The priesthood as terrible beauty: bearing Christ's weight
What the video says
The speaker describes the priesthood as terrible and beautiful, not a career but a bearing of Christ's priesthood that is fearful. God help us, the majority never understand the weight priests carry.
In the Orthodox faith the priest hears confessions, baptizes children, buries the dead, and leads souls to Christ while carrying grief and helping with marriages and family life. The priest then goes home to love his wife as Christ loved the church, lead his family, account for his own soul, and navigate his own struggles. St. John Chrysostom said the priesthood is exercised on earth but ranks among heavenly ordinances.
The speaker thanks priests for hearing confessions, serving the liturgy, answering calls, fielding questions, and helping solve problems, and asks everyone to pray for priests.
Key moments
- It's a terrible thing to be a priest. It's beautiful, you know, in some sense.
- It's not a career. It's something you just bear... the priesthood is Christ's, and so, you know, it's a fearful thing to be a priest.
- The majority of us will never understand the weight that our priests carry.
- The priest isn't just a guy who stands in front of the congregation and gives a weekly TED talk. He hears your most abhorrent confessions. He baptizes your children into the faith. He buries you when you die...
- ...and he does all of this to lead souls to Christ, whilst carrying our grief, dealing with our sins, and helping us maintain our own marriages and our family life.
- Then he goes home and still has his own wife that he needs to love like Christ loved the church, his own family that he needs to lead, his own soul that he needs to account for, and his own struggles that he needs to navigate.
- St. John Chrysostom said, the priesthood is exercised on Earth but ranks among heavenly ordinances.
- To every priest quietly hearing confessions, serving the liturgy, answering our phone calls, fielding our questions, helping us solve our problems, thank you, and to everyone else, pray for your priests. They're carrying more than we will ever know. All glory to God.
The speaker describes the priesthood as terrible and beautiful, not a career but a bearing of Christ's priesthood that is fearful. God help us, the majority never understand the weight priests carry. In the Orthodox faith the priest hears confessions, baptizes children, buries the dead, and leads souls to Christ while carrying grief and helping with marriages and family life.
The priest then goes home to love his wife as Christ loved the church, lead his family, account for his own soul, and navigate his own struggles. St. John Chrysostom said the priesthood is exercised on earth but ranks among heavenly ordinances. The speaker thanks priests for hearing confessions, serving the liturgy, answering calls, fielding questions, and helping solve problems, and asks everyone to pray for priests.
Main points
- Priesthood is terrible and beautiful, not a career but a bearing of Christ's priesthood
- Most people never understand the weight priests carry
- Priests hear confessions, baptize, bury, lead souls to Christ while carrying grief and helping families
- Priests go home to love wives as Christ loved the church, lead families, account for their own souls
- St. John Chrysostom: priesthood exercised on earth but ranks among heavenly ordinances