Support & prayers for our priests

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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
 
Lord Jesus, you have chosen your priests from among us and sent them out to proclaim your word and to act in your name. For so great a gift to your Church, we give you praise and thanksgiving.

We ask you to fill them with the fire of your love, that their ministry may reveal your presence in the Church. Since they are earthen vessels, we pray that your power shine out through their weakness. In their afflictions let them never be crushed; in their doubts never despair; in temptation never be destroyed; in persecution never abandoned.

Inspire them through prayer to live each day the mystery of your dying and rising. In times of weakness send them your Spirit, and help them to praise your heavenly Father and pray for poor sinners. By the same Holy Spirit put your words on their lips and your love in their hearts, to bring good news to the poor and healing to the broken-hearted.

And may the gift of Mary your mother, to the disciple whom you loved, be your gift to every priest. Grant that she who formed you in her human image, may form them in your divine image, by the power of your Spirit, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.
 
Prayer by Pope Benedict XVI

Lord Jesus Christ, eternal High Priest,
you offered yourself to the Father on the altar of the cross
and through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit
gave your priestly people a share in your redeeming sacrifice.
Hear our prayer for the sanctification of our priests.
Grant that all who are ordained to the ministerial priesthood
may be ever more conformed to you, the Divine Master.
May they preach the Gospel with pure heart and clear conscience.
Let them be shepherds according to your own heart,
single-minded in service to you and to the Church,
and shining examples of a holy, simple, and joyful life.
Through the prayers of the Blessed Virgin Mary, your Mother and ours,
draw all priests and the flocks entrusted to their care
to the fullness of eternal life where you live and reign
with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.
 
St. Faustina’s Prayer for Priests

Heavenly Father, grant that our priests be strengthened and healed
by the power of the Eucharist they celebrate.
May the Word they proclaim give them courage and wisdom.

We pray that all those whom they seek to serve
May see in them the love and care of Jesus,
Our Eternal High Priest, who is Lord for ever and ever. Amen.

Mary, Mother of the Church, look tenderly upon your sons, our priests.
St Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church, pray for us all.

8. 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 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.
 
Mary, Mother of Jesus,
throw your mantle of purity over our priests.
Protect them, guide them, and keep them in your heart.
Be a Mother to them,
especially in times of discouragement and loneliness.
Love them and keep them belonging completely to Jesus.
Like Jesus, they, too, are your sons, so keep their hearts pure and virginal.
Keep their minds filled with Jesus, and put Jesus always on their lips,
so that he is the one they offer to sinner and to all they meet.
Mary, Mother of Jesus, be their Mother,
loving them and bringing them joy.
Take special care of sick and dying priests, and the ones most tempted.
Remember how they spent their youth and old age,
their entire lives serving and giving all to Jesus.
Mary, bless them and keep a special place for them in your heart.
Give them a piece of your heart, so beautiful and pure and immaculate,
so full of love and humility, so that they, too, can grow in the likeness of Christ.
Dear Mary, make them humble like you, and holy like Jesus. Amen. -Prayer by Blessed Mother Teresa
 
O Almighty Eternal God, look upon the face of Thy Son, and for the love of Him who is the eternal High Priest, have pity on Thy priests. Remember, O most compassionate God, that they are but weak and frail human beings. Stir up in them the grace of their vocation which is in them by the imposition of the bishop’s hands. Keep them close to Thee, lest the enemy prevail against them, so that they may never do anything in the slightest degree unworthy of their sublime vocation.

O Jesus, I pray Thee for Thy faithful and fervent priests; for Thy unfaithful and tepid priests; for Thy priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields; for Thy tempted priests; for Thy lonely priests; for Thy dying priests; for the souls of Thy priests in purgatory. But above all I commend to Thee the priests dearest to me; the priest who baptized me; the priests who absolved me from my sins; the priests at whose Masses I assisted, and who gave me Thy Body and Blood in Holy Communion; the priests who taught and instructed me, or helped and encouraged me; all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way, particularly N. O Jesus, keep them all close to Thy Heart, and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity. Amen.

Richard Cardinal Cushing (1895-1970)
 
Praise to you, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for in your infinite love you care for your people by the ministry of priests.

May their faithful service bring lasting good to your Church and great happiness to them.

Help them to do what is right, that by their teaching and living we may grow in the knowledge of your love.

As our priests instruct your people, enlighten them with the wisdom of Christ the Teacher.

As they preach your Word and celebrate the sacraments, sanctify them with the holiness of Christ the High Priest.

As they face weakness, suffering and discouragement, strengthen them with the grace of Christ the Life-Giver.

As they work for peace, unity and healing in your Church, uphold them with the courage of Christ the Reconciler.

Giver of all good gifts, make the ministry of our priests a spiritual offering pleasing to you, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
  • Bishop John F. Kinney
 

The Sacraments​

Holy God, 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. Lent 1980
 
by Pope Francis

I ask the Lord Jesus to enable many young people to discover that burning zeal which joy kindles in our hearts as soon as we have the stroke of boldness needed to respond willingly to his call.

I ask the Lord Jesus to preserve the joy sparkling in the eyes of the recently ordained who go forth to devour the world, to spend themselves fully in the midst of God’s faithful people, rejoicing as they prepare their first homily, their first Mass, their first Baptism, their first confession…

It is the joy of being able to share with wonder and for the first time as God’s anointed, the treasure of the Gospel and to feel the faithful people anointing you again and in yet another way: by their requests, by bowing their heads for your blessing, by taking your hands, by bringing you their children, by pleading for their sick.

Preserve, Lord, in your young priests the joy of going forth, of doing everything as if for the first time, the joy of spending their lives fully for you.

I ask the Lord Jesus to confirm the priestly joy of those who have already ministered for some years. The joy which, without leaving their eyes, is also found on the shoulders of those who bear the burden of the ministry, those priests who having experienced the labors of the apostolate, gather their strength, and rearm themselves: “get a second wind,” as the athletes say.

Lord, preserve the depth, wisdom, and maturity of the joy felt by these older priests. May they be able to pray with Nehemiah: the joy of the Lord is my strength (cf. Neh 8:10).

Finally, I ask the Lord to make better known the joy of elderly priests, whether healthy or infirm. It is the joy of the Cross, which springs from the knowledge that we possess an imperishable treasure in perishable earthen vessels.

May these priests find happiness wherever they are; may they experience already, in the passage of the years, a taste of eternity. May they know, Lord the joy of handing on the torch, the joy of seeing new generations of their spiritual children, of hailing the promises from afar, smiling and at peace, in that hope which does not disappoint.
 
Jesus, Good Shepherd,
You sent us the Holy Spirit to guide Your Church
and lead her faithful to You through the ministry of Your priests.

Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, grant to Your priests
wisdom in leading,
faithfulness in teaching,
and holiness in guarding Your sacred Mysteries.

As they cry out with all the faithful, “Abba, Father!”
may Your priests be ever more closely identified with You
in Your divine Sonship
and offer their own lives with You, the one saving Victim.

Make them helpful brothers of one another,
and understanding fathers of all Your people.
 
God our Father, we ask you to bless our Priests and confirm them in their calling. Give them the gifts they need to respond with generosity and a joyful heart. We offer this prayer for our priests, who are our brothers and friends.
 
Prayer of Pope Saint Paul VI for priests

O Lord, give to Your servants the heart, which will embrace their whole education and preparation. Let it be aware of the big new way, which emerged in their lives and engraved in their souls. The heart that will be capable of new feelings that You recommend to those whom You have chosen to be the servants of Your Eucharistic Body and Thy Mystical Body of the Church.

O Lord, give them the pure heart, capable of loving only You fully and with such joy, and such a depth which only You can give, when You become in full exclusive the subject of the human heart. The pure heart which will not know evil, perhaps only to be able to recognize it, fight and avoid it, the pure heart of a child, capable of wonder, awe and fear. O Lord, give them the big heart open to Your thoughts and closed to any narrow ambitions, any petty rivalry between people. The huge heart, capable of being matched to Yours and able to embrace the whole Church, the spread of light, capable of loving all, serving all, and being the spokesman for all.

In addition, O Lord, give them the strong heart, willing and ready to face any difficulties, any temptations, any weaknesses, any boredom, any fatigue, the heart able to patiently and heroically serve the mystery which You entrusted to the sons of Yours, whom You identify with Thy.

In the end, O Lord, the heart capable of true love that is able to understand, accept, serve and sacrifice, capable of being happy, pulsating with Your feelings and Your thoughts. Amen.
 
(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

The icon of the priesthood by the iconographer Monsignor Anthony A. La Femina .

The blood and water coming from Christ’s side are offered to the Eternal Father by the hand of the priest.

The priest is portrayed in the icon with golden shoes decorated with precious stones to reflect the words of Saint Paul: “How beautiful are the feet of those who announce good news”

Father , may your sacred ministers be clear reflections of your mercy .
 
Father , keep us faithful to our Holy Father Pope Francis .

May he and all the bishops of the Church be loving and wise in all their dealings with your priests .
 
This is beautiful. Thank you for sharing this and all the prayers you have. 😊
 
The sudden departure of our priest, after prayer and reflection on my part, isn’t so much of a failure on his part as it is a case of us, the parishioners, being self focused rather than being focused on the needs of others. Instead of lifting each other and supporting each other, we mostly whine and complain about this or that. We have much work to do.
 
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