In this Year for Priests parishes have been praying weekly for priests.
The pope inaugurated the year ‘to deepen the commitment of all priests to interior renewal for the sake of a stronger and more incisive witness to the gospel in today’s world’. The closer to God that the priest is, the better equipped he is to carry out his priestly duties.
The Porirua Branch of the Knights of the Southern Cross considered the pope’s message. We can all pray for our priests during Sunday Mass – that is fairly easy. But was there something else that each of us could do?
This made us think about the role of a parish priest and the help each of us with our individual talents could offer to priests in their role and we decided to make this the topic of our annual writing competition.
The topic for the KSC 2010 writing competition is:
‘This year we have been thinking about our priests. What do you consider to be the three most important duties of a parish priest? Outline three ways that you can assist your parish priest to fulfil his vocation.’
Once again the competition is free to enter even though we have increased the total prizes to $1200.
In addition, we have boosted the number of prizes available to youth – now they have three categories; under-14, under-16 and under-18, and their total prizes are $800. For the more mature parishioners we have an over-18 category with prizes totalling $400. Full details of the competition are on the archdiocesan website: https://www.wn.catholic.org.nz/?sid=172 or email kscnzns@xtra.co.nz
Copies of the competition poster are being sent to every parish and to DRSs in Catholic colleges for display on noticeboards.
So continue praying for our priests. And even if you don’t enter the competition, please think about the role of parish priests and what you can do to help them.