Relationships

In the convent I used to meet a lot of people. As a franciscan friar and because I had a social status in society, many people knew my name, maybe the way I deal with people, the way I used to preach etc.....

But how many people knew me well? How many people did I know really well? It's quite a small number......even though in church I used to talk with hundreds every Sunday.

Now having a family, especially three children and a wife, I realised that building up a relationship is quite handful task. In a family we don't meet simply because we need each other, like in church where people used to talk to me because of a wedding, a confirmation or for administering the sacrament of reconciliation!

We grow day by day. Sometimes we're watching TV and the young ones say something about the movie. We are surprised that they are learning very fast! Sometimes they used some expressions which were surely uttered at school. Our biggest son, Francesco speaks to us regularly. I notice the change in the character, tastes, wishes etc.....Well he's growing up! Sometimes he too gives us surprises in the sense that what he said just a few days ago has already changed!

Even my wife, she is a human being too. She changes too. She changes the way she handles our children. Our relationship grows and changes too.

It's another reason why I like married priesthood. In many parishes considering the population and the number of available priests, relationships are surely disappearing. People themselves simply look for a priest, just when the need arises!

In married priests' lives, they have a real taste of relationships. We notice changes in each other because we're a family! We stay close to each other even if we don't agree 100%. But that's the joy of a family, that there is always somebody who is going to support you in difficult times.