Please all the people all the time?

Please all the people all the time?

Serenity Courage Wisdom

I have been called a lot of things over the years.

Friendly banter from friends, peoples and peers.

A vocation, a bridge builder not a people pleaser.

But here’s the thing, a spoiler, a tantalising teaser……

Christianity is lived when enemies are loved, those who hate are prayed for.

You can’t please all people at all times, so just be yourself at the heart’s core.

I am not a door mat on that bridge towards eternity, honestly, I don’t go for that.

Finding many rooms in the heart for Christ, well this a worthwhile human touch.

But renting rooms in my head for those who are displeased, well, not so much.

A New Years resolution, the hearts determined revolution, a kind of a re-evaluation.

Be serene, courageous in the wake of the displeased, make wisdom a prayerful intention.

Fr Patrick Brennan January 2024 ©

I wrote this poem January 2024 a New Years resolution of sorts.

As a priest I am called to follow Christ, I am sure he does not want me to please him, or pay lip service to his words. A vocation is not about courting popularity. I am always touched by images of priesthood that involve the bridge builder, the good shepherd, these speak to my experience of the last 32 years and sum up vocation as a call to love, and love is not as easy as it seems. I don’t always choose to love, I don’t always build bridges towards heaven and I sometimes doubt my worthiness to be a good shepherd. Yet through it all I know I am loved Christ has said so, and therefore I don’t have to please everybody every time, but I do have to love and that is far more challenging!