Prayers for the Sanctification of Priests
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Prayers for the Sanctification of Priests Our Lady of the new Advent Icon Created by Rev. William Hart McNichols Printed with Permission from the Archdiocese of Denver For the Spiritual Mothers of the Archdiocese of Denver Prayers for the Sanctification of Priests St. Thérèse did not despair upon discovering this aspect of the for the Spiritual Mothers of the Archdiocese of Denver priesthood, but rather began to understand the importance of praying for priests. If even holy priests “show in their conduct their “Pope St. Pius X said: ‘Every priestly vocation comes from the extreme need for prayers,” she wrote, “what is to be said of those who heart of God, but passes through the heart of a mother.’ This is true are tepid?” As Thérèse eventually came to understand the vocation with regard to obvious biological motherhood, but it is also true of of her community, “the sole purpose of our prayers and sacrifices is the ‘birth’ of every form of fidelity to the Vocation of Christ. We to be the apostle of the apostles.” cannot do without a spiritual motherhood for our priestly life: Let Ordination to the priesthood, although it bestows a special grace of us entrust ourselves confidently to the prayer of the whole of Holy the Holy Spirit that configures the priest to Christ, does not remove Mother Church, to the motherhood of the People, whose pastors we the human defects that a man possesses before ordination. When are but to whom are entrusted our custody and holiness; let us ask exercising ministry in the Church, a priest acts in the power and for this fundamental support.” place of the person of Christ himself, and his personal unworthiness Pope Benedict XVI, “Message on the Day of Prayer for Priests or even sinfulness does not prevent Christ from acting in the for the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,” May 30, 2008. sacraments. Nevertheless, as the Catechism forthrightly admits, “in many other acts the minister leaves human traces that are not “For the priestly office is indeed discharged on earth, but it ranks always signs of fidelity to the Gospel and consequently can harm the among heavenly ordinances; and very naturally so: for neither apostolic fruitfulness of the Church” (CCC 1550). man, nor angel, nor archangel, nor any other created power, but the Paraclete Himself, instituted this vocation, and persuaded men “I understood my vocation in Italy and that’s not going too far in while still abiding in the flesh to represent the ministry of angels. search of such useful knowledge,” St. Thérèse wrote. Thanks to the Wherefore the consecrated priest ought to be as pure as if he were revelations of recent years, one no longer needs to travel to Italy standing in the heavens themselves in the midst of those powers.” to perceive the human weaknesses of priests. Our response to this, St. John Chrysostom however, should not be cynicism or despair, but, like St. Thérèse, we should develop a renewed awareness of the need to pray for priests. Oh Jesus, form Your Priests according Fr. Innocent Smith, O.P (Reprinted with author’s permission) to the Love of your Most Sacred Heart. Amen. Nihil Obstat: David N. Uebbing, M.A. Censor Librorum Imprimatur: +Most Reverend Samuel J. Aquila, S.T.L. Content compiled, edited and formatted by the Archdiocese of Denver, Archbishop of Denver Office of Clergy, 2016. All content in the public domain except where noted. Denver, Colorado, USA December 7, 2016 2 19 On Praying for Priests Prayer for Priests One of the decisive moments in the life of St. Thérèse of Lisieux O Jesus, Eternal Priest, keep all Your priests within the shelter was when she realized that priests could sin. As a fourteen-year-old of Your Sacred Heart where none may harm them. Keep unstained girl, Thérèse had a great desire to enter the Carmelite monastery their anointed hands which daily touch Your Sacred Body. Keep at Lisieux where several of her sisters were already nuns. The local unsullied their lips purpled with Your Precious Blood. Keep pure bishop, despite her pleadings, was cautious about allowing such a and unearthly their hearts sealed with the sublime marks of Your young girl to enter religious life. Nevertheless, he encouraged her to glorious priesthood. Let Your holy love surround them and shield take part in a pilgrimage to Rome to strengthen her vocation. them from the world’s contagion. Bless their labors with abundant fruit, and may the souls to whom they have ministered be here Near the end of her life, Thérèse reflected on the importance of this below their joy and consolation and in Heaven their beautiful and pilgrimage: “Ah! what a trip that was!” she wrote in the memoir that everlasting crown. O Mary, Queen of the Clergy, pray for us; obtain was later published as The Story of a Soul . “It taught me more than for us many holy priests. Amen. long years of studies; it showed me the vanity of everything that St. Therese of Lisieux happens and that everything is affliction of spirit under the sun.” The trip also gave her a new sense of the continuity of the Church: “I trod the same soil as did the holy apostles, the soil bedewed with the blood of martyrs. And my soul grew through contact with holy things.” The most important result of this trip, however, was the clarity that it gave St. Thérèse about the purpose of her vocation. Despite her desire to become a Carmelite, before the trip to Rome Thérèse did not understand why St. Teresa had established a special mission for Carmelite nuns to pray for priests. “Having never lived close to [priests], I was not able to understand the principle aim of the Reform of Carmel. To pray for sinners attracted me, but to pray for the souls of priests whom I believed to be as pure as crystal seemed puzzling to me.” She now came to understand the humanity of priests: “I lived in the company of many saintly priests for a month and I learned that, though their dignity raises them above the angels, they are nevertheless weak and fragile men.” 18 3 Prayer for Holy Priests “Keep Them, O Lord” O my God, pour out in abundance Thy spirit of sacrifice upon Thy priests. It is both their glory and their duty to become victims, Keep them; I pray Thee, dearest Lord. to be burnt up for souls, to live without ordinary joys, to be often the objects of distrust, injustice, and persecution. Keep them, for they are Thine The priests whose lives burn out before The words they say every day at the altar, “This is my Body, this is my Blood,” grant them to apply to themselves: “I am no longer myself, I Thy consecrated shrine. am Jesus, Jesus crucified. I am, like the bread and wine, a substance Keep them, for they are in the world, no longer itself, but by consecration another.” Though from the world apart. O my God, I burn with desire for the sanctification of Thy priests. When earthly pleasures tempt, allure -- I wish all the priestly hands which touch Thee were hands whose touch is gentle and pleasing to Thee, that all the mouths uttering Shelter them in Thy heart. such sublime words at the altar should never descend to speaking Keep them and comfort them in hours trivialities. Of loneliness and pain, Let priests in all their person stay at the level of their lofty functions, When their life of sacrifice let every man find them simple and great, like the Holy Eucharist, accessible to all yet above the rest of men. For souls seems but in vain. Keep them and remember, Lord, O my God, grant them to carry with them from the Mass of today, a they have no one but Thee. thirst for the Mass of tomorrow, and grant them, ladened themselves with gifts, to share these abundantly with their fellow men. Amen. Yet, they have only human hearts, With human frailty. Father William Doyle, S.J. Keep them as spotless as the Host, That daily they caress; Their every thought and word and deed, Deign, dearest Lord, to bless. 4 17 Prayer for Seminarians Intercessory Prayer for Priests O Jesus, Eternal High Priest, I offer You, through Your Immaculate O loving God, look upon the face of your Christ and for the love Mother Mary, Your own Precious Blood, in all the Masses throughout of Him Who is the Eternal High Priest, have pity on Your priests. the world, as a petition for graces for all seminarians, Your future Stir up in them the grace of their vocation which is in them by the priests. Give them humility, meekness, prudence, and a burning zeal imposition of the bishop’s hands. Keep them close to You, lest the for souls. Fill their hearts with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Teach enemy prevail against them, so that they may never do anything in them to know and love the Church so that they may always and the slightest degree unworthy of their sublime vocation. everywhere speak, act, and think with her, the glorious spouse of Christ. Teach them generosity and detachment from the miserable O Jesus, I pray for your faithful and fervent priests, for your unfaithful things of this world; but above all, teach them to know You and love and tepid priests, for your priests laboring at home or abroad in You, the one and only Eternal Priest. Do You, Good Shepherd of distant mission fields, for Your tempted priests, for Your lonely and souls, hear this my prayer for saintly priests.