Invite Your Parish Priest Over for Dinner:

Invite Your Parish Priest Over for Dinner:

Four months after moving into our new house, my husband and I decided to invite our parish priest over for dinner and to bless our new home. We still had piles of unpacked boxes, our toddlers were bouncing off the walls with excitement, and my husband and I were a little nervous. Was our home clean enough? Would we be able to engage in good conversations with our guest? When the doorbell rang, our children raced to the door, and began bouncing around, welcoming Father inside. During dinner, we found that the conversations flowed easily. We shared stories about where we grew up, our families, and various other details as we got to know one another outside of church. We laughed as our daughter spilled the beans that my husband and I were expecting our third child, and when we shared our due date, our priest began enthusiastically sharing all sorts of common, as well as some crazy sounding, saint names for days on and near our due date. After dinner, having continued to fuel our children's excited craziness by feeding them King Cake for dessert that Mardi Gras evening (what were we thinking haha), our children proceeded, bursting with enthusiasm, to give Father the tour of the house. They bounded through the rooms shouting, "This is my room! Bless this room, Father! Bless my closet! Bless the kitchen!" as my husband and I followed them, smiling as our entire home and our kids, who purposely ran ahead into each room, received a good sprinkling of holy water. We had a wonderful evening! And when the evening came to an end, our children talked about Father's visit for days, asking us when we could invite him over again. We told them that we would invite him over again, and then, a couple of weeks later, the pandemic struck. 

Flash forward a year later, while we were at Mass, our priest talked about how Pope Francis is always telling priests to "smell like the sheep," during his homily. He shared that during the pandemic, he'd smelt a lot like the church— which is good— but that he hadn't really been able to get to know the parishioners entrusted to his guidance. In essence, he hadn't been able to get to "smell like the sheep" of the flock he guided. He then asked all of us at Mass to consider inviting him over to our homes, and that he would be having an open house at the rectory (his home) for two days for anyone who wanted to come visit him at his home. Listening to his homily, reminded my husband and I of the promise we'd made our children. We, as the Church, are all the family of our parish priest. So, with the help of my parents and my sister and her family, we planned a family cookout and invited Father over to share a meal and our company.

The day of the cookout arrived, and as Father climbed the steps of our front porch, my daughter exclaimed, "He's here!" Then, before he had a chance to knock, she opened the door, excitedly welcoming him inside. My kids then enthusiastically took Father around the house showing him pictures they'd drawn, their favorite toys and books, and then led him outside offering him chips and lemonade while dinner cooked. Sitting in the backyard after dinner, the deck lights twinkling and fire pit burning as we sipped coffee and ate dessert, the time and conversations we all shared made it a wonderful evening.    

As I reflect upon the times we've invited our parish priest over for dinner, I realize it’s not just important for us as a family, but it is important and tremendously valuable for our children. Not only does it allow them the opportunity to see the priestly vocation lived, but it also allows them to see that priests are human just like them and don't just live/stay at church. So, even if you have young children, don’t be afraid that your house is not the cleanest, that you might not have a crucifix hanging up, or that you can't possibly have your priest over with young children and a baby. Invite your parish priest over for dinner, because it will be a blessing for your family and him.