This weekend is an especially exhausting one for Catholic clergy — is it Monday yet? — but it’s more frenetic and harried in regions hard hit by the priest shortage.

The Baltimore Sun has a case in point:

On Palm Sunday morning, the Rev. Jim Hannon awoke at 5:30, prayed and then exercised on a treadmill for 20 minutes. By 7:30, the priest was set for a day of ministry in Western Maryland.

That’s when the real workout began.

The 55-year-old Hannon pastors six churches in Allegany and Garrett counties, the result of a priest shortage that the Archdiocese of Baltimore faces in Maryland’s westernmost jurisdictions.

The number of priests in the region, on the decline for years, has dwindled further since 2004, from 14 to 10. As Catholic churches throughout the world celebrate Holy Week, the sacred – and busy – period on the Christian liturgical calendar, Hannon’s road-warrior routine has become even more frenetic.

Palm Sunday was an apt illustration.

First came an 8 a.m. service at St. Michael Church in Frostburg, then a change of clothes before driving to Grantsville for St. Ann Church’s 10 a.m. service.

An 11:30 brunch-fundraiser at a church couple’s home was next, followed by the annual Palm Sunday parish dinner at St. Peter in Westernport, about 40 minutes away.

Back home that evening, Hannon prepared oil stocks to take to the cathedral in Baltimore the next day for Chrism Mass and did administrative work.

“It’s great to see how he manages in a kind of uncomplicated way,” said Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien. “He has a natural way to relating to everybody and takes on the challenges he does with great serenity.”

A Day Planner for Hannon would read like War and Peace. On a given day he goes from celebrating Mass to performing administrative duties to visiting the sick to holding staff meetings to raising money.

Moreover, his service comes at a time when St. Michael is closing its elementary school and St. Ann is holding services at a funeral home while rebuilding a church destroyed by fire nearly three years ago.

“It is very difficult to make decisions for one parish, let alone six,” said St. Ann parishioner Jennifer Adams. “He is truly a shepherd and has taken on that role beautifully.”

Check out the rest at the link, and let’s keep men like Fr. Hannon in our prayers. They need it.

PHOTO: After Mass, the Rev. Jim Hannon folds his vestments in the sacristy of St. Michael Church, Frostburg, before heading to Grantsville to celebrate Mass at St. Ann Church. (Baltimore Sun photo by Algerina Perna.)