St. Faustina's "Prayer for Priests"

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

To pray for priests has been surging within my soul, at some times more than other times. Today, reading the following prayer from St. Faustina’s “Diary”, was an encouragement to keep cooperating with this grace. She wrote:

1. O my Jesus, I beg You on behalf of the whole Church: Grant it love and the light of Your Spirit, and give power to the words of priests so that hardened hearts might be brought to repentance and return to You, O Lord. Lord, give us holy priests; You yourself maintain them in holiness. O Divine and Great High Priest, may the power of Your mercy accompany them everywhere and protect them from the devil’s traps and snares which are continually being set for the souls of priests. May the power of Your mercy, O Lord, shatter and bring to naught all that might tarnish the sanctity of priests, for You can do all things.

I am most inclined to pray for priests (and deacons) on Sunday mornings when I know they will be preaching at Mass. Anyone else been praying more for priests – especially during this Year of Mercy?

Tomorrow is Saturday, and having read St. Faustina’s prayer, I want to offer my Rosary and Divine Chaplet in a special way for priests hearing confessions.

 

[Casilda]

LITANY FOR PRIESTS

Let us pray for:

The Holy Father, fill him with courage and grace, Lord.
Cardinals, archbishops, and bishops, give them a shepherd’s heart, Lord.
Diocesan priests, fill them with your Spirit, Lord.
Priests in religious orders, perfect them in their call, Lord.
Priests who are ill, heal them, Lord.
Priests who are in danger, deliver them, Lord.
Priests who are weak, strengthen them, Lord.
Priests who are poor, relieve them, Lord.
Priests who have lost their zeal, renew them, Lord.
Priests who are sad, console them, Lord.
Priests who are worried, give them peace, Lord.
Priests who are old, sustain them, Lord.
Priests who are alone, accompany them, Lord.
Missionary priests, protect them, Lord.
Priests who are preachers, enlighten them, Lord.
Priests who direct souls, instruct them, Lord.
Priests and religious who have died, bring them to glory, Lord.

For all priests, give them Your wisdom and knowledge.
For all priests, give them Your understanding and counsel.
For all priests, give them reverence and awe of You.
For all priests, give them patience and love.
For all priests, give them obedience and kindness.
For all priests, give them a burning zeal for souls.
For all priests, give them virtues of faith, hope and love.
For all priests, give them an intense love for the Eucharist.
For all priests, give them loyalty to the Holy Father and their Bishops in
communion with him.
For all priests, give them respect for life and human dignity.
For all priests, give them integrity and justice.
For all priests, give them humility and generosity.
For all priests, give them strength in their labors.
For all priests, give them peace in their sufferings.
For all priests, give them great love for the Trinity.
For all priests, give them great love for Mary.
For all priests, let them be the light of Christ.
For all priests, let them be the salt of the earth.
For all priests, let them practice sacrifice and self-denial.
For all priests, let them be holy in body, mind and spirit.
For all priests, let them be men of prayer.
For all priests, may faith shine forth in them.
For all priests, may they be concerned for our salvation.
For all priests, may they be faithful to their priestly vocation.
For all priests, may their hands bless and heal.
For all priests, may they burn with love for you.
For all priests, may all their steps be for the glory of God.
For all priests, may the Holy Spirit fill them, and give them His gifts in abundance.

Let us pray.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit, hear the prayers we offer for our priests.
Let them know clearly the work that You are calling them to do.
Grant them every grace to answer Your call with courage, love, and lasting dedication to Your will.
We ask Mary’s intercession as their loving mother. Amen.

 

[tawny]

Praying with all.

 

[Trishie]

Jesus prays for His chosen ones

“O holy Father, protect them with Your name those whom You gave me out of the world. I entrusted to them the message You entrusted to me and they received it. They have known that in truth I came from You, they have believed that it was You who sent me. For these I pray, not for the world. Bless and consecrate them, and I consecrate myself for their sakes. I do not pray for them alone; I pray also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may be holy by being one as we are. And I desire, Father to have them in my company where I am to see this glory of mine in Your kingdom…” [John 17:9, 17:20, 17:11]

Dear Jesus, I pray for You, in You, and with You. I keep watch with You, and remain in You within the Mystical Body, united with Your own eternal prayer of praise, thanksgiving, redemption, and love.

God, please receive my whole existence as wholly contained within Jesus’ prayer, in supplication for Priests and souls.

That he may be holy

Thank You, God, for the gift of each priest to us. I offer him back to You. Fulfil Your will in him. Grant that he may bear fruit a-hundredfold, that his spirit is made perfect in Your sight.

Through Your Spirit, please witness the beatitudes in him. Let his prayer be, “Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, I love You, above all, with my whole being. My brothers and sisters of all humankind, I love you as myself, as God loves me. I love you with His love poured through my being out of my self-giving in Him.”

Pardon each priest for his sins and their consequences. Pardon any way that he ever fails in his commitment to You. Restore and heal him. Lead him to overcome his faults.

Transform into good anything that he may spoil by weakness, sin, or lack of knowledge.

May Your priest so belong to You, may he be so transformed by Your love that his faults no longer constitute offense in Your sight, nor foster anything that impedes Your will.
This, my soul, in trusting confidence, implores, giving thanks for Your merciful love.

You, our Creator and our destiny, who said at the beginning of time, “Let there be light” and there was light, now say, “Let it be as is requested in these prayers”, and it shall be so. My God, I ask only what You surely desire to give!

 

[Trishie]

God, succour Your Priests and Religious

Come, God, I ask Your full attention to this prayer for Your Priests and Religious that rises from my heart and echoes endlessly through my life. Come; respond with deepest nurturing love to the needs of these who dedicate their entire adult lives in service of others for Your sake.

Their Sacramental vocation issues directly from You. They freely give their lives to worship and service. Reward with ever-greater blessings—their worship, their generosity, their kind acts of service, their renewals, and their fidelity. As they persevere in faith and hope, many develop into the kindest and wisest persons.

Regard them compassionately with the human eyes of Your divine Son. Respond to each as to Your beloved Jesus. Be present to them daily throughout the years, for life is long and diverse, with times of hope and fulfillment and times of routine and disappointment.

Observe tenderly! Are there not periods when Priests and Religious may be overwhelmed with grief, discouragement or depression! Are there moments when others’ lack of appreciation hurts them? Are there periods when they may experience boredom in prayer or in the endless demands of their apostolates! Are there days when they may wonder if in their youthful hope and ardour, they threw away their lives for no real purpose; and times when they glimpse sweeter, more fulfilling possibilities reflected from others’ lives?

Are there times when they wonder if their prayers, teachings, or efforts, offered sometimes at great cost to self, do actually ignite inspiration or spark progress in the lives of God’s people? In times of doubt, they may be trapped in the dilemma, “does this God I give my life for truly exist, and as loving God?”, yet there is no certainty or verification either in faith or in unbelief. Have mercy on such barrenness or struggle. Lovingly tend Your chosen ones in these hardships. Lead them to flourish in Your love and grace.

Let no person or circumstance denigrate their Sacramental identity and worth. Inspire others with humble respect for their human progress to wholeness and holiness. Priests can be ruined in an instant by another’s delusion or lie or by one moment’s alleged weakness. Give them the justice of others’ discernment and reasonable mercy. Give them wisdom to serve with discretion yet without anxiety. Alert them to hidden threats from others’ neuroses or perfidy. Let potential false accusers recognise the sinful presumption of judging or destroying those called by God into service. Provide witnesses to their integrity and goodwill and render detractors’ testimony ineffectual. In Jesus’ name, I humbly yet insistently demand as baptised child of God, that You will triumphantly defend Priests and Religious from sin and from others’ betrayal. Angels of God constantly protect and intercede for them.

They have generously relinquished some lawful human comforts and rights, even the fundamental right to family, although many would make the best of parents and spouses. You made man and woman for complementary purposes that are denied them by Church rule in order to free them to serve each person as loved Other, so it is incumbent on You, the Church, and their people to support them in this superhuman law. Let all people respect and guard their vocation, for their lives extend through years across the range of human need and possibility.

They have no career or home or garden of their own. They have no one of their own to embrace them or to speak with loving tenderness to them. They may receive and give only limited human touch and emotion despite personal humanity deepened by compassion for others. They will, once, twice, or more, love another deeply, as every human does, yet they are required to resolutely guard their solitary commitment to God and to the good of others’ souls. They may sometimes dislike someone, but will seek to extend kindly compassion towards everyone.

Our God, my being blazes with prayer for each one imprisoned in goodwill and solitude when doubt, conflict, anxiety or loneliness assail them. It rises with the command of love and compassion that You give them vivid moments when they truly know and feel Your love and presence and the loving concern of their brothers and sisters on earth and in heaven. Be there for them, God, with Your Spirit and Your angels, in their fervour, in their successes, in their disappointment about themselves, in their doubts about their usefulness to others, in their boredom, in their faithful years of generous effort that seem to bear little fruit and contain little for their human selves for brief or extended times.

I am incensed for sake of each person who even for a period feels trapped, confused, alone in their choice to love God above all and to sacrifice their lives for others in prayer and service. I offer my determined call to You, our God to have gentle, tender, practical mercy upon the whole humanity of Your Priests and Religious. With fierce urgency, and with gentle persuasion, I ask You to carry them powerfully through their times of confidence and faith, and to nurture them gently through their times of pain, loneliness, and doubt. Direct them to seek adequate recreation and nurture of self and each other in music, hobbies, sports, reading and interactive humour and conversation, as part of their quest for the human wholeness that constitutes holiness.

I plead for fullness of grace and mercy for all these men and women throughout the ages.
God, Spirit, Mother, Saint and Angel are able to bless and comfort you. Then come, God, come Spirit, come Mother, come Saint, come Angel, with great love and power and tenderness, to me, each priest and Religious. This is my clear, unquenchable prayer rising from my will, and it is God’s love in me for you. July & October 2005

 

[Trishie]

Love and commitment

Loving God, for Jesus’ sake You look on Your priest and love him more than human mind can conceive! Through Your Spirit, please transmute his humanity through Your love and unite him with You! Make Your love to be his love, Your thoughts to be his thoughts, Your truth to be his truth, Your ways to be his ways, Your strength to be his strength.

Transform him into a fountain of Your goodness and love, a source of salvation to the whole human spirit of Your people. Fill him with loving-kindness, with peace and faith to share with others.

Ever deepen his contemplation and comprehension of You, and commensurately, his love and service. Intensify his perception and understanding of other human beings. Deepen his ability to communicate Your gospel to them, and commensurately, his love and service.

Expand in him the gift of opening others’ hearts and minds, so that they become receptive to Your love and teachings. Let others be thus inspired to seek God, rather than concepts of God.

Wherever he goes, whatever he does, whatever he says or preaches, endow Your priest with grace and wisdom to inspire others to love and faith. Empower him to inflame others’ complacency into genuine and faithful practice of Your greatest commandment, of love for You above all and others as self!

Almighty God, make him the saint You mean him to be. With thanksgiving, I offer him to Your merciful love! Lent 1980

The Sacraments
Eternal Father, through Jesus You give Your priest power to minister Your Sacraments. Grant that he may always do so with deep love and faith.

Let those he baptises belong always to You. If at some time in their lives they fail to trust Your love and to share Your gifts, protect them through this time and lead them safely back with renewed faith and obedience to Your will.

Let all who are present at the Eucharist with him truly share in it. Let all who receive Communion through his ministry become aware of the greatness of this gift. Let those who confess to him find true sorrow and absolution—and let him speak to them out of Your knowledge and love of them.

Let anyone he anoints in sickness and in death be healed in spirit, comforted by Your peace, and absorbed eternally into You through Your divine mercy. Along with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, give to those to whom he administers Confirmation a deep abiding desire to grow in You and the urge constantly to invoke the Spirit’s guidance.

Let all whom he blesses in Matrimony be given strength and wisdom to build and maintain unity in Your faith and love—and may they transmit these gifts to their children.

Let he who is ordained, wholeheartedly fulfil his vows and duties, and Your will for him, so that he may attain the highest degree of service and sanctity possible to him and he may be truly Christ amongst us. Let all the graces and blessings that You intend to flow from these Sacraments in which Your Priest is instrument, cascade from his ministering, to all persons who partake and behold

 

[Trishie]

Vulnerable human reality

Jesus, You chose Your priests from among Your people, yet in the sacramental ‘laying of hands’ You do not perfect them. Like those they serve, they need pardon, healing, prayer and faith as they seek grace to become humble, genuine witnesses of Christ. Through Sacrament and intercession, teaching and act, they encourage and instruct Your people as You call them in their personal human history and reality, to be instruments of Your grace for others.

By your honest expression of rightly directed human emotion, intelligence and personality, You witnessed the wholeness of our nature when creatively lived in God’s love. In Your authenticity as a vital human, You revealed that each person’s salvation is projected around reality, not around some ideal self. Wholeness is found in one’s actual situation with its limitations and advantages. It is offered within one’s true personality in its abilities and handicaps.

Allow Your priests to recognise Your unique expression of love in each other person. Give them the gift of revealing to everyone they meet and serve—the image within him/her of the glorious, loving beauty of You amid his/her human frailties and strengths. Your priests thus encourage their peoples’ trust and affirm their hope in Your patient lifelong moulding of them in the overwhelming love of Your personal plan for them.

In Your priests, therefore—who are no less human than any other person—is manifest the wise charity and the gentle humility of Christ, to each person who comes before You in contrition, thankfulness, faith and joy. We thank and praise You Jesus, who shared all weakness of our nature except sin.

Help Your priests to respect and encourage everyone, pardoning those who offend or inconvenience them. In liberty of spirit born of obedience, faith, and of freedom from undue attachments—Your priests allow Your grace and witness to flow through them to others. We trust that You accomplish this even where there is no evidence of Your action.

Please sustain Your priests as generous, inspired instruments of grace for Your continuing mission, as they alert others to the light of the Spirit in their lives. Your priests glorify You, as they daily accept this joyful cross of their priestly ministry, while managing the challenges of their own vulnerable humanity!

Thank You Jesus, Who throughout the ages lovingly uses Your imperfect human creatures as instruments of love, service, and glory!

 

[Trishie]

Rejoicing in priesthood

Holy God thank You for dedicated Priests, Religious and laity throughout the centuries. Bless with abundant fruit their sincere efforts. Let Your saints intercede for the Priests and Christian community of our time and for the future holiness of Your Church.

Merciful God, behold Your priests and rejoice in our ordination imparted by hand of countless priests since the Apostles. Let Your love and grace in us illuminate Your face to all humankind as we offer worship, thanksgiving and petition as Christ amongst Your people.

Rejoice in Your continuing flow of Christ’s redemption and Sacrament through our ministry as we serve by gift of the Holy Spirit who works miraculously in us with Sacrament and symbol. Through priesthood, You bring numerous souls to birth, nourishment, salvation, and unity.

Rejoice, our God, as waters of Baptism flow from our hands to consecrate human creatures as Your children in kinship with Christ! Rejoice as souls are in Confirmation sealed by Your Holy Spirit, with His gifts, into the fullness of their Baptism!

Rejoice as in the Eucharist, humble bread and wine become divine as we speak Christ’s consecration in continuing celebration of our redemption and unity! Our souls lift in wondering praise, as with hand and spoken word, we are instrument of the miracle of transubstantiation. Thank You for the communion of individuals that You through us bring in Eucharistic sharing of lifted hearts.

Rejoice as in Reconciliation, we bestow absolution on repentant individuals, freeing them from the betrayal that sin is to our selves, to community and to You. Rejoice for peace of reconciliation after sin, when cleansed and healed, souls are restored to fullness of Your life in the Mystical Body!

Rejoice for the joy of encouraging repentance and renewal, and of enlightening others to Your truths. Thank You for times that we perceive the workings of the Spirit in another’s being or that we see Your face in a life truly given to You.

Rejoice, as through Anointing of the sick, souls are restored to health and deeper unity, and dying persons are prepared for Your Kingdom! For all these things, we offer our gratitude, our God!

Be compassionate, as through Matrimony, two individuals become one, needful of lifelong grace. Through their union, children receive life to seek their destiny in loving You above all, others as self.

Rejoice in the love that You bear Jesus, as in Ordination their sons are made sharers in His priesthood. Let this miracle be brought to fulfilment in us so that through our priestly ministry, Christ is made present and brought to reign in every soul. Delight Yourself in this fulfillment of Your Son’s unceasing prayer, and rejoice with each of His redeemed, for all eternity!

Thank You for grace that enables us to bear crosses in service of others. Thank You for grace to overcome natural inclination or allurement that might draw us from You. Thank You for joy of temptation overcome. Thank You for assistance to face inconvenience and others’ insensitivity with patience.

Thank You for alleviating others’ burdens through our compassion and practical assistance. Thank You for the gift of divine love that inspires our actions, and words. Thank You when the lonely, the fearful or the bereaved experience Your love in us. Thank You for all the secret achievements of our apostolate. Thank You for blessing others through us, through our limitations and our failures, as well as through our gifts and successes.

We rejoice in all things that celebrate our everlasting salvation, joy, and communion in You. We rejoice that You ask the sacrifice and sacrament of our lives within Christ, for sake of each person. Thank You that You require everything of us, in self-renunciation, humility, obedience, chastity and love and that You then offer us the necessary graces for administering our priesthood. We rejoice for all blessing that You grant through Your priests. Pentecost 1980

 

[Trishie]

You say that you are draw nto praying for priests, so I’m sharing with you some prayers I wrote for the same purpose. Don’t be fazed that some are in the priests’ name. I do have a tendency to pray 'on behalf of others. if any of my words help you in praying for priests…if God is calling you to do that, well, great!
Kind wishes, Trishie

Bless Your priests

Remember God, that although we are consecrated into Christ’s priesthood, we retain our personal limitations and needs. Lest we ourselves become castaways, protect and give us wholeness. Nourish our prayer life and relationship with You. Nurture and enrich our entire human personalities so that we have stamina and love to serve each according to need.

Behold the endless stream of persons seeking assistance and guidance, with genuine need or with apparently trivial interruption! Behold all who pass by the periphery of our lives! Each one is an entire world, uniquely precious and sacred to You. Grant us the particular teaching and grace required for each person in our care, for we perhaps cannot guess the true state and need of the child of God confronting us. Give us the gift of loving availability, so that no one is harmed or lost due to our lack of charity or wisdom.

Give wisdom to priests and pastoral leaders. Let us be open as the Spirit reveals truth through the Church—in Scripture and Tradition, through the Magisterium, through insight subject to Truth. Let us witness gospel truths with inspiration, clarity and power. Give us humility and discernment to teach appropriately and correctly, inviting Your action with humility and trust rather than to satisfy personal tastes. Direct us safely beyond misleading doctrine, error or possibility of scandal. Help us to avoid misleading devotions while remaining open to what is genuine. Let us be inspirational, instructive, but succinct, lest we cause alienation and frustration by our homilies. These things cloud the light of Your love, and may appear to devalue our service.

Where our faith wavers, compassionately renew us, for we left much and came to follow You, willingly and hopefully. Please grant restoration and renewal of hope, courage and peace to ministers who falter before the endless demands of our vocation. Refresh those discouraged by seeming spiritual failure in self or others. Grant resolution to those enduring inner conflicts. Grant renewal of those in suffering depression or aridity. Let their fidelity free them into fullness of divine love, joy, hope, and service.

Thank You for many gifts and graces that are bestowed unasked. Yet because we are created with free will, You have made prayer conditional to the granting of some graces. Please imbue us with daily prayer, joy, discipline, and humility to accept in each moment the graces offered for growth of personal wholeness and for loving service of others.

Without continual conversion, we may drift from You, coming to depend upon human resources alone. We cannot persevere in our responsibility to the Church, to myriad individuals, if we remain utterly dependent on our own efforts and abilities.

Failure to trust in Your Spirit widens the gulf between our will and Yours. Our ministry, while achieving some social success, may then strain through formal practice or through humanism dressed as ‘enlightened modernism’. Rigidity of mind and heart may masquerade as righteousness. Self-will may figure as ‘courageous response to divine inspiration’ or as worldly wisdom. Limited vision and personal bias may claim to be updated theology, yet result in hidden or overt revolt against the Holy Spirit within the Church. Grant that the Church is wise in its rulings, so that people are not exasperated and disillusioned by unnecessary legalism or religiosity.

Let us not betray the Christian vision and mission entrusted to us, lest anyone—finding no gentle, firm hand of Christ warmly extended from those who purport to serve in His name—instead draw back unsolaced. They may be confused or betrayed by guidance that has none of the divine Spirit’s knowledge of their true state and need. Conversely, they may be falsely confirmed in mistaken beliefs and practices that could damage Your life in them. Please ensure that they may find enlightenment and truth.

Lack of genuine ministry discredits the Church and Christ. Therefore, grant that the prayers and penance of fellow Christians obtain abundant blessing to redress their compromised mission so that their people may receive grace and inspiration otherwise perhaps denied them.

Bless the commitment and faith with which we approach and minister Your sacraments. Grant that Your people respond with true conversion to this loving action of the Holy Spirit in our service. Aware that the Sacraments draw life from Jesus in His Mystical Body, we ask that His presence shines through His ministers, and each Christian—for Your power transcends all failure and sin. Flood Your mercy upon anyone who does not wholeheartedly follow Christ, so that we may become one with each other in Him!

Grant to Your priests and all persons, a vibrant, loving communion in You in prayer and service focused in the Sacramental life of Your Church. As we persevere in prayer and effort, please live, love and act in us continually, even when our limitations obscure to us the operation of Your grace. Thank You for Your love in our apostolate. Bless Your priests, and each of your followers, with the fullness of Christ and of the Holy Spirit. Glorify Yourself in us in everlasting crescendo! 1982

 

[Trishie]

Instrument

Dear God, You chose me, Your priest, in my human reality to be instrument of Your grace to others, each Your beloved. No less human and fallible than those whom I serve, I seek Your grace in both my weaknesses and my strengths, to be a genuine witness of Christ to others. May I thereby stand with Jesus who by His honest expression of rightly directed human intelligence, emotion, and personality, witnessed the sanctity of our nature when it is creatively compliant to Your love.

Allow me to reveal the reflection of Christ within each person whom I meet and serve, amid his recognition of his human frailties and strengths. Let this grace encourage his trust in Your lifelong molding of him in the events of his life. Thus may I be instrument to lead others to holiness of human wholeness in Christ’s love.

Gifts
Our God, some experts claim that we use a fraction of our mental capacity and abilities. Let us develop and use our capacities and abilities so that we may honour Your creation and serve You better in our commitment to You.

Let our gifts and attributes serve as tools to draw people to You so that nothing in us—spiritual, mental, or physical—will be denied to Your service. Bless and sanctify us more than we know how to ask. Lent 1980

Keeping watch

Jesus, please inspire laity to assist and collaborate with Your ministers. Even those who see priests and religious as set apart by their vocation may lack appreciation of their human and apostolic needs. Therefore, Your ministers may experience isolation or overload with tasks that should be shared by their parishioners and others.

Many priests and religious, while perhaps enduring periods of particular difficulty, may feel the anguish of little visible return for labour and may sometimes encounter opposition or apathy. Therefore, contemplation of life sacrificed to their people for Your sake may cause them inner conflict or discouragement, especially when they experience doubt, weariness, boredom or spiritual dryness.

Out of such trial, offer them grace and opportunity to mature into wholeness in You. While ensuring this growth within them, please grant them others’ prayer and assistance. Please give them sufficient enthusiasm and satisfaction to allow them to persevere.

Although we must seek to serve rather than to be served, You, who are concerned with the entire human personality, know the need to sustain not only the soul destined for eternal communion, but all aspects of human nature. Abuse of any element of humanity may lead to discouragement and stress that may crush the human spirit.

Faith and courage may be overwhelmed if there is little love of God in others to assist Your ministers. Each person is called to mutual service, in communion with the sacred office of the priest’s Sacramental ministry. Help them in us where possible, Jesus, remembering that while You suffered greatly, grievously alone, You accepted ministry offered by others, and at times sought aid unasked. Your weary walk to Calvary required another’s assistance to carry Your cross.

Jesus, You know when faith is best served by consolation or by its absence. Please grant what is required. At least prevent unnecessary hardship where others, by prayer, penance, word or kind support may encourage Your priests.

Like many people, I endure stress, uncertainty, and the discouragement of failing to see positive results of prayer, good intentions and self-sacrifice. I know discomfort and inconvenience, tiresome temptations, doubts, and guilt. I experience loneliness, yet also the burning desire to be alone. I offer all these experiences in prayer for Your priests.

Unite all pain in the hearts of Your priests and of each disciple, with Your own sufferings, so that You may present all things, redeemed in You, to the Father. Offer them in reparation for our sins and negligence and in atonement for the compromises that weaken our apostolate. Offer them in plea for consolation and hope, for faith and fidelity, for growth and wholeness of Your suffering servants. Offer them also for Your many faithful ones who endure imprisonment, persecution or death for Your word.

These things Jesus, so that in their struggles, Your chosen may glorify You—and that in their ministry and witness they may intercede with increasing efficacy and holiness for Your gifts and graces upon Your children in their charge. November 1980

 

[Trishie]

Availability
Jesus, ‘availability’ to others’ needs and requirements is one of the responsibilities of priesthood and religious life. Everyone who calls upon priests and religious seeks a high standard of response. It may be unrealistic to anticipate so much of ordinary humans dedicated to service of others. Yet one negative encounter from a priest or religious can cause a vulnerable person to leave the Church community.

Remember, Jesus that even You felt needful of slipping away from others, seeking rest that Your ministers also require. While we may reasonably hope for a genuine Christian response from our Priests and Religious, let us give them the respect due to human beings who also become weary, overworked and discouraged. Few of us are of the calibre of a Cure of Ars, a Saint Padre Pio, or a Blessed Mary MacKillop.

Therefore, instruct Your people in commonsense regarding Your consecrated religious. Ensure that we are sensitive and supportive towards them in our mutual Christian responsibility. Let Your priests and religious serve wholeheartedly while also allowing themselves restoration and recreation. Let them continue to grow and mature in faith and charity, without becoming stunted or overcome by overwork and stress. 2001

Some reflections on the priestly vocation

Faith: Following his invocation for the Spirit’s presence and action, the Priest bows low before bread and wine that he holds in his human hands.

Bless you our dear Priests for your faith and generosity. Only God can truly thank you. The Sacraments are your vocation and without you, we lack them. Bless you who persevere year after year, as grey hairs creep in and hairlines recede. Bless you who persevere through many states of mind and health and perhaps even through occasional guttering of faith.

Love: Our Priests and Religious serve others with kindness and generosity.
Your priestly vocation is love…for Christ in you, for God’s graces in you, whatever your personal flaws. To understand and channel this love as God desires, requires wisdom and singleness of purpose in genuine dedication to God and in authentic desire for others’ true spiritual welfare and wholeness. To be loved as God’s witness is one powerful means of precipitating growth and transformation in some individuals in some periods of their spiritual development.

The disciples left their homes and employment to follow Jesus, who won their respect and love. Women such as Mary of Bethany and Mary of Magdalene, along with those who tended Jesus and the apostles did so out of their own resources. They loved Jesus with genuine loyalty. His response was wise and gently receptive, never crushing. Yet not all Priests can walk the line Jesus walked.

Jesus could have been restrictive and reproachful of the Magdalene when publicly compromised Him by weeping over his feet. Please God our priests are spared such emotional displays! Mary was conscious of his right to repel her as both a woman and as a public sinner, but He did not. One can imagine her unutterable gratitude. When necessary he was graciously firm, as when the Magdalene spontaneously reached out to embrace Him after His resurrection.

Magdalene’s observation of this man—who revealed many subtleties of love and goodness in attitude and behaviour different from the tainted culture she knew—won her heart from the life she had lived and painfully accepted. Awed by Jesus’ numerous kindnesses towards others and herself, she listened and was charmed by the gospel teaching of a culture of love that her heart had yearned for, without foreknowing either that it was possible or how it could take shape.

Jesus epitomized this culture of love, so she loved Him in return. I believe that she had to reassess what love and relationship means. Ultimately, she had to learn in the most painful way, as the beloved one sacrificed Himself for love of every person. It was this kind of love she absorbed and witnessed to others after Jesus’ resurrection.

May Jesus guide and inspire His Priests and Religious (and His laity) to be true manifestations of His love and Spirit to others. In our loving service—as in the love that others bear us—may we draw individuals to Jesus’ self-giving, sharing the loving respect He accorded other’s humanity whilst leading them into holy relationship with the body of Christ and God’s love.

I praise and thank You God, for Your faithful Religious and Priests. Grant my desire to support them in powerful and loving prayer. Heal and sanctify these dear people. Give them all a double portion of Your Spirit, of Your love, and of Your goodness.

 

[Trishie]

Religious life and companionship

Jesus, encourage those whom You call to serve as Priests and Religious to consider their intention honestly. Some Priests and Religious suffer temptation to abandon their vocations. Some lose faith in God and Church. Some regret loss of personal freedom. Some are troubled by lack of close companionship.

A lifelong sacrifice of parenthood and marital companionship requires careful reflection, remembering that compassion for Adam’s loneliness led the Spirit to breathe life into Eve. This ensured mutual companionship and means to ensure propagation of humankind.

Therefore, Jesus, we pray for Your Priests and Religious who are lonely or over-extended. Help them to find loyal friendship amongst their colleagues, and appropriate support and hospitality from their communities and congregations. Let them find sufficient satisfaction in their vocations as they continue towards holiness in service of Your people.

Jesus, You were never less human than we are. In the grace and love that filled You, the prayer that nurtured You, and the penance that gave You strength against the temptations of nature, You remained the more sensitively human. You stood alone before us, sinless, and celibate in holy witness to the state to which You invite Your chosen ones.

Called to carry the cross of atonement for all human sin, You renounced self, submitting to God’s Will, obedient to the Holy Spirit in everything. You served gladly and humbly, without seeking to be served, giving Your life as ransom for all who accept Your salvation. To this sacrifice, You quietly invite those whom You call.

You invite them to set aside their right to exclusive marital companionship, so that they give unencumbered support to their sisters and brothers in Christ. Acceptance of such commitment may entail occasions of loneliness, yet isolation and struggle characterises many marriages, for each state has its blessings and its crosses.

Should anyone fail to carry their vocational cross, please bless and restore them and anyone injured by them. Let Your Priests and Religious always solicit Your strength where human frailty undermines their commitment. Give them trust that You will never abandon them to their weaknesses and failures.

You continue to offer faith, obedience, charity, perseverance, prayer and penance. If they sometimes fail to accept these, then You continue tenderly to hold out the restoring graces of rational balance and of Your compassionate forgiveness.

Grant wisdom in fraternity so that Your priests remain in Your service to truly love everyone with undivided heart, as they seek to love God above all. Give them compassion that leads to spiritual insight and human wholeness in accord with Your creative and redemptive purpose. Blessed is our God, who so loves His creatures! Worship Yourself in them and serve others in them! 1981

 

[Trishie]

Strayed or faltering shepherds

Jesus, please safeguard priests as true shepherds of Your people. Be mindful of those who have left Your service. Give them the grace of knowing that You love them and that the Church cares for them.

Some priests abandon their ministry due to overstrain of their human resources, or because of doubt or loneliness. Please grant them renewal and the support of others. Love them back to full use of their faith, courage, generosity, and ability. Return them to Your service, with loving-kindness, right judgement, and peaceful balance in acceptance of human limitations that are made fruitful only through You in faith.

Jesus, do not allow You priests or people to flounder in doubt. Give them grace to repeat humbly—“I believe. Help my unbelief.” To Your priests and Your people, give trust that reaches beyond human limitations into eternal truth.

Heal those weakened by illness, worldliness, sensuality, or discouragement. In healing Your priests, please enable them to serve according to realistic judgement. To renewed and faithful priests alike, please grant wholeness and peace.

Grant them encouragement, with prayerful, practical support of brother priests and parishioners. Every person has responsibility to share in care and support of others and in the mission of Christ. Let all experience Your love and reality in sharing gospel charity with Your ministers and fellow humans.

Where Your love does not animate their witness then egoism, pride or despair may compromise ministry or cause desertion. Do not allow Your priests to be overwhelmed by material desires. Inspire them to approach everything in a balanced manner. Please give renewal of love and grace to all whose hearts falter in self-reliance, in pride, rebellion, in neglected prayer-life, in mechanical, reluctant, or self-congratulatory good works. Let their humanity help them understand others’ needs and difficulties. Do not allow them to fall to scandal that harms others and results in their discredit and dismissal.

Let Your priests neither abandon You in worldliness, nor despair with Judas. Let them learn of Peter. He whom You had so highly favoured, abandoned You in time of greatest need, denying You before men—thus calling upon himself a similar judgement before heaven. Repenting, he trusted Your mercy. To his contrite heart, You imparted grace to reaffirm love for You, responding by raising him to guardianship of Your continuing life on earth, the Church.

Merciful Jesus, who longs to have Your chosen ones with You forever in the glory of Your Kingdom, have mercy on Your strayed and faltering servants. Please give them grace to return or to remain in Your faithful, loving service. 1982

Jesus, where scandal shadows Your priests, remember that Your own integrity was often questioned. Yet You are sinless God. Even so, You assumed the burden of our sin and died as a criminal. Your followers scattered in shame and fear, and Your cause was discredited. Have mercy, then and restore those hounded by scandal. Where offence is genuine, grant contrition, and pardon the offenders, granting them to rise again in You with courage, love and trust.

Do not permit Your priests to merit the curse of ‘he who gives scandal to Your little ones’. Where others are damaged or disillusioned by Your minister’s offence or misfortune, please grant repentance and pardon, or exoneration. Heal anyone wounded by his fault, sin, omission, misjudgement or misfortune. Please pardon and heal those who accuse or judge Your priest, for in doing so they may fall into grave sin. You alone may judge Your chosen ones.

By Your incarnation and life, death and resurrection, You restore humankind to a state more enriched than our original state of innocence. You achieved this out of a situation where humankind had so fallen from grace that only the Son of God Himself could redeem us. Please grant such restoration to Your chosen ones, to any soul, who have fallen from grace or reputation.

Renew in them the joyful consciousness of the miracle and mystery of Your love for each person. Grant them insight of the preciousness of each child of God, filling them with gratitude that You allow them to serve.

 

[pianistclare]

Praying hard.

 

[Trishie]

Wisdom in relationship

Priests, one may sometimes observe unsettling or destructive consequences of a few good priests’ initial failure to conceal natural affinity towards some unlucky woman. Such misjudgement, though foolish and inappropriate, unquestionably reflects the beautiful tenderness of their hearts; for it is innately human for anyone, married, single or celibate, to sometimes respond joyfully in celebration of some perceived goodness and beauty in another person.

Thus, it is unsurprising that one young Religious might several times be caught gazing lingeringly upon a lonely single woman; then in his natural goodness and commitment, he draws back and for a long period, resolutely ignores her, until “It hurts when your priest doesn’t like you,” she tearfully shares. Another priest, with foolish innocence, may for a brief time find scant unsolicited excuse to tenderly kiss a hand, a cheek, and catch an eye too often, until he wisely withdraws. One doubts that they even remember! Yet if each had shown his later wisdom from the start! Are they not carefully instructed in such wisdom for the well-being of souls in their care?

Priests, may God help you direct your hearts to prevent any glimpse of particular fleeting attraction, exceeding ordinary Christian friendship and ministry, to manifest to another. If at some period, you subtly betray a special affinity or attraction to someone, you may create a dynamic that causes pain or confusion to that person, even if you make no overt or wrong approach. How dare you allow your attraction to reveal itself, even simply for the confusion and dilemma you cause! This dynamic can affect or harm the one to whom you are perhaps innocently attracted more deeply or enduringly than you imagine. Is there risk to peace of mind and soul? Might you gain damaging entry to their lifelong challenges?

Might hearts be pointlessly won? Might foolish natures respond with lack of wisdom and unrest, and strong ‘righteous’ hearts with worse? Fault, however unintentional and sincere, may creep marginally into either heart, perhaps distracting thought from God or legitimate direction sometimes. Even if there is no reciprocal feeling, peace suffers before another’s discomfort and anxiously struggles regarding the course required for the other’s welfare.

Take care, Priests, for you may not discern the weaknesses or strengths of those to whom you may be briefly vulnerable. You may not know whether they will remain friend or become bitter foe when you apply greater wisdom to your relationship. Often, at fault for his indiscretion, the priest pendulums to unkindness and even harshness. Even your careful repair to distance may cause tumult. If at times you appear harsh, it is that you are eager and earnest to convey your resolution, yet abruptness may cause further confusion and unrest. To the troubled, sympathetic heart with its scars but genuine goodwill, it may bring a sense of despoil and condemnation.

However, to those of strong, righteous nature, a priest might seem arrogant in his proper detachment, and thus arouse impotent fury at the apparent injustice of his ignoring some forgotten initial responsibility in the lingering sensitivity. Prosecution may arise from the righteous one’s indignation. “He won’t be so high and mighty then”, a victim angrily declares. Handled unwisely or with superiority the ‘righteous’ person may lash furiously at others, while those with softer nature may grow raw within.

Even so, the ‘righteous’ one may be crushed by the love and loyalty that surrounds a priest or Religious whose goodness is certain. However, the tragedy is that it should never have happened, if wisdom had veiled the initial attraction that gleamed into a lonely woman’s heart, igniting to slowly consume her beauty, spirit and faith, forever blackening her reputation.

Priests, God grant you grace to quietly maintain equilibrium as you flourish in admirable human and spiritual advancement in your deepened sense of purpose in following Christ. Pray patiently while those whom you briefly cherished struggle to process the change and grow past the effects of the warmth you showed that seeped secretly into the lonely, hurt places of their hearts. Perhaps they may need to humbly come to terms with how much their hearts responded, and find healthy healing from resultant hidden loss, knowing that because they struggled any fault may be considered theirs. Others may simply be saddened by irrevocable loss of friendship and ease, for even with forgiveness, relationship is spoiled. Others may simply be outraged by the priest’s supercilious superiority towards them following upon his earlier indiscretions. Even had they no particular feeling towards the priest or religious, they may be left with lingering discomfort where they should be able to worship in peace.

May God give us true wisdom in all our relationships…Dear Priests; I ask God’s dearest and best blessings upon you. I praise God for your continuing growth in the Spirit.
*
The above prayer was based on instances that caused a great deal of harm and so the prayer was out of grief and sadness*

 

[Trishie]

Goodness and failings of Your priests

Jesus, behold all the faith, obedience, self-denial, all the beauty, wisdom, humility and love of so many faithful priests and religious. Grant that through Your great love for them, the Father will pardon, heal and make whole all within and flowing from them.

Yet a time may come when some prove that they are fallible men, with selfishness admixed with their goodness. Please minister to anyone injured by the frailties of Your priests. Give them grace to overcome hurt and disillusionment. Heal them in the strength of Your Spirit.

Jesus, please grant reparation for the offenses of Your chosen ones for their sins against faith and hope, against humility and integrity, against obedience, chastity, and above all against charity. Please absorb into Your sacred passion, the suffering that such sin draws upon the offender and upon others—together with the prayer and merit of the communion of saints—so that it becomes reparation for the sin which occasions it.

Thereby make the grace that You intend through them no less efficacious—despite their sins and omissions—as You heal injury, supply what is lacking, and cleanse what is tainted. Jesus, minister to Your priests. Give them grace to become truly like You the Good Shepherd who never betrays or abandons his sheep. Let their hearts and lives overflow with Your loving goodness, in faithfulness to their vocation.

Jesus, if Your priests, religious, and other willing servants, have been instrumental in saving even just one soul, but are themselves still in purgatory, then for sake of that one soul, please rapidly purify and take them home to see Your face forever.

 

[Trishie]

Prayer offered on behalf of priests

Thy kingdom come amongst my people

Merciful God, unite me with the good Shepherd who is loving, wise, faithful and vigilant. Make creative use of the person I am and through grace may become. Where I cannot achieve what is required, please supply what is needful. Use me as a human witness of Your living gospel to others. Let Your kingdom of the Spirit come among the souls You entrust to me.

As I minister to Your people, I bring them truths divergent from this world’s logic, so allow Your Holy Spirit to convey Your gospel to them through me. Lead me to best use of modes of communication to convey Your love and truth. Be manifest in my cheerful personality, my wise instructions, my writing, preaching and conversation, through my body language in its subtleties, so that others are always drawn to You through me.

In my strengths and limitations, minister to others through me. Do not let my failures discourage me, for there is much to be done between sowing and reaping, and the harvest depends upon Your nurture. Your warmth and rain blesses my labour and its fruits may manifest only in Heaven!

With each experience and observation, make me a more sensitive instrument of Your love. Left to myself, I can err in countless ways, and even harm, or alienate another person from You.
To those You entrust to my shepherding, please give growing awareness of the ceaseless operation of Your grace. Let them realise that their lives are held continually in Your love. Give them faith that You can heal, purify and make whole (sanctify) each willing person, however ‘lowly’, in the ordinary human realities of life.

Give trust and fidelity to anyone willing to assist me with prayer and support…I ask the intercession of our sisters and brothers in Heaven, and the holy Angels, guardians of humankind! Do not forget us whom God loves and creates for Himself. He seeks to lead us into communion with you also…So profoundly love and cherish us—in guidance, intercession and blessing—that the tide of God in our lives ever swells with your tremendous reservoir of merit and grace, and above all, with the merit of our Redeemer.

Jesus, grant us the graces of Your kingdom brought to reign amongst us! Let Your name be glorified and Your will be completed in us! Meet our spiritual and temporal needs, personal and communal. Forgive us our offenses as we forgive others, by giving us Your forgiveness and compassion for each other. Protect us from sin and danger so that we shine as Your living word to all people.
This I ask of You in praise and thanksgiving, Jesus, good Shepherd, whose steward I am. December 1981

 

[Trishie]

1. 12 Priesthood

“I became a servant of the Church when God made me responsible for delivering God’s message to you, the message which was a mystery hidden for generations…The mystery is Christ amongst you, your hope of glory…this is the wisdom in which we thoroughly instruct everyone, to make them all perfect in Christ.” [Colossians 1:25-28]

Christ, our high priest, has “cancelled every record of the debt we had to pay; He has done away with it by nailing it to the cross.” [Colossians 2:14]

“The priest has been taken out of humankind and appointed to act for men in their relations with God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins; and so he can sympathise with those who are ignorant or uncertain because he too lives in the limitations of weakness. That is why he has to make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people. No one takes this honour on himself, but each one is called by God.” [Hebrews 5:1-4]
“The greater you are, the more you should act humbly, and then you will find favour with the Lord; for great though the power of the Lord is, He accepts the homage of the humble.” [Ecclesiasticus 3:17-21]

“Brothers, you have been called and chosen.” [2Peter 1:10] As persons who are “dedicated to God…you must aim to be saintly and religious, filled with faith and love, patient and gentle,” fighting “the good fight of the faith.” [1Timothy 6:11-12] “God’s gift was not a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power, and love and self-control. So you are never to be ashamed of witnessing to the Lord.” Bear “hardships for the sake of the Good News, relying on the power of God who has saved us and called us to be holy–not because of anything we have done but for His own purpose and by His grace.” [2Timothy 1:7-9]

Jesus commissioned His disciples, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And know that I am with you always; yes, even to the end of time.” [Matthew 28:18-20]
“Be on guard for yourselves and for the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.” [Acts 20:29] “Be shepherds of the flock of God that is entrusted to you: watch over it, not simply as a duty, but gladly, because God wants it…Never be a dictator over any group that is put in your charge, but be an example the whole flock can follow. When the chief shepherd appears, you will be given a crown of unfading glory.” [1Peter 5:2-4]

“You must keep to what you have been taught and know to be true. All Scripture is inspired by God and can profitably be used for teaching, for refuting error, for guiding people’s lives and teaching them to be holy. This is how one who is dedicated to God becomes fully equipped and ready for any good work.” [2Timothy 3:14, 16-17]

“The One who provides” will give means to “make the harvest of your good deeds a larger one, and made richer in every way, will be able to do all the generous things which…are the cause of thanksgiving to God…for the way you accept and profess the gospel of Christ.” [2Corinthians 9:10-13]

“A servant of the Lord is not to engage in quarrels, but has to be kind to everyone, a good teacher, and patient. He has to be gentle when he corrects people who dispute what he says, never forgetting that God may give them a change of mind so that they recognise the truth.” [2Timothy 2:24-26]

“Pray for us…that the Lord’s blessing may spread quickly, and be received with honour…and pray that we may be preserved from the interference of bigoted and evil people.” [2Thessalonians 3:1-2] “With all your might love Him who made you, and do not abandon His ministers…revere His priests.” [Ecclesiasticus 7:30, 29]

Father, in Jesus’ name I offer these prayers concurrently for each priest throughout time, for as Christ died for us each concurrently, so through Him may I pray for every priest as if he were the only one. Lent 1980

 

[MariaChristi]

LITANY FOR PRIESTS

Let us pray for:

The Holy Father, fill him with courage and grace, Lord.
Cardinals, archbishops, and bishops, give them a shepherd’s heart, Lord.
Diocesan priests, fill them with your Spirit, Lord.
Priests in religious orders, perfect them in their call, Lord.
Priests who are ill, heal them, Lord.
Priests who are in danger, deliver them, Lord.
Priests who are weak, strengthen them, Lord.
Priests who are poor, relieve them, Lord.
Priests who have lost their zeal, renew them, Lord.
Priests who are sad, console them, Lord.
Priests who are worried, give them peace, Lord.
Priests who are old, sustain them, Lord.
Priests who are alone, accompany them, Lord.
Missionary priests, protect them, Lord.
Priests who are preachers, enlighten them, Lord.
Priests who direct souls, instruct them, Lord.
Priests and religious who have died, bring them to glory, Lord.

For all priests, give them Your wisdom and knowledge.
For all priests, give them Your understanding and counsel.
For all priests, give them reverence and awe of You.
For all priests, give them patience and love.
For all priests, give them obedience and kindness.
For all priests, give them a burning zeal for souls.
For all priests, give them virtues of faith, hope and love.
For all priests, give them an intense love for the Eucharist.
For all priests, give them loyalty to the Holy Father and their Bishops in
communion with him.
For all priests, give them respect for life and human dignity.
For all priests, give them integrity and justice.
For all priests, give them humility and generosity.
For all priests, give them strength in their labors.
For all priests, give them peace in their sufferings.
For all priests, give them great love for the Trinity.
For all priests, give them great love for Mary.
For all priests, let them be the light of Christ.
For all priests, let them be the salt of the earth.
For all priests, let them practice sacrifice and self-denial.
For all priests, let them be holy in body, mind and spirit.
For all priests, let them be men of prayer.
For all priests, may faith shine forth in them.
For all priests, may they be concerned for our salvation.
For all priests, may they be faithful to their priestly vocation.
For all priests, may their hands bless and heal.
For all priests, may they burn with love for you.
For all priests, may all their steps be for the glory of God.
For all priests, may the Holy Spirit fill them, and give them His gifts in abundance.

Let us pray.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit, hear the prayers we offer for our priests.
Let them know clearly the work that You are calling them to do.
Grant them every grace to answer Your call with courage, love, and lasting dedication to Your will.
We ask Mary’s intercession as their loving mother. Amen.

Dear Casilda,

Thanks so much for this Litany. Please, can you tell me where you found it? It is a good way to to help us appreciate all their needs – and to see in holy priests the gifts with which God has blessed them, as he blesses all of us in unique ways to be gifts for others.

 

[MariaChristi]

Praying with all.

Dear tawny and Trishie,

Thank you both for your prayers.

Trishie, I did not yet read all of your replies. Are they all from the same source? Please can you tell me where you found them? Thanks much, and please let us all keep praying!