My God and
Father in heaven, that night in the Garden, on the Mount of Olives, Your Son
told Peter: “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, who will promptly
send more than twelve legions of angels to my defense?” (Matthew 26:53).Prayers of Devotion for Priests
1. Prayer for Priests
My God and
Father in heaven, that night in the Garden, on the Mount of Olives, Your Son
told Peter: “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, who will promptly
send more than twelve legions of angels to my defense?” (Matthew 26:53).
Father, we ask You now: send these twelve legions of angels with chalices of strength out into the Gethsemane of the Holy Church to defend and assist our priests, who, strengthened by the power and presence of these angels, may faithfully fulfill their priestly missions. Amen.
2. Prayers for All Priests
My God, I pray for all Your priests and beseech You to sanctify them. Let them love their sacrifice deeply so that they may live it lovingly.
I beg You, grant them obedience, a spirit of detachment, a chastity which is constant and true, a spirit of self-denial, humility, sweetness, zeal and dedication.
I beg You that all those who may approach them may leave them with a greater love for You. My God, I pray that through them Your Kingdom on earth may grow and be strengthened. O Jesus, I promise with all my heart to sacrifice myself with You. Amen.
3. Prayer to the Eternal High Priest
O Jesus, Eternal Priest, keep Your priests within the shelter of Your Most Sacred Heart, where none can touch them. Keep unstained their anointed hands, which daily touch Your Sacred Body. Keep unsullied their lips daily tinged with Your Precious Blood. Keep pure and unworldly their hearts, sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood. Let Your Holy Love surround then protect 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 their everlasting crown in the hereafter. Amen.
4. Mary, Mother of the Church
Mary, Mother of
the Church, to you we turn. With your “yes” you have opened the door to the
presence of Christ in the world, in history and in souls, receiving in humble
silence and total submission the appeal of the Most High.
Grant that many men and women may know and hear, even today, the inviting voice of your Son: “Follow me.” Stretch out your motherly hand over all missionaries scattered throughout the world, over religious men and women who assist the elderly, the sick, the deficient, the orphans; over those who are engaged in teaching, over the members of secular institutes, the silent leaven of good works; over those who in the cloister live on faith and love and beg for the salvation of the world. Amen.
5. Prayer for Vocations
O God, who have chosen the apostles to make disciples of all nations and who by Baptism ad Confirmation have called us to build up Your Holy Church, we earnestly implore You to choose from among us, Your children, many priests, deacons and religious brothers and sisters who will love You with their whole heart and will gladly spend their entire lives to make You known and loved by all. Amen.
6. Prayer for the Missions
Eternal God, Creator of all things, remember the souls of unbelievers who are the work of Your hands and created in Your image and likeness.
Remember that Jesus Christ Your Son has suffered for their salvation a most cruel death. Do not allow that Your divine Son be despised by unbelievers any longer, but that He will be appeased by the prayers of Your chosen ones and of the Church, the Spouse of Your Most Blessed Son, who is our health, life and resurrection, through whom we are saved and set free and to whom be given glory forever. Amen.
7. Prayer for the Missions
Most loving
Jesus and our Lord, who have redeemed the world at the price of Your Most
Precious Blood, look mercifully on poor mankind, which is a greater part, lies
in the darkness of error and in the shadow of death. Shine on it the fullness
of the light of truth. Multiply, Lord, the apostles of Your Gospel. Make them
fervent and fruitful. Bless with Your grace their zeal and their pains so that
through them all unbelievers may come to know You and turn to You, their Creator
and Redeemer.
Call back again into Your sheepfold those who have strayed, and back into the womb of Your only and true Church, the rebellious. O Most lovable Savior, hasten the long-awaited advent of Your Kingdom on earth. Attract all men to Your sweetest Heart so that all may participate in the incomparable benefits of Redemption. Amen.
O Mary, Queen
of the Missions, give us many and holy missionaries.
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will
be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and
forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with Thee; Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.
Glory be to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be; world without end. Amen.
8. Prayer for Missionaries
Look kindly
Lord, on our missionaries, priests, religious and laymen who left all to witness
to Your word and Your love. Be to each one of them a “powerful protector and
their strong support, their shade from the midday sun, their shelter from the
desert wind, a guard against stumbling, an assurance against a fall…”
(Ecclesiastics 34:19).
Sustain them in difficult moments, direct their strength, console their hearts and crown their works with spiritual victories. Let them not seek for earthly success or the goods of this world, but only Your triumph and the good of souls.
Your Cross, which accompanies them through their lives, speaks to them of heroism, renunciation and of peace. Be their comfort, their guide, their light and their strength, so that Your name may be announced everywhere and that, surrounded by a larger and larger number of Your children, they may sing a hymn of thanksgiving, of glory and redemption. Amen.
9. For Openness to God’s Call
Lord Jesus, once You called the first disciples in order to make them fishers of men. Continue to let resound today Your sweet invitation: “Come and follow Me.”
Grant to young men and women the grace of responding promptly to Your voice. Sustain our bishops, priests and consecrated souls in their apostolic work. Give perseverance to our seminarians and to all those who are fulfilling the ideal of a life of total consecration to Your service.
Enkindle in our communities a missionary zeal. Send, Lord, workers into Your fields and do not let mankind be lost because of a lack of pastors, missionaries, and people dedicated to the cause of the Gospel.
Mary, Mother of the Church, model of vocations, help us say “yes” to the Lord who calls us to collaborate in the divine design of salvation. Amen.
10. Prayer for Priests
O almighty,
Eternal God, look upon the Face of Your Son and for love of Him, who is the
Eternal High Priest, have pity on Your priests. Remember, O most compassionate
God, that they are but weak and frail human beings. Stir up on them the grace
of their vocation which is in them by the imposition of the bishop’s hands.
Keep them close to You, lest the enemy prevail against them, so that they may
never do anything in the slightest degree unworthy of their sublime vocation.
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 the lonely and desolate priests; for You young priests; for Your dying priests; for the souls of Your priests in purgatory. But above all, I commend to You the priests dearest to me, the priest who baptized me, the priests who have absolved me from my sins, the priests at whose Masses I have assisted and who have offered me Your Body and Blood in Holy communion, the priests who have taught and instructed me or helped and encouraged me, and the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way.
O Jesus, keep them all close to Your Heart, and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity. Amen.
11. For Holy Church and for Priests
O my Jesus, I beg You on behalf of the whole Church, grant it love and the light of Your spirit and give power to the words of priests so that hardened hearts might be brought to repentance and return to You, O Lord.
Lord, give us holy priests. You Yourself maintain them in holiness. O Divine and Great High Priest, may the power of Your mercy accompany them everywhere and protect them from the devil’s traps and snares which are continually being set for the souls of priests.
May the power of Your mercy, O Lord, shatter and bring to naught all that might tarnish the sanctity of priests, for You can do all things. I ask You, Jesus, for a special blessing and for light for the priests before whom I will make my confessions throughout my lifetime. Amen.
12. Thanksgiving and Intercession for Priests
Lord Jesus, You
have chosen Your priests from among us and sent them out to proclaim Your word
and act in Your name.
For so great a gift to Your Church, we give You praise and thanksgiving, we ask You to fill them with the fire of Your love, that their ministry may reveal Your presence in the Church. Since they are earthen vessels, we pray that Your power shine out through their weakness. In their afflictions let them never be crushed; in their doubts, never despair; in temptation, never be destroyed; in persecution, never abandoned. Inspire them through prayer to live each day the mystery of Your dying and rising. In times of weakness, send Your Spirit, and help them to praise Your Heavenly Father and pray for the poor sinners.
By the same Holy Spirit put Your word on their lips and Your love in their hearts, to bring good news to the poor and healing to the broken-hearted. And may the gift of Mary, Your Mother, to the disciple whom You loved, be Your gift to every priest. Grant that she who formed You in her human image, may form them in Your Divine Image, by the power of Your Spirit, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.