Croatian-American artist Maxo Vanka, Millvale PA
We have a new priest who will say Mass for us on Shaw, after the priest we had for over three years must return to India, because of failings on the part of Immigration. Which reminds me, to pray for all our priests.
Why do we pray for priests? Father John Harden, SJ wrote over 30 years ago: “No words I can use would be too strong to state that the Catholic priesthood needs prayer and sacrifice as never before since
We need to pray for not only more priests, but more holy priests! Without priests we would have no Eucharist. Without priests we would flounder in our faith. We need priests who are true shepherds, willing to lay down their lives for their sheep.
“One saint after another has declared that the devil’s principal target on earth is the Catholic priest. Priests need, Lord how they need, special graces from God. We ask, why pray, then, for priests? We should pray for priests and bishops because this has been the practice of the Church since apostolic times. It’s a matter of revealed truth. It is a divine mandate.”
My favorite prayer from St. Therese of the Child Jesus
O Jesus, I pray for Your faithful and fervent priests;
for Your unfaithful and tepid priests;
for Your priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields.
for Your tempted priests;
for Your lonely and desolate priests;
For Your young priests;
for Your dying priests;
for the souls of Your priests in Purgatory.
But above all, I recommend to You 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 Your Body and Blood in Holy Communion;
the priests who taught and instructed me;
all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way (especially …).
O Jesus, keep them all close to Your heart,
and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity. Amen.