THE BEAUTIFUL HANDS OF A PRIEST

(poem by an unknown author)

We need them in life's early morning,
We need them again at its close;
We feel their warm clasp of true friendship,
We seek them when tasting life's woes.

At the altar each day we behold them,
And the hands of a king on his throne
Are not equal to them in their greatness;
Their dignity stands all alone;

And when we are tempted and wander,
To pathways of shame and of sin,
It's the hand of a priest that will absolve us,
Not once, but again and again.

And when we are taking life's partner,
Other hands may prepare us a feast,
But the hand that will bless and unite us
Is the beautiful hand of a priest.

God bless them and keep them all holy,
For the Host which their fingers caress;
When can a poor sinner do better
Than to ask Him to guide thee and bless?

When the hour of death comes upon us,
May our courage and strength be increased,
By seeing raised over us in blessing
The beautiful hands of a priest.


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

Source: http://www.rockvoc.org/main/Families/prayer_for_priests.htm (Rockford Diocese, Office of Vocations); also as second part of prayer # 3 in: Chalice of Strength, pages 14-15. Detroit, Michigan: Crusade for Priests, 1996, where Cardinal Cushing is named as author. (www.opusangelorum.ord).
PRAYER FOR PRIESTS

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.

(By J. J. Cardinal Carberry)

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.

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.



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.


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.


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.


AS FOR US :

DAILY PRAYER FOR PRIESTS

Have you ever considered adopting in prayer a brother Priest? "Mary Help of Christians" has suggested the following:

·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 new vocations to replace him.