What do priests do day to day?

Answer 1

Roman Catholic AnswerThat is a tough one, due to the extremely diverse nature of the jobs that priests have. At the one end of the scale, you might have a priest in a Carthusian hermitage, in the middle of the scale, you have a priest in a busy inner city parish, and at the other end of the scale, you have a priest working as a secretary for one of the big congregations in the Vatican, like the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, or something. All of these priests would probably start their day - from the Pope down to the newest priest who was just ordained last week - with saying their morning prayers from The Breviary, followed by Mass. From there until lunch time, it is widely varied depending on what "job" he holds. At lunch he would return to his Breviary and pray mid-day prayer. Then again, before dinner, he would prayer Vespers. Before bed he would probably examine his conscience for the day, say his prayers, and retire. What we think of as the normal run of the mill parish priest would spend the day in the office answering the telephone, interviewing people, holding classes, planning marriages, visiting the sick in the hospital, etc. These days, with the extreme priest shortage in the United States, I do not know a single priest who ever has "some spare time" on his hands. In the parish in which I live, years ago, when it was much smaller, there were three full time priests here, and half a dozen nuns running the school. Now there is one full time priest, an associate (young priest just getting started), and one nun handling requests for the sick and the poor. But the size of my parish now, we could easily employ 4-6 priests full time, and a dozen or more nuns. There are over 3,000 FAMILIES in this parish, so priests are very, very busy people.

Answer 2

When a priest is not in church or the chapel he is out in the community, hospitals, going to homes of the ill members of the church, rest homes, counseling couples for marriage, couple counseling, and helping others to correct his or her past through the Archdiocese. The priest also take care of special orders for Palm Sunday, plan trips to the main Archdiocese Church, they live on sight, and when the priest is on sight he leave the main chapel or the evening church for week days unlocked and receives confession when people come in. A priest of the church holds a lot of responsibility and they have to re-insure that the church is ran by the rules of the local Archdiocese. The priest also is to entertain pilgrimage priest when they come from other Dioces, to speak in the churches.