At workshop recently, as we were discussing the tension that often exists today between younger and older clergy, a middle-aged priest said: "I'd like to bless the younger priests, but they don't want my blessing! They see me as a burnt-out middle-aged ideologue and everything in their attitude and body language tells me that they simply want me to disappear and give them space!"
Maybe they're getting the impression this priest is being patronizing. At least they might if he thinks along the lines of Fr. Rolheiser's analogies.
Many is the parent who feels exactly that way as they stand before a sixteen year old, the mother before her own adolescent daughter; the father before his teenage son. That's also true for many others: the teacher before her adolescent students, the priest or minister in the face of a less-than-appreciative congregation, the coach before his players, and the policeman before a paranoid and belligerent young man.
To turn it around, it might not come across as a blessing if we offered it to our "burnt-out middle-aged ideologue" priests.
Update: Diogenes at Off the Record on the veal presence.
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