Prayers for Priests

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

Baroness de Hueck Doherty

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.

Remember...

If the priest is a saint, his people will be holy.

If the priest is holy, his people will be good.

If the priest is good, his people will be fair.

If the priest is fair, his people will be mediocre.

If the priest is mediocre, his people will be bad.

:       -Anon.

To honour the priesthood is to honour the great High Priest, Jesus Christ. 

To see Christ in the priest is a sure way of finding God.         Father James, 0-F.M. Cap.

He who honors a priest honors Christ;

he who insults a priest insults Christ.

St. John Chrysostom

If I saw an angel and a priest,

I would bend my knee;

first to the priest and then to the angel.

St. Francis of Assisi

Jesus, Savior of the world, sanctify Thy priests and sacred ministers.

Indulgence of 300 days, Raccolta

0 Mary, Queen of the clergy,  pray for us; 

obtain for us many and holy priests.

Prayer for Priests

(by St Therese of Lisieux)

O Jesus, eternal Priest,

keep your priests within the shelter of Your Sacred Heart,

where none may touch them.

Keep unstained their anointed hands,

which daily touch Your Sacred Body.

Keep unsullied their lips,

daily purpled with your Precious Blood.

Keep pure and unearthly their hearts,

sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood.

Let Your holy love surround them and

shield them from the world's contagion.

Bless their labors with abundant fruit and

may the souls to whom they minister be their joy 

and consolation here and in heaven their beautiful and

everlasting crown. Amen.

DAILY PRAYER FOR PRIESTS

Have you ever considered adopting in prayer a brother Priest?  

Ask Mary to assign him to you.

Love him like a real brother.

Daily pray and sacrifice for him.

Shield him from temptation.

Beg God that he avoid giving scandal.

Call him back to fervor.

Become a saint that he may become one.

Pray that Mary be a tender Mother to him and

find him good friends.

Ask for a new vocation to replace him.

PRAYER FOR PRIESTS

(By J. J. Cardinal Carberry)

O Jesus, our great High Priest, hear my humble prayers on behalf of your priests.  Give them a deep faith, a bright and firm hope and a burning love which will ever increase in the course of their priestly life.

In their loneliness, comfort them.  In their sorrows, strengthen them.  In their frustrations, point out to them that it is through suffering that the soul is purified, and show them that they are needed by the Church; they are needed by souls; they are needed for the work of redemption.

O loving Mother Mary, Mother of Priests, take to your heart your sons who are close to you because of their priestly ordination and because of the power which they have received to carry on the work of Christ in a world which needs them so much.  Be their comfort, be their joy, be their strength, and especially help them to live and to defend the ideals of consecrated celibacy.

A Prayer for Priests

by John Cardinal O'Connor, March 1995

Lord Jesus, we your people pray to You for our priests. You have given them to us for OUR needs. We pray for them in THEIR needs.

We know that You have made them priests in the likeness of your own priesthood. You have consecrated them, set them aside, annointed them, filled them with the Holy Spirit, appointed them to teach, to preach, to minister, to console, to forgive, and to feed us with Your Body and Blood.

Yet we know, too, that they are one with us and share our human weaknesses. We know too that they are tempted to sin and discouragement, as are we, needing to be ministered to, as do we, to be consoled and forgiven, as do we. Indeed, we thank You for choosing them from among us, so that they understand us as we understand them, suffer with us and rejoice with us, worry with us and trust with us, share our beings, our lives, our faith.

We ask that You give them this day the gift You gave Your chosen ones on the way to Emmaus: 

Your presence in their hearts, 

Your holiness in their souls, 

Your joy in their spirits. 

And let them see You face to face in the breaking of the Eucharistic Bread.

We pray to You, O Lord, with Mary, the mother of priests, for Your priests and for ours. Amen.