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Prayer for Convocation of Priests

Convocation of priests of the Archdiocese of Chicago

While we need  priests, much of the weight falls on our shoulders. Priests, bishops, and the cardinal need our prayers daily. Without them, they are more likely to fall when the next temptation comes around. We need priests to spiritually survive in this world. Without priests we would have no Eucharist, and without the Eucharist we would have no priests.  We would not have the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in our churches and there would be no Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We need priests who are true shepherds, willing to lay down their lives for their sheep.
So we must pray for them, without ceasing.

So let us join together in praying especially this week for priests:   

O Jesus, our great High Priest, hear our 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 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.

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.

Amen

“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.'” —Matthew 28:18-20