Ministry

As some of you may know, I do some work for the Pastor (I always capitalize that.) at the church my wife and I were married at. It isn't anything super critical. I write up letters and prepare bulletins, that sort of thing. All the same, I learn a little bit about the life of a minister each time.
This week's lesson was one of the harder ones, while it should naturally be obvious. There was a death in the parish the other day. What this means is that everything else that has been planned gets set on a back burner. I wasn't particularly able to help with anything to do with the funeral. I just had to keep on with the work at hand, and let the Pastor deal with it.
This, I think will be the true test of my worth as her assistant. Can I do the job without her being able to constantly review my work? Especially as regards the writing of correspondence in her name, when she has no time to really look at it. There is much I can't do without her input. As a volunteer, that isn't my real problem. My job is to do what I am able to pick up the things that I can and will let her get past this weekend.
I don't think too many of us realize just how much is involved in being a minister. Lord above knows that I didn't until I started doing some of this work for her. A minister is responsible for the well-being of hundreds of people. It is his or her duty to tend the ill, without showing shock or pity. They assist the poor, without lowering their self esteem. The minister binds a community's ills as best he or she is able, without seeming like a busybody. All of this, plus being a living compass, a guide in living a life benefiting society.
I have to wonder sometimes if that isn't the problem with the Catholic Priesthood. It is a heavy responsibility to have so many souls relying on you. I mean that in a secular fashion, not the religious. Such a large portion of the community looks to the parish priest to lead in all social programs. Priests are asked to live lives apart from their flocks, and yet to set the best possible example. They are asked to join souls in matrimony, and never know that experience for themselves. How are they to counsel a couple having difficulties? How are they to understand the pressures of life on a child a generation removed form their memories?
My grandmother, on my father's side, had high hopes that I would become a priest. She will likely roll over in her grave when I say that I am so glad that I did not. While I will never know the joy of having my own children to raise, I could not imagine my life without my marriage. There are so many things that I cannot agree with the Catholic Church about, I have had a difficult enough time just trying to be a lay catholic.
Religion is a subject that I have to look at from the perspective of psychology. Being an assistant to Pastor is as far as I can go. Life as a minister... No, I don't think so, I couldn't handle that much responsibility.