A Prayer for Priests
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.
Lord Jesus, we Your people pray to You
for our priests. You have given them to us
for our needs. We pray for them in their needs.
We know that You have made them priests
in the likeness of Your own priesthood. You
have consecrated them, set them aside,
anointed them, filled them with the Holy Spirit,
appointed them to teach, to preach, to minister,
to console, to forgive, and to feed us
with Your Body and Blood.
Yet we know that they are one with us
and share our human weaknesses. We
know that they are tempted to sin and
discouragement as are we, needing to be
ministered to, as do we, to be consoled and
forgiven, as do we. Indeed, we thank You for
choosing them from among us, so that they
understand us as we understand them, suffer
with us and rejoice with us, worry with us
and trust with us, share our beings,
our lives, our faith.
We ask that You give them this day the gift
You gave Your chosen ones on the way to
Emmaus: Your presence in their hearts,
Your holiness in their souls, Your joy in their
spirits. And let them see You face to face
in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread.
We pray to You, O Lord, through Mary
the mother of all priests, for Your priests
and for ours.
Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.
Prayer for the Church
We pray You, O almighty and eternal God,
Who through, Jesus Christ, hast revealed
Your glory to all nations, to preserve the works
of Your mercy, that Your Church, being spread
through the world, may continue with unchanging
faith in the confession of Your name. Amen.