Qualities of a Successful Priest
Qualities of a Successful Priest
There are qualities which, if present in one of the priest-fathers, help the success of his service and the gathering of the people around him, among them:
1- Strength of Teaching:
That the priest be one who nourishes his people in terms of knowledge, with depth and spirituality in his sermons, and breadth and richness in his information, so that they gather around him feeling that they benefit. Thus was the Lord Jesus Christ, the Great High Priest, and thus were our fathers the apostles, and thus were the first bishops, the teachers of the Church.
Likewise were many teaching priests in our generation, such as Archpriest Philotheos Ibrahim, and Fr. Mansa Yohanna, priest of Mallawi.
2- The Comforting Spiritual Voice:
There are those who succeeded because of the influence of their voice in their prayers and liturgies, so that people loved to come to church in order to hear him praying, even if he did not preach. Among the examples of this type is His Grace the late Anba Binyamin, Bishop of Menoufia, whose voice everyone longs to possess on recorded tapes.
3- Visiting the People:
The priest who visits the people of his district house by house, and family by family, succeeds greatly. He has a personal relationship with every individual of his church congregation, knows each one by name and by situation, asks about him, follows up on his circumstances, and reassures him. Every person feels that he receives special care from this priest-father. Indeed, everyone feels his fatherhood and pastoral care… He does not have a chosen group to whom he تخص his visits, but rather he belongs to all, treating everyone with the same love, the same concern, and the same care.
4- Spiritual Guidance:
Often the reason for a priest’s success is that he is a successful father of confession, to whom people flock asking him to be a father to them: because he is experienced in the human soul and its weaknesses, experienced in the wars of the devils and the way to resist them, compassionate toward sinners, giving them guidance that exactly suits their condition, beneficial to them, and which they are able to carry out. He does not recoil from their sins, nor is he harsh with them… Among the examples that succeeded in this field is the late Archpriest Mikhail Ibrahim, who had spiritual children from many countries.
5- Spirituality of Life and Exemplary Conduct:
The priest who is spiritual and exemplary in his behavior succeeds greatly in his service and in winning the trust and love of the people. The people see him as though he were a living Gospel. Blameless, he gives them an idea of practical religion, and becomes a model before them in everything. They respect his life and his qualities, and are ready to obey him, and he teaches them even without speaking.
Among the important qualities that must be present in the spiritual priest are chastity of hand from the love and accumulation of money, and chastity of tongue with the sweet word that they hear from him. Also his humility, gentleness, and forbearance, and his distance from anger and irritability. Everyone feels that he is a blessing in the church, and a source of blessings…
6- Activity and Projects:
Also among the reasons for the priest’s success is that he be a flame of activity. The people feel that by his ordination new life has entered the church, that he exerts all his effort to uplift it, and that every work his hand touches must succeed. At all times there are new projects for caring for everyone, whether for the poor, the youth, the workers, the elderly, the expatriates and female expatriates, or construction and building… etc.
7- Answered Prayer:
Perhaps among the greatest qualities of the successful priest is answered prayer, such that every person with a need or a problem feels that if he resorts to this blessed father and he prays for him, his need will be fulfilled and his problem resolved, because God is close to his lips and does not refuse him a request…
One of the priest-fathers may combine more than one of these qualities; however, the ideal priest is the one who combines them all together.
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