Our Priests, holy and not-so-holy, Need Our Prayers
So many of us draw a dividing line between those priests who have served us well, and those who we struggled to find a compliment for. Those who were faithful to Holy Mother Church, and those who drove us crazy with their dissent from Her teachings. Those whose Masses were so very beautiful and full of reverence, and those whose Masses varied with the priest’s whims and left much to be desired. the point is, all of our priests need our prayers.
Some always pray in thanksgiving for holy priests, while some continue to pray for the conversion of those who do not seem so. The truth is, we should be praying for all of them. We should rightly give thanks for those holy men who dedicate themselves with obedience to Holy Mother Church. Those priests who struggle with orthodoxy certainly need our prayers as well. But so do those men who are lukewarm, those who are questioning their vocation, those we are in formation to be ordained, and those who are considering the choice of that journey. All priests, regardless of our judgments of their actions, need our prayers. And here is a wonderful way to start:
O Jesus, our great High Priest,
hear my humble prayers
on behalf of your priests.
Give them a deep faith,
a bright and firm hope,
and a burning love
which will ever increase
in the course of their priestly life.
In their loneliness, comfort them.
In their sorrows, strengthen them.
In their frustrations,
point out to them
that it is through suffering
that the soul is purified and
show them that they are needed
by the Church,
they are needed by souls,
they are needed for the work
of redemption.
O Loving Mother Mary,
Mother of Priests,
take to your heart your sons
who are close to you,
because of their priestly ordination
and because of the power
which they have received
to carry on the work of Christ
in a world which needs them so much.
Be their comfort be their joy,
be their strength,
and especially help them to live
and to defend
the ideals of consecrated celibacy.
Amen.
– John Joseph Cardinal Carberry
Archbishop of St. Louis
What I wish every Catholic knew: Our priests, past, present and future, need and deserve our prayers.
What I wish every Catholic would do: Pray for our priests, daily.
August 29th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
This is a call to traditions. Very frequently, we are wont to condemn, castigate and run down our priests. Priests are supposed to live holy and Christ-like lives, but mind you, they are first, human beings as well. Let us always pray for our beloved and dear priests always.
November 25th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
As a seminarian who loves the Church and the call to Holy Orders that God grants to those whom He wills, I thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for your call to pray for priests. And you are right, all priests need our prayers: the faithful, so that they may continue serving Christ and His Church faithfully and joyfully; and the less-than-faithful, so that they may see the greatness of the vocation to which they are called, and turn back towards the fullness of Truth and fidelity to the Magisterium.
Yes, thank you for praying for your priests (and for seminarians as well!). This is how the Church will grow in holiness.