This month will mark the end of the Year of the Priest. Offer prayers and sacrifices for priests--for the one who baptized you, the one who gave you your first Holy Communion, the ones who have absolved you from your sins in Christ's name, the one who married you. Pray for the ones who are overwhelmed with the administrative duties of a parish, the ones who teach, the ones who work in foreign missions and those in countries where the Catholic faith is most especially oppressed. Pray for the holy ones and those for whom holiness is a constant struggle. Pray those who are newly ordained, that their zeal may never wane, and for retired priests who leave this world in obscurity after having lived a lifetime of self-giving.
And I myself will pray for those I don't really want to pray for, those who have caused scandal for the Church with their horrific actions, whether it be adultery, homosexuality, pedophilia or embezzlement. I find praying for them repugnant, and yet I will offer my prayers for them tonight in our rosary, because if there is no prayer for them, there can be no healing of the wounds they have caused to Mother Church.
Thank you, Lord, for the priests you have given us, so that they in turn may give us You.
Oh Nadja, I beg of your prayers for the Priest out here in the L.A. diocese. We just got(can I say that, got) AB Gomez, he will need prayers. We moved out here this year and my heart breaks every sunday. It's one thing to know that "stuff" happens in the Church, but it's another to see it every time you step in the Church out here. I'm sure there are some holy priest out here, just not any with in an hour or more from me.
ReplyDeleteHopefuly we will be back to the south next year.
God Bless,
Jennifer