Our Priest’s need Prayers!
By John Christenson
Our priests are in great need of prayers! There is no denying this. Indeed, they seem under attack by diabolical forces more so today then ever before. Oh, we say, “yes, but we must trust in God!” Well, you’re right! Indeed we must trust in God. But this does not mean sitting back and just expecting God to fix everything while we play spectator to the miraculous. God calls us to prayer! So, if we want our priests to be strong against evil then we must pray for them. Thus, our priests are in great need of prayers! Our prayers!
Another reality we can not deny is that we live in a very secular world. So much temptation to sin! So much invitation to indulge! So much for the eyes to see and the ears to hear that is unhealthy for our souls. Who do we turn to when this heavy world weighs us down? The priest! Has it ever occurred to any of us that our priests live in this same sinful seductive world?
I once read, “If you want a better priest, all you have to do is start praying for the one you have!” The truth is, how we perceive our priests to be is not necessarily how they really are. Our priests have an extremely heavy burden! And as more Parishes close and less lay men enter the religious life and seminaries, the more duties our individual priests take on and the greater the challenge becomes for them to serve us.
Yet we judge them when they do not fit the mold of our perception of whom and what a priest ought to be. I also once read that, “God Himself does not propose to judge a man until he is dead. So why should you?”
As lay people we have a responsibility, a certain call to prayer for those who serve us. The priest gives us Christ, truly present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Only a priest can absolve us of our sins in the confessional. He is Christ present before us! His hands give us Christ in the Holy Eucharist! No one else can perform these miracles! And indeed, they are truly miracles! May each of us reflect on this simple yet extremely vital truth for even a brief moment in passing each day. What would we do without our priest’s?
A PRAYER FOR PRIESTS
By the late John J Cardinal Carberry
Keep them; I pray Thee, dearest Lord.
Keep them, for they are Thine
The priests whose lives burn out before
Thy consecrated shrine.
Keep them, for they are in the world,
Though from the world apart.
When earthly pleasures tempt, allure --
Shelter them in Thy heart.
Keep them and comfort them in hours
Of loneliness and pain,
When all their life of sacrifice
For souls seems but in vain.
Keep them and remember, Lord,
they have no one but Thee.
Yet, they have only human hearts,
With human frailty.
Keep them as spotless as the Host,
That daily they caress;
Their every thought and word and deed,
Deign, dearest Lord, to bless.
A GOOD PRIEST
Catherine de Hueck Doherty
Foundress of Madonna House Apostolate
A priest is a lover of God. A priest is a lover of men.
A priest is a holy man because he walks before the Face of the
All Holy.
A priest understands all things.
A priest forgives all things.
A priest encompasses all things.
The heart of a priest, like Christ's, is pierced with the lance of love.
The heart of a priest is open, like Christ's, for the whole world to
walk through.
The heart of a priest is a vessel of compassion.
The heart of a priest is a chalice of love.
The heart of a priest is the trysting place of human and divine love.
A priest is a man whose goal is to be another Christ.
A priest is a man who lives to serve.
A priest is a man who has crucified himself, so that he too may be lifted up and draw all
things to Christ.
A priest is a man in love with God.
A priest is the gift of God to man, and of man to God.
A priest is a symbol of the Word made flesh.
A priest is the naked sword of God's justice.
A priest is the hand of God's mercy.
A priest is the reflection of God's love.
These two prayers I discovered courtesy of the website: http://prayersforpriests.homestead.com/ (see links)
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