhythmic gurgitation of pasty hays by ruminants. Have a divine adventurous venture into nature. Experience the sieving, the doing away with the residue and making do of the solvent of life. Have a cogent cognition of the Will. Discover the mission and redirect the vision. This will make holy the unmeetable expectations and unmet wants.

There shall thus be a divine illumination opening the pathway to all the unknown. Then there shall be an unraveling of all secrets hidden within the dark walls of the grave. Then at last, he shall glory in the lord for it is a sacrifice that costs and the deacon shall yet laugh.

FEW THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT A PRIEST
A priest is celibate. He may undergo hard times, that might be very challenging, yet they spend most of their times over the prosperity of the congregation and the parish, which, while being an incredible satisfaction much of the time, may likewise be a gigantic weight. Let us envision a priest to be experiencing crisis, coupled with the struggle to run a parish, would be a painful strain.

It has been said that an incredible weight on the Catholic priest is loneliness. Numerous clerics have relatives living near and far, they additionally have the organization of their parishioners; and obviously they should, in fact should, have companions and friends. Although they do live without anyone else, however that should not to mean segregation as such. It is extremely imperative, I think, for laypeople to comprehend their priests.

Other stress a priest experiences, I think, it emerges when the clergy needs to manage troublesome individuals, an affair that all ministers will have at some stage or another. These troublesome individuals will come in three fold: laypeople, different clerics, and priests who holds administrative offices.