31 years in the service of God….with heartfelt gratitude ….from all of us

Dearest Father Csaba may God be your guide in the future as well as you reached this special miles stone.

...the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Matthew 7, 12

This morning , I tried to recall that day ,thirty one years ago, the holy mass in Gyulafehérvár , during which I too, was also ordained as a priest by the bishop of that time Bishop Jakab Antal ! I got up and I was thinking what could I give myself as a gift on this blessed , beautiful day . I took out my rosary beads and walking up and down in my room I started praying! It felt good in the stillness of the prayer to lift my soul to God, it was good to feel that even on this day I do not want more than this, a nicer gift , another feast than working in the blessed presence of my creator God !

I give thanks from the bottom of my heart filled by gratitude because God gave me the gift of 31 years of priesthood , He found me worthy , that as one of His humble priests to proclaim the gospel in the big wide world . There is gratitude and thanks in my heart for every minute spent -in prayer , working, with the children , adults at times the troubling with at other times laughing ! I give thanks for every small or “big” person to my Creator,, for those as well who asked for , accepted my love , for those as well who embraced me , lifted me up with their love !! Naturally I also give thanks for those who brought to my attention my faults , sins ,my deficiencies , it is during these difficult moments , temptations when it comes to light what actually is living in the soul of man !!

Taking count this day , looking back on the past years , if I find something painful , is that during these thirty one years apart from the love, work , how much odds and ends, idle chatter , gossip as well managed to get into my life ! The Lord planted the good seed , but in the evening the evil one comes and sows the seeds of dissension into the most wonderful , fertile soil of love , our souls ,hearts into the “homeland" of love since that is where from every word, deed, value comes from ! I am carrying within myself the seeds of dissension , such fallibilities , sins that I thought would be much easier to get rid of , but ones that unfortunately are journeying with me as relentless free riders ! Our sins are greedy parasites that devour the precious time , energy given for the love of God and man!

At the the thirty-first miles stone looking forward I would like to ask for one thing from our Redeemer !! I am asking for the creative power , peace and the freedom of the children of God , that not only can I safeguard , protect members of the big family entrusted in my care , but that I can also serve successfully them in their development physical and spiritual !

For me this narrow, steep path is the joy ,the way of life despite my weaknesses this is the land of miracles , where day after day in the lives of our children , my surrounding wherever I look I can feel the goodness of my Creator God bending down to us, His caring love , that great force of life that bursts into bloom , makes our world fertile !

Journeying humbly on my way .

Father Csaba

translated by dr k.e.