Do any of you belong to a parish or a group where you honor the priests in your parish - dinners, cards, remembrance of ordination anniversary, etc? Let’s share ideas here with one another so that we can all take an extra step to honor our priests.
THE BEAUTIFUL HANDS OF A PRIEST
We need them in life’s early morning, we need them again at its close;
We feel their warm clasp of true friendship, we seek them when tasting life’s woes.
When we come to this world we are sinful, the greatest as well as the least.
And the hand that makes us pure as angels is the beautiful hand of a priest.
At the altar each day we behold them, and the hands of a king on his throne
Are not equal to them in their greatness, their dignity stands all alone;
For there in the stillness of morning, ere the sun has emerged from the East,
There God rests between the pure fingers of the beautiful hands of a priest.
And when we are tempted and wander to pathways of shame and sin,
‘Tis the hand of a priest will absolve us – not once, but again and again;
And when we are taking life’s partner, other hands may prepare us a feast,
But the hand that will bless and unite us is the beautiful hand of a priest.
God bless them and keep them all holy for the Host which their fingers caress;
What can a poor sinner do better than ask Him, He Who chose thee to bless?
When the death-dews on our eyelids are falling, may our courage and strength be increased,
By seeing raised o’er us in blessing, the beautiful hands of a priest.
