Prayer for our Priests

 Our pastor at St. Rose Philippine Duschesne provided the parishoners with two prayers for Good Shepherd Sunday, which, on the traditional calendar, was last Sunday.  One prayer is "The People's Prayer for their Priests" and the other "The Choice of the State of Life."  Both of these prayers are beautifully composed!  

Although Good Shepherd Sunday has passed, I encourage you to make "The People's  Prayer for their Priests" one of your daily prayers.  Our priests are so important in our spiritual lives, providing us with numerous opportunities for sanctifying grace through the sacraments and guiding us on our path to sanctification.  In return we need to pray daily for them, asking our Lord to shower them with His abundant graces and mercy.  We should also pray to our Lady that she may keep them steadfast in all things pleasing to God and safe from the snares of the devil.  This is a fitting and most beautiful prayer with which to accomplish this.

The People's Prayer for their Priests

O loving Heart of Jesus! deign to listen to the pleading supplication of Thy people for the sanctification of their pastors. O Heart of Love! teach them to love Thee as Thou desire; make them holy, make them pure, make them prudent, make them wise, make them “be all things to all men” after Thy divine example.

They are the guardians of Thy sacred Flesh and Blood: Oh! make them faithful to this holy trust. Give them excessive reverence for Thy pure Body and a longing thirst for Thy precious Blood, so that having tasted of Its sweetness they may be sanctified, strengthened and purified in the consuming flame of divine love.

O dearest Jesus! do not refuse our humble prayer. Look down with love on Thy priests; fill them with burning zeal for the conversion of sinners; keep unstained their anointed hands which daily touch Thy Immaculate Body; keep unsullied their lips purpled with Thy Precious Blood; keep pure and unearthly a heart sealed with the sublime marks of Thy glorious Priesthood; bless their labors with abundant fruit, and may those to whom they have ministered on earth be one day their joy and consolation in Heaven.

O Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, model of the priestly heart, give us holy priests.  Amen.

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The Beautiful Hands of a Priest

We need them in life's early morning,
We need them again at its close;
We feel their warm clasp of true friendship,

We seek them when tasting life's woes.

At the altar each day we behold them,
And the hands of a king on his throne
Are not equal to them in their greatness;
Their dignity stands all alone;

And when we are tempted and wander,
To pathways of shame and of sin,
It's the hand of a priest that will absolve us--
Not once, but again and again.

And when we are taking life's partner,
Other hands may prepare us a feast,
But the hand that will bless and unite us--
Is the beautiful hand of a priest.

God bless them and keep them all holy,
For the Host which their fingers caress;
When can a poor sinner do better,
Than to ask Him to guide thee and bless?

When the hour of death comes upon us,
May our courage and strength be increased,
By seeing raised over us in blessing--
The beautiful hands of a priest.

--Author unknown from an old prayer card

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The Choice of the State of Life

O my God, Thou who are the God of wisdom and of counsel, Thou who reads in my heart the sincere will to please Thee alone, and to govern myself with regard to my choice of a state of life, entirely in conformity with Thy most holy desire; grant me, by the intercession of the Most Blessed Virgin, my Mother, and of my holy patrons, especially of St. Joseph and St. Aloysius, the grace to know what state I ought to choose; and when to embrace it, so that in it I may be able to pursue and increase Thy glory, work out my salvation, and merit that heavenly reward which Thou has promised those who do Thy holy Will.  Amen.

"The world's thy ship and not thy home."  --St. Therese of Lisieux

God bless!

+JMJ+