Prayer for the Holy Father

"Lord Jesus, shelter our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, under the protection of Thy Sacred Heart.  Be Thou his light, his strength, and his consolation."

"O God, the Pastor and Ruler of all the faithful, look down, in Your mercy, upon Your servant Pope Benedict XVI, whom You have appointed to preside over Your Church; and grant, we beseech You, that both by word and example, he may edify all those under his charge; so that with the flock entrusted to him, he may arrive at length unto life everlasting.  Through Christ Our Lord.  Amen."
 

Prayer for Our Bishop

"God, Eternal Shepherd, You tend Your Church in many ways and rule us with love.  you have chosen your servant, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, to be a shepherd of Your flock. 

Give him a spirit of courage and right judgment, a spirit of knowledge and love.  By governing with fidelity those entrusted to his care, may he build Your Church as a sign of the salvation of the world."

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Prayers for Priests

"O Jesus, humbled in the Eucharist to be the source and center of charity of the Catholic Church, and the strength of souls, we offer Thee our prayers, our actions, our sufferings on behalf of Thy Priests, to the end that each may behold the wider extension of the Kingdom of Thy Sacred Heart."

"O Jesus, Eternal High Priest, Divine Sacrificer, vouchsafe to pour forth upon Thy Priests continual living streams of infinite love.  Live in them, transform them into Thee: make them, by Thy grace, fit instruments of Thy mercy: do Thou act in them and through them and grant that they may become wholly one with Thee by their faithful imitation of Thy virtues: and in Thy Name and by the strength of Thy spirit, may they do the works which Thou didst accomplish for the salvation of the world.  Divine Redeemer of souls, behold how great is the multitude of those who still sleep in the darkness of error, of those unfaithful sheep who stray to the edge of the precipice.  Consider the throngs of the poor, the hungry, the ignorant, and the feeble who groan in their abandoned condition.  Return to us in the person of Thy Priests:  truly live in them; act through them and pass once more through the world, teaching, forgiving, comforting, sacrificing and renewing the sacred bonds of love between the Heart of God and the heart of man.  Amen."
 

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Prayer to St. John Vianney For Parish Priests

Dear Saint John Vianney, your childhood dream was to be a Priest, to win souls for God. 
You endured years of toil and humiliation to attain the Priesthood. You became a priest truly after God's own heart, 
outstanding in humulity and poverty; prayer and mortification. Totally devoted to the service of God's people. 
The Church has exalted you as model and patron saint of all Parish priests, trusting that your example and prayers 
will help them to live up to the high dignity of their vocation to be faithful servants of God's people, 
to be perfect imitators of Christ the Saviour Who came not to be served but to serve, to give His Life in ransom for many. 

Pray that God may give to His Church today many more priests after His own Heart. 
Pray for all the priests under your patronage, that they may be worthy representatives of Christ the Good Shepherd. 
May they wholeheartedly devote themselves to prayer and penance; be examples of humility and poverty; 
shining models of holiness; tireless and powerful preachers of the Word of God; 
zealous dispensers of God's Grace in the Sacraments. May their loving devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist 
and to Mary His Mother be the Twin Fountains of fruitfulness for their ministry.  Amen.
 

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HOLY HOUR OFFERING FROM THOSE PRIESTS WHO HAVE FALLEN AWAY

MY GOD, poor, weak and miserable as I am, I have come to spend this hour alone with YOU, in reparation for the priests who have forgotten that they are YOUR chosen souls.  Especially, dear God, do I offer this holy hour for the priests who at this moment need it most. In praying for consecrated souls, help me to remember my own utter weakness, misery and nothingness. Were it not for YOUR grace, I would be far worse than those for whom I pray.

0 MY GOD, help those priests who are faithful to remain faithful, to those who are falling, stretch forth YOUR Divine Hand that they may grasp it as their support. And for those poor unfortunate souls who have fallen, lift them up in the great ocean of YOUR Mercy, that being engulfed therein, they may receive the grace to return to YOUR Great Loving Heart. Amen.                              Imprimatur: Edward Cardinal Mooney  Feb. 23, 1951 Detroit

  

 St. Therese's PRAYER FOR PRIESTS and VOCATIONS

‘O Holy Father, may the torrents of love flowing from the sacred wounds of Thy Divine Son bring forth priests like unto the beloved disciple John who stood at the foot of the Cross; priests: who as a pledge of Thine own most tender love will lovingly give Thy Divine Son to the souls of men.

May Thy priests be faithful guardians of Thy Church, as John was of Mary, whom he received into his house. Taught by this loving Mother who suffered so much on Calvary, may they display a mother’s care and thoughtfulness towards Thy children. May they teach souls to enter into close union with Thee through Mary who, as the Gate of Heaven, is specially the guardian of the treasures of Thy Divine Heart.

Give us priests who are on fire, and who are true children of Mary, priests who will give Jesus to souls with the same tenderness and care with which Mary carried the Little Child of Bethlehem.

Mother of sorrows and of love, out of compassion for Thy beloved Son, open in our hearts deep wells of love, so that we may console Him and give Him a generation of priests formed in thy school and having all the tender thoughtfulness of thine own spotless love.’
 

 

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