Contribute to Prayer Gift for Pope Benedict XVI's 60th Anniversary of Ordination: Eucharistic Adoration for Sanctification of the Clergy and for Priestly Vocations

Pope Benedict XVI’s 60th Anniversary of Ordination June 29

The pope will celebrate his anniversary June 29, the Solemnity of St. Peter and Paul. In honor of his anniversary, the Vatican Congregation for Clergy suggested Catholic clergy and faithful be invited to participate in Eucharistic Adoration with the intention of praying for the sanctification of the clergy and for the gift of new and holy priestly vocations.

Dioceses nationwide are planning special prayers before the Blessed Sacrament in June, offered continuously or across various days in the month.

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, highlighted the importance of this celebration.

“An increase in number and sanctity of the priests in service to our dioceses is a sign of health and vitality in the Church,” he said. Prayer for vocations is “a worthy intention” and an appropriate spiritual sacrifice “in gratitude for the example and service of Pope Benedict XVI,” he wrote in a May 17 letter to bishops.

“This is an exceptional opportunity to give thanks for our Holy Father, to pray for all of our priests, and to ask the Lord for more vocations to the priesthood,” said Archbishop Robert J. Carlson of St. Louis, chairman for the Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations. “The Holy Father has been an outstanding model of priestly ministry and service to the Church. In his Message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Proposing Vocations in the Local Church, he reminded the faithful that we all have a responsibility to pray for vocations. This is a great opportunity to do just that.” (Source)

PRAYER FOR PRIESTS

Lord Jesus we come into your Eucharistic presence to thank you for the life and priestly vocation of Pope Benedict XVI. Bless him and his ministry as your Vicar and the Successor of St. Peter. Sanctify all your priests and configure them to your Sacred and Priestly Heart. Give to your Church new and holy priests, who will imitate your divine love and shepherd your people with care. You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Source)

Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Mother of all priests and our Mother, help us respond generously to the Holy Spirit's request, through the voice of His Church, to offer up to God Eucharistic adoration for priests.  Amen. 

Prayer to St. Joseph for Priests: Console Them in Their Pains

O illustrious Patriarch St. Joseph,

who carried the Infant Jesus in thy blessed arms and who,

during the space of thirty years,

lived in the most intimate familiarity with Him,

take under thy powerful protection those whom He has clothed with His authority

and honored with the dignity of His priesthood,

whom He has charged to continue His mission,

to preach His Gospel,

and to dispense everywhere His graces and blessings.

Sustain them in their fatigues and labors;

console them in their pains;

fortify them in their combats;

but above all, keep far from them all the evils of sin.

Obtain for them the humility of St. John the Baptist,

the faith of St. Peter,

the purity of St. John

and the spirit of prayer and recollection

of which thou, my dear Saint, art the model,

so that, after having been on earth,

the faithful dispensers of the Mysteries of thy foster Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ,

they may in Heaven receive the recompense promised to pastors according to the Heart of God.

Amen.

Video uploaded by RealCatholicTV on May 24, 2011

Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Mother of all priests and our Mother, help us respond generously to the Holy Spirit's request, through the voice of His Church, to offer up to God Eucharistic adoration for priests.  Amen.

Postulator Discusses the Cause of Servant of God Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

"There is no greater profession of faith possible for a human being to make here on earth

than during prayer before the Holy Eucharist;

so we ask, why should prayer before Christ in the Blessed Sacrament
be so powerful in obtaining miracles of conversion--

is because it is prayer rising from faith in the cardinal mystery of Christianity."

~ Servant of God Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. ~

Prayer for the Beatification and Canonization of Father John Hardon

Almighty God, You gave Your servant,
Father John Anthony Hardon of the Society of Jesus,
the grace of religious and priestly consecration after the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Through Father Hardon,
You provided for your Flock an extraordinary teacher of the faith.

You entrusted Father Hardon into the loving
care of the Blessed Virgin Mary
whose counsel, "Do whatever he tells you" (Jn 2:5)
he faithfully followed and whose intercession he unceasingly invoked.

If it be Your holy will, please grant the request I now make,
calling upon the help of Father Hardon,
so that his heroic sanctity may be recognized in the whole Church.

I ask this through Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who
with You and the Holy Spirit, is one God forever and ever.
Amen.

~ Source: official website for Fr. Hardon ~

Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Mother of all priests and our Mother, help us respond generously to the Holy Spirit's request, through the voice of His Church, to offer up to God Eucharistic adoration for priests.  Amen.

St. Pio & Fr. Bill Casey: The Awesome Reality of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

"Renew your faith by attending Holy Mass.

Keep your mind focused on the mystery that is unfolding before your eyes.

In your mind's eye transport yourself to Calvary and meditate on the Victim

who offers Himself to Divine Justice, paying the price of your redemption."

"If we only knew how God regards this Sacrifice,

we would risk our lives to be present at a single Mass."

~ Saint Padre Pio ~

Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Mother of all priests and our Mother, help us respond generously to the Holy Spirit's request, through the voice of His Church, to offer up to God Euchristic adoration for priests.  Amen.

St. Pio and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: Hanging on the Cross With Jesus

"...when I celebrate Holy Mass I am not standing, but hanging on the cross together with Jesus, and I suffer inadequately all that Jesus suffered on the Cross, as much as is possible for a human creature. The Lord has deigned to associate me with the great work of human redemption, and this despite my every demerit, and only because of His supreme goodness."

~ St. Padre Pio ~

Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Mother of all priests and our Mother, help us respond generously to the Holy Spirit's request, through the voice of His Church, to offer up to God Eucharistic adoration for priests.  Amen.

Blessed Alexandrina da Costa: Loving Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament

"Keep Me company in the Blessed Sacrament. I remain in the tabernacle night and day, waiting to give my love and grace to all who would visit Me. But so few come. I am so abandoned, so lonely, so offended...Many men do not believe that I live in the tabernacle. They curse Me. Others believe, but do not love Me and do not visit Me; they live as if I were not there."

"Like Mary Magdalene, you have chosen the better part. You have chosen to love Me in the tabernacles where you can contemplate Me, not with the eyes of the body, but with those of the soul. I am truly present there as in Heaven--Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity...I do not stay in this world only for love of those who love Me, but for everyone..."

~ Jesus to Blessed Alexandrina da Costa; excerpt from here ~

Our Lord pleads for Eucharistic Reparation. An excerpt from the full-length documentary on Blessed Alexandrina Maria da Costa who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2004 and has been proposed by the universal church as a patron for the youth. Blessed Alexandrina's great love of Our Lord's Real Presence in the Eucharist is very relevant for today.

~ Related post on Blessed Alexandrina and the Power of Sacrifice for a Priest ~

~ Related post from Venite Adoremus Dominum ~

Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Mother of all priests and our Mother, help us respond generously to the Holy Spirit's request, through the voice of His Church, to offer up to God Eucharistic adoration for priests.  Amen.

Oblate Sisters of Christ Priest: Prayer and Sacrifice for Priests and Seminarians

Many people think that contemplative life belongs to the ancient times: Carmelites, Franciscans, Jesuits… they all have a long history within Church. Nevertheless, God, not only continues to call many others to a total and exclusive dedication but, He also continues to entrust some persons with the high mission of founding new communities according to the needs of his Church. That was the case of José María García Lahiguera and Maria del Carmen Hidalgo de Caviedes y Gómez, a bishop and a young lady who lived in the Spanish XX century.

20 July 1936. Spanish Civil War. A 23 years-old young lady is praying at the church of Capuchins before the celebration of the Holy Mass. Bombing at the "Barracks de la Montaña", Madrid. Bombs, explosions; in view of an imminent threat, the nuns try to find their chaplain all over the place so that they can go to confession. The young lady is seeking the priest but she is not able to find him. Right then, she strongly understands the vital role of priests within the Church, their irreplaceable mission of reaching souls in God’s plan of salvation. In front of the temple’s altar that looked threatening to fall down, this young lady, inspired by the Holy Spirit, offered her life to God for the priests. That young lady was named MªCarmen Hidalgo de Caviedes y Gómez.

Just a few months before (9 March 1936), José María García Lahiguera -Spiritual Director of the Minor Seminary- writes in his spiritual notes:

"And as sanctity is an act from grace, and this is reachable through prayer, there is an urgent and imperative need to embark on a crusade “Pro Sacerdotio” based on prayer and sacrifice. (…). But, since we are talking about something permanent and stable as priesthood is, the sacrifice for their sanctity has to be uninterrupted; this is not reachable if work is addressed or encourages only one person. I do think that it is necessary to pray to our Lord in order to determine whether it is convenient to start to think about the foundation of a religious cloistered order of nuns, whose main aim -not to say exclusive- shall be prayer and sacrifice for youth and seminarians and, whose distinctive shall be: the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience; public, official and solemn offering (...) to be victims for priests and seminarians." (Free translation)

***

“The soul of the Oblate shall go beyond the wall of her monastery and cut through the seas until the last corner in earth with the same love as Christ is present, with His same Redemptory Love...And that lost missionary, unknown in his mission; that unappreciated priest; other who is in danger; the one who is full of expectations but without opportunities; (…) All that world of priests, man among men, segregated to be another Christ where He may deposit His own power. What does the Heart of Christ feel? He made them “another He” and only Christ shall be their life and exigency...They have to be in the world but being of God; they have to give themselves to the souls keeping their permanence only in God. That world of danger, fight, difficulties, temptation, pressure, undefined road….”

~ Mother María del Carmen ~

~ All text from the Oblate Sisters of Christ Priest website)

Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Mother of all priests and our Mother, help us respond generously to the Holy Spirit's request, through the voice of His Church, to offer up to God Eucharistic adoration for priests.  Amen.

Blessed John Paul II: Eucharistic Adoration in the Life of St. Jose Maria Rubio

"The most important aspect of the apostolate for Fr Rubio was prayer; adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament was the centre of his entire life. The love of Christ was what Fr Rubio wanted to give to the poor. For him and his collaborators, prayer came first, and it was through this intense prayer life that they received the strength to minister in the poorest and most abbandoned areas of Madrid and to assist the people spiritually."

~ Excerpt from Homily of Blessed John Paul II ~

"Are you truly making an effort to adore God? In this Sacred Host lies the whole of His omnipotence, all His wisdom, the perfect goodness of Jesus Christ, since therein rests His living heart as it is also in heaven. When we adore in this way, we adore in spirit and in truth." (Source)

~ St. Jose Maria Rubio, S.J. ~

Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Mother of all priests and our Mother, help us respond generously to the Holy Spirit's request, through the voice of His Church, to offer up to God Eucharistic adoration for priests.  Amen.

Beatification of Pope John Paul II

"Finally, on a more personal note, I would like to thank God for the giftof having worked for many years with Blessed Pope John Paul II. I had known him earlier and had esteemed him, but for twenty-three years, beginning in 1982 after he called me to Rome to be Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, I was at his side and came to revere him all the more. My own service was sustained by his spiritual depth and by the richness of his insights. His example of prayer continually impressed and edified me: he remained deeply united to God even amid the many demands of his ministry. Then too, there was his witness in suffering: the Lord gradually stripped him of everything, yet he remained ever a 'rock', as Christ desired. His profound humility, grounded in close union with Christ, enabled him to continue to lead the Church and to give to the world a message which became all the more eloquent as his physical strength declined. In this way he lived out in an extraordinary way the vocation of every priest and bishop to become completely one with Jesus, whom he daily receives and offers in the Eucharist." (From VIS)

~ Pope Benedict XVI ~

Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Mother of all priests and our Mother, help us respond generously to the Holy  Spirit's request, through the voice of his Church, to offer up to God Eucharistic adoration for priests.  Amen.