Hi folks,
Some of you will have heard that our holy father Pope Benedict XVI has made this year ‘The Year of the Priest’ which started on June 19th the feast of the Sacred Heart. It also is the 150th Anniversary of the death of St. John Vianney (Patron saint of parish priests). So what are we doing for it??? In our Diocese over the next year - we are praying each day for a particular priest in a special way. We have a prayer set out for us which goes as follows:
O Jesus, our great High Priest, Hear my humble prayers on behalf of your priest Father ………Give him a deep faith , a bright and firm hope and a burning love which will ever increase in the course of his priestly life. In his loneliness, comfort him, in his sorrows, strengthen him, in his frustrations, point out to him that it is through suffering that the soul is purified, and show him that he is needed by the Church, he is needed by souls, he is needed for the work of redemption. O loving Mother Mary, Mother of Priests, take to your hearet your son who is close to you because of his priestly ordination, and because of the power which he has received to carry on the work of Christ in a world which needs him so much. Be his comfort, be his joy, be his strength, and especially help him to live and to defend the ideals of consecrated celibacy. Amen.
I beleive that this was written by a former archbishop of St. Louis – and what a lovely prayer it is. I think that the first half of the prayer could deeply be our own too.
What do you think?
Sr. D
Hi Sr Divina,
What a lovely prayer! I especially love the bit where it says ‘In his loneliness, comfort him, in his sorrows, strengthen him.’ This in a way brings home to us all how in times of trouble we always seem to have someone by our side to lift us back up on our feet.
essie
Thanks essie, yes i love it too! Because i think it reaches out to us all,and we all need some support from others. One of the things that i said to myself on the day of my solemn profession (12 years ago on Saturday – now), was that i was going to pray for priests in a special way each day and that is what i try to do and now we have been given this prayer to say each day for the next year for a particular priest – its fantastic!!!!
We say this at the end of mass each day with our own daily community prayer. Priests need our support and that of an enclosed community by its daily little sacrifices and prayers – it is such a wonderful grace.
By: essie on 24 June, 2009
at 10:28 am
Dear Sr Divina,
thank you so much for this lovely prayer. I allowed myself to publish a German translation in my weblog.
PAX ! – Hi Amica, great to hear from you again. That’s not a problem – in fact its great. I think it good to be able to share these these with each other and see what others are doing for the year of the priest. Yes, in fact priest’s rely on contemplative nuns’ prayers and i have discovered this myself since i’ve been here and how often they comment on it, about ‘our witness to God in the cloister’ and the things we are doing for God, although hidden from the ‘outside world’ as it were. The more contemplatives there are the more priests we are able to help. I’m not saying that only nuns are contemplatives because they’re not, there are plenty of married and single people in the world that live a truly contemplative life in their own circumstances. I have been pleasantly surprised by what people have said that they rely alot on our ‘daily sacrifices and prayers’, i guess that, that is a part of being a united family of God. We are a united family as well as being a community.
God bless
By: Amica on 26 June, 2009
at 8:33 am