Do you have a deceased priest you'd like me to pray for in 2019? Let me know

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Tis_Bearself

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So as some of you know, I do this Flame of Love devotion (approved by Archbishop Chaput) every Monday for the soul of a deceased priest. As the devotion requires some effort, I found it more motivating if I thought of a particular priest and asked God to please apply the devotion to that priest, although occasionally I will do a week that’s just “for a deceased priest of God’s choice”, or some subcategory like “for a deceased priest who was a US military chaplain, of God’s choice” on Veterans’ Day, or “for a deceased Jesuit priest of God’s choice” etc. Of course, it’s up to God which priest he will choose to apply any benefit I might earn, but I understand Mary and Jesus usually honor requests unless the priest is already in Heaven or Hell of course.

I started doing this in early 2018 and was able to successfully complete the devotion most Mondays for a total of 45 priests prayed for. I included some who were posted in the Prayer Intentions section, as well as every deceased priest I knew from growing up and could confirm or reasonably assume was now deceased, priests who I saw buried in churchyards and cemeteries (there is a custom in the Philadelphia/ Delaware area of burying them on the church lawn), priests who I stumbled on randomly via the Internet or by finding their name in an old book, priests who I saw listed in the Diocesan obits, and priests who made the news for being murdered or dying in accidents.

It is now a new year and I only have 16 priests lined up so far for the 52 weeks. I am running out of priests from my personal life to add. Since I do one priest per week most weeks, I need more priests for the list. Therefore, if anyone would like to submit their favorite deceased priest or even more than one for me to put him down for a devotional Monday (one priest per week), please feel free. You can post him here or PM me.

The person
  • must have been a Catholic priest
  • must be deceased.
You can give me his name (e.g. Father John Smith) or his first name/ last initial (e.g. Father John S.) if you want to keep it private. I also like it if I know a little bit about the priest, like where he served, if he was in an order, when he died, anything else special about him like he loved dogs or assisted the Bishop or was known for leading great retreats, but that’s totally optional. I often research the priests a bit on old newspaper sites like Newspapers.com as one finds interesting tidbits on them.
 
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This is a great idea- thanks for doing this!

After my grandmother died, I found a note tucked into a book of healing prayers which was sent to my great-grandparents by a Monsignor Robert C. Blair. The letter is dated 1968, and he mentioned that the 25th anniversary of his ordination was coming up, so I imagine that he is now deceased. He served as pastor of St. John’s Cathedral in Cleveland around 1977, according to what little I could find on him. I think he would appreciate this, and I certainly would.
 
Great, I’m happy to pray for a Cleveland homie any time. I will look him up in the Plain Dealer paid archives to which I subscribe. I always think those little notes and names in books are one way God notifies us of souls we should perhaps pray for.
 
Fr Philip M Breen, Nashville, TN. He passed away from leukemia. My mother credits him with bringing her into the Catholic Church.
 
Do bishops count? If so, could you please pray for Bishop Robert Morlino? He was truly deserving of the title “The Extraordinary Ordinary”. The Church needs more like him.
 
First, THANK YOU!

I have 2 if that would be ok.

My brother Fr. John. Ordained in, iirc, 1967. Passed away in 2006 from cancer.

The second, is a family friend, Rev. Augustus Black, pastor at what was colloquially known as Fr. Black’s Church, more formally Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament. I did my baptism, first confession and first communion there.

God bless and Happy New Year,
 
Bishops count. Bishop Morlino is already on my priest list for 2019. I also did a Plenary Indulgence for him on 11/24 and said at least one Divine Mercy for him.

Fr. Heilman, who I think is in his diocese, had his whole Facebook prayer group praying for Bishop Morlino.
 
Thom, I thought you’d be interested to see that Monsignor Blair made it into the US Congressional Record.
I didn’t know he was also responsible for the Cleveland airport chapel.


I attended my very first ever guitar Mass at that airport chapel when I was about 5 and my family was flying either to or from Nebraska to visit my grandmother and we went there for Sunday obligation. I remember pretending to strum the guitar on the seats and bouncing up and down while my mother, who was not exactly down with the whole guitar mass idea, got a bit of a chuckle out of seeing me dancing at Mass.

Many decades later when it had gone more “ecumenical”, and no longer had Masses to my knowledge, it was still there with a bunch of prayer cards to Our Lady of Loreto, patron of air travellers. I would go in there every time I passed through that airport, which was often, because at the time I was doing a lot of flying around and sinning and the two things were somewhat connected, and I was not going to church. Going in that chapel was about the most churching I was doing. I would go in there and sit all alone and pray to God over my situation and cry.

Around the end of the 00’s, the city took the chapel out and replaced it with some non-denominational prayer room that is probably designed more for Muslims to go in and pray. There is a large shop where the chapel used to be. This also coincided approximately with the time I stopped flying around so much (airfares went up too high) and stopped sinning in the particular way I had been doing. I am sad about that chapel but the way US society was going, I’m surprised it lasted that long on airport property, especially with all the Blessed Mother and saint holy cards in it. I owe a debt to Monsignor Blair for putting that chapel there.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
Thom, I thought you’d be interested to see that Monsignor Blair made it into the US Congressional Record.
I didn’t know he was also responsible for the Cleveland airport chapel.

https://www.congress.gov/crec/1996/07/24/CREC-1996-07-24-pt1-PgE1355.pdf

I attended my very first ever guitar Mass at that airport chapel when I was about 5 and my family was flying either to or from Nebraska to visit my grandmother and we went there for Sunday obligation. I remember pretending to strum the guitar on the seats and bouncing up and down while my mother, who was not exactly down with the whole guitar mass idea, got a bit of a chuckle out of seeing me dancing at Mass.

Many decades later when it had gone more “ecumenical”, and no longer had Masses to my knowledge, it was still there with a bunch of prayer cards to Our Lady of Loreto, patron of air travellers. I would go in there every time I passed through that airport, which was often, because at the time I was doing a lot of flying around and sinning and the two things were somewhat connected, and I was not going to church. Going in that chapel was about the most churching I was doing. I would go in there and sit all alone and pray to God over my situation and cry.

Around the end of the 00’s, the city took the chapel out and replaced it with some non-denominational prayer room that is probably designed more for Muslims to go in and pray. There is a large shop where the chapel used to be. This also coincided approximately with the time I stopped flying around so much (airfares went up too high) and stopped sinning in the particular way I had been doing. I am sad about that chapel but the way US society was going, I’m surprised it lasted that long on airport property, especially with all the Blessed Mother and saint holy cards in it. I owe a debt to Monsignor Blair for putting that chapel there.
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Thanks for sharing this! That gives me a better glimpse of who he was.
 
Fr. Raymond Gribbin. Pastor of my childhood parish, Archdiocese of Baltimore.
Thanks, Tis_
 
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Fr. Patrick Kelly / Woburn / passed at 94 years old.
Great guy. Old school. Sweet soul.

Pastor / Fr. Richard Messina / Winchester /passed at 78.
Another top notch man of faith.
 
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Yes, thank you for this act of charity.
Please pray for Father Gordon. Gifted confessor.
 
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