Pray for holy priests with this prayer of Benedict XVI
Ask God to send his Church holy shepherds who truly lead their flocks closer to him.
The Catholic Church is always in need of priests, but more importantly, the Church is in need of holy priests. The Church needs true shepherds who strive to lead their people in imitation of the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for his flock.
The spiritual generation is always one degree less intense in its life than the one who begets it in Christ.
Here is a short prayer composed by Pope Benedict XVI for priests, asking God to send his people good, holy priests, capable of leading by example.
Lord Jesus Christ, eternal High Priest, You offered yourself to the Father on the altar of the Cross and through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit gave Your priestly people a share in Your redeeming sacrifice.
Hear our prayer for the sanctification of our priests. Grant that all who are ordained to the ministerial priesthood may be ever more conformed to You, the Divine Master.
May they preach the Gospel with pure heart and clear conscience.
Let them be shepherds according to Your own Heart, single-minded in service to You and to the Church and shining examples of a holy, simple and joyful life.
Through the prayers of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Your Mother and ours, draw all priests and the flocks entrusted to their care to the fullness of eter-nal life where you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever
Philip Kosloski, Aleteia, Sep 10, 2019
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"I have to tell you, little brother, that we don’t under-stand Heaven in the same way. You think that, once I share in the justice and holiness of God, I won’t be able to excuse your faults as I did when I was on earth. Are you then forgetting that I shall also share in the infinite mercy of the Lord? I believe that the Blessed in Heaven have great compassion for our miseries. They remember that when they were weak and mortal like us, they committed the same faults themselves and went through the same struggles, and their fraternal tenderness becomes still greater than it ever was on earth. It’s on account of this that they never stop watching over us and praying for us.
St Therese of Lisieux to Maurice Belliere, White Fathers seminarian, 10 Aug 1897, in Patrick Ahern, Maurice and Therese, the Story of a Love, (Darton Longman and Todd, GB ’99 pp209-210)
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