LIFE inevitably has its sadnesses, which are part of every path of hope and every path towards conversion. But it is important to avoid wallowing in melancholy at all costs, not to let it embitter the heart.
These are temptations from which not even clerics are immune. And sometimes we unfortunately come across as bitter, sad priests who are more authoritarian than authoritative, more like old bachelors than wedded to the church, more like officials than pastors, more supercilious than joyful, and this, too, is certainly not good. But generally, we priests tend to enjoy humour and even have a fair stock of jokes and amusing stories, which we are often quite good at telling, as well as being the object of them.
