“David’s story is in equal parts funny, honest, moving and unexpected”
Christopher David’s autobiographical account of his journey as a priest offers a particularly special insight into the nature of the Catholic church as it stands today, as well as into the doctrine itself. His account of his relationship with God, and the church (markedly two very different entities) offers something for both Catholic and non-Catholic readers alike.
This is largely because the Priest’s Tale is the one we never hear; the echoes of our own pitiful prayers and agonies tire the walls of the confession box. But as for the tales of those to whom we confess… we are rarely privy to such a detailed and honest account of the life of a man who has chosen to be at the receiving end of our confessions.
An amusing account it is too, for comedy cannot help but arise at times, given the surprisingly awkward situations which such a vocation lands one in, and the pleasantly good natured voice of the author.
“It was my job to help people make a peaceful exit from this world so I told a lady, who seemed to me amenable to the suggestion, that she was dying and… I got no further. The result was blood curdling screams which brought the nurses running.” David’s story is in equal parts funny, honest, moving and unexpected.
“The tale’s highly reflective tone does not go unappreciated”
‘A Priest’s Tale’ touches one at times with its wit and humour, and at others, with its honesty and frankness in regards to the author’s own personal weaknesses at points during his journey, with which the reader cannot help but empathise.
“I had the worst malaise for a priest, a divided heart.”
The tale’s highly reflective tone does not go unappreciated. Rather than dump the bare facts of his life before us, we read the incontestable evidence of the author having deeply considered his experiences, and, having gleaned from them what he could, offers us many an intelligent and thoughtful insight, a result of his constant musing.
Often, and to the reader’s great delight, a particularly heartfelt reflection on the church, God, or more profoundly still, on human nature, strikes one with its simple beauty, as it sits, quite unassumingly, at the end of, or between two paragraphs recounting some particular event.
“There are such depths to the sea of life and most of the time we stay on the surface.”
Filled with factual detail as well as personal insight, his tale is enlightening in more ways than one.
David refuses to shy away from the history of corruption and hypocrisy which runs within the church’s veins, and talks with wisdom of his own attempts to navigate his way through.
“Human organisations tend to have other priorities, particularly the one of self-preservation, and the Church does not escape that temptation.”
Ultimately ‘A Priest’s Tale’, itself completely void of the manipulative or propagandist techniques known to have been used by the church at one time or other, leaves one completely free, after the pleasure of inspection and perusal, to arrive at a concluding judgement about the man, the church and God that is entirely one’s own, and as personal as faith itself.
‘A Priest’s Tale’ by Christopher David is available on Amazon
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