Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen's Intercession for a Stillborn Baby Boy

Bonnie Engstrom remembers praying silently to Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen over and over again after her baby son was born lifeless and without a pulse for 61 minutes.

~ Excerpt from Catholic News Agency ~

Prayer for Canonization

Heavenly Father, source of all holiness, You raise up within the Church in every age men and women who serve with heroic love and dedication. You have blessed Your Church through the life and ministry of Your faithful servant, Archbishop Fulton J Sheen. He has written and spoken well of Your Divine Son, Jesus Christ, and was a true instrument of the Holy Spirit in touching the hearts of countless people.

If it be according to Your Will, for the honor and glory of the Most Holy Trinity and for the salvation of souls, we ask You to move the Church to proclaim him a saint. We ask this prayer through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

~ From archbishopsheencause.org ~

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.

Venerable Fr. Nelson Baker: "The Amazing Good That One Priest Can Do"

"While the Church has not yet officially declared him a saint, most people in Buffalo, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, through the years have always spoken of Father Baker as a saint. The institutions that he founded continue to serve people today. The infant home now cares for severely handicapped children. Young people in need of supervision are helped at Baker Hall. The hospital has been reborn as an institution that cares for the aging. The parish remains active with about 2000 families and a large parochial school. Pilgrims still come in even greater numbers than before. They do so to pay tribute to Our Lady of Victory, but also to honor Father Baker."

"I also marveled at the amazing good that one priest can do. I thought of the fine work of our priests here at home in the Diocese of Syracuse — who on a day-to-day basis serve the needs of our people in parishes and institutions. They do so, perhaps not in the extraordinary manner of Father Baker, but nevertheless in a very real and personal way. They serve faithfully the needs of God’s people and respond to God’s call to holiness of life."

Father Baker’s favorite prayer:

O Victorious Lady! Thou who has such powerful influence with Thy Divine Son, in conquering the hardest of hearts, intercede for those for whom we pray, that their hearts being softened by the rays of Divine Grace, they may return to the unity of the true faith, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer for the canonization of Father Baker:

Lord you gave us Your servant Nelson Baker as an example of service to the poor, homeless, and young. By Father Baker's ardent concern for those in need, inflame our hearts and lives with compassion for the poor, justice for the oppressed, hope for the troubled, and courage to those in doubt. We pray through the intercession of Our Lady of Victory, if it be your will, that your servant, Nelson Baker, may one day be canonized. Amen.

~ Excerpts from Bishop Robert Cunningham's column ~

Previous posts about Venerable Fr. Nelson Baker:

~ American priest Fr. Nelson Baker, Apostle of Charity ~

~ Fr. Nelson Baker Declared Venerable ~

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.

Fr. Joseph Muzquiz: Boston Archdiocese Opens Cause for Opus Dei Priest

José Luis Múzquiz de Miguel was born in 1912, in Badajoz, Spain. While studying engineering in Madrid in 1934, he met St. Jose­maría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei. Responding to God’s call, he joined Opus Dei in 1940. Until his ordination as a priest, he worked as a civil engineer building bridges and railroad stations for the Spain’s national railroad system. He would eventually obtain three doctorates: Civil Engineering, History and Canon Law.

In 1949 Father Joseph and a young Spanish physicist, Salvador Ferigle, came to the United States to start Opus Dei’s apostolic work. They began in Chicago and within ten years had also established centers in St. Louis, Milwaukee, Boston and Washington. He also helped start Opus Dei’s work in Japan and Canada.

In the late 1950s, he trav­eled extensively, laying the groundwork for Opus Dei’s beginnings in Asia. He subsequently worked in Rome, Switzerland and Spain, and then in 1976 he returned to the United States. He resided in Boston from 1981 until his death on June 21, 1983. He is bur­ied in St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Brookline, MA. 

The Servant of God, Father Joseph Muzquiz

Prayer for Private Devotion

God, you helped your servant Joseph work with generosity and simplicity. He spread the message of sanctity in secular life to many people, teaching them to find joy and peace in their daily life. Help me to seek first the kingdom of God, by sanctifying my everyday work and dedicating myself generously to the salvation of souls. Glorify your servant Joseph, and through his intercession, grant me the favor I ask of you.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory be to the Father.

~ Excerpt and prayer from Opus Dei ~

Putting Down Roots by John Coverdale (author of Uncommon Faith) is the exciting story of the beginnings of Opus Dei in the U.S. It tells how Fr. Joseph Muzquiz came to America in 1949 to begin Opus Dei with very little money and only a rudimentary command of the language. At the time, only a handful of Americans had ever heard of Opus Dei. But by the time he passed away in 1983, Opus Dei had put down deep roots in this country.

In Putting Down Roots, we learn many remarkable details about Fr. Joseph’s life including:

• His first meeting with St. Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei.

• His tireless efforts, first as a layman, then as a priest, to spread Opus Dei in Spain during the 1940s.

• His remarkable faith beginning Opus Dei with Salvador Ferigle in the U.S. with no money, few contacts, and a very rudimentary command of English.

• The many heroic virtues he lived, earning him a reputation as an unusually holy priest.

Today, many people in the United States and in other countries pray to Fr. Joseph, as he was called in this country, and hope that one day the Church will declare him a saint. This book explains why.

Putting Down Roots contains eight pages of photos.

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.

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.

Details of Preparations for the Beatification of Pope John Paul II

O Blessed Trinity, we thank you for having graced the Church with Pope John Paul II and for allowing the tenderness of your fatherly care, the glory of the cross of Christ, and the splendor of the Holy Spirit , to shine through him.

Trusting fully in your infinite mercy and in the maternal intercession of Mary, he has given us a living image of Jesus the Good Shepherd, and has shown us that holiness is the necessary measure of ordinary christian life and is the way of achieving eternal communion with you.

Grant us, by his intercession, and according to your will, the graces we implore, hoping that he will soon be numbered among your saints. Amen.

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.

Servant of God Msgr. Aloysius Schwartz: Strength from the Holy Eucharist

"Our strength to love and to serve others comes from the Holy Eucharist, the Bread of Life "

~ Servant of God Msgr. Aloysius Schwartz ~

In 1989, he was diagnosed to have a terminal illness. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). He accepted with it with joy, serenity and courage, and regarded it as a gift from God. In spite of his deteriorating health, he established Boystown and Girlstown in Mexico, which he called his "unfinished symphony".

With humility, courage, and unwavering faith, he suffered and accepted a lot of humiliations, criticisms, pains, incredible trials, and difficulties. He did his best to relieve the suffering of the poor. His illness made him immobile, still even on a wheelchair, he continued to fulfill his duties with joy. He spent hours before the Blessed Sacrament, praying the rosary, hearing confessions, and preaching in words and examples the virtues of truth, justice, chastity, charity and humility, penance and fortitude. His love for God and the poor consumed him. He did not only help the poor but also he lived poorly. (Source)

Father Al died at 7:00 pm, Monday, March 16, 1992, in his room on the 7th Floor of the Manila Girlstown building. His body remained in a temporary tomb from March 25, 1992, until June 21, 1992, and then he was buried under the altar of the Chapel of the Virgin of the Poor built in Silang Boystown complex.

Upon his instruction, the words written on the plaque placed on the tomb read as follows:

"Here lies Father Al Schwartz. All praise honor

and glory and thanksgiving to the Virgin of the Poor."

The following prayer is being used around the world, asking Father Al to intercede with God for the petitions of those who need a miracle.

Almighty, ever-living God, giver of all good gifts, You have filled Father Al with an ardent love for You and for souls.

You have inspired him to dedicate his life to relieve the suffering of the orphans, abandoned, the sick and the poor, especially the youth, which he did with all humility and courage until the end of his life.

I ask you to bestow upon me, through the intercession of Father Al:

(Tell God, through Father Al, the favor that you request.)

I ask this through our Lord, Jesus Christ, your Son, and the maternal aid of Mary, the Virgin of the Poor. Amen.

~ For source of prayer and information, click here. ~

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.

Seminarian Frank Parater: A Life Consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

“I have nothing to leave or give but my life

and this I have consecrated to the Sacred Heart to be used as He wills.

I have offered my all for the conversion of non-Catholics in Virginia.

This is what I live for and in case of my death what I die for.

Since my childhood, I wanted to die for God and my neighbor.

But if I go on living, every action of my life here is offered to God

for the spread and the success of the Catholic Church of Virginia.

 I shall be of more service to my diocese in heaven than I can ever be here on earth.”

~ Servant of God Francis J. Parater ~

Loving Father, your servant Frank Parater sought perfection as a student, scout and seminarian.

He offered himself to you completely through the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Through his intercession,

 may young people answer your call to follow Jesus as priests, deacons and religious.

Grant, as well, the favors I seek,

so that your Church will recognize his holiness and proclaim him Blessed.

Grant this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

 

Imprimatur:

+Walter F. Sullivan

Bishop of Richmond

~ Related post:  Francis J. Parater, Servant of God ~

 ~ More information about Servant of God Francis J. Parater from the Diocese of Richmond ~

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.

Fr. Nelson Baker Declared Venerable

~ More information about Venerable Fr. Nelson Baker ~

~ Related post about Fr. Baker ~

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.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: A Fruitful Vineyard of Vocations

"How fruitful a vineyard of vocations is the sacristy. 

To see a priest making his meditation before Mass

does more for an altar boy's vocation

than a thousand pieces of inspirational literature."

~ Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, The Priest Is Not His Own ~

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 Miguel Pro: Heroic Jesuit Martyr

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.

Archbishop Raymond Burke on the Spiritual Legacy of Fr. John 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 consecration as a religious dedicated to the

apostolate and the grace of consecration as an ordained priest,

after the Heart of Your Divine Son, our Good Shepherd.

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.

Starting at about 11 minutes Archbishop Burke shares information about Fr. Hardon and his cause for canonization.

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.

North American Martyrs: The Power of Love

"Priests are to preach Christ. And if you want one intention to pray your hearts out for, that priests might preach Christ in their homilies...Pray that priests might preach Jesus."

"Pray that our bishops and priests might have the blood of martyrs in their veins. The single most needed grace in the Catholic Church today is the courage of martyrs in our priests and bishops, barring none."

"I've read and reread over the years the lives and the martyrdom of these fellow Jesuits of mine often enough to be able to tell you what sustained them in their years of ordeal and prepared them for martyrdom was their devotion to Christ in the Eucharist. Be comforted by this yourselves, tell it to others; you're in trial, come before the Eucharist; you've got a problem, come before the Blessed Sacrament; you don't know where to turn, talk to Our Lord in the Sacrament He instituted to give us strength."

~ Servant of God Fr. John Hardon, S.J.: Excerpts from here ~

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 Jerzy Popieluszko: Priest and Martyr

"There is another figure whom I would like to recall: Father Jerzy Popiełuszko, priest and martyr, who was proclaimed "Blessed" just last Sunday in Warsaw. He exercised his generous and courageous ministry alongside those who worked for freedom, for the defense of life and its dignity. His work in the service of goodness and truth was a sign of contradiction for the regime that governed Poland at that time. The love of the Heart of Christ led him to give his life, and his witness was the seed of a new springtime in the Church and society. If we look at history we can observe that so many pages of authentic spiritual and social renewal have been written by the contribution of Catholic priests, animated only by the passion for the Gospel and for man, for his true religious and civil liberty. How many initiatives of integral human promotion have begun in the intuition of a priestly heart!"

~ Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus Address, 6/13/10 ~

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 Francis Xavier Seelos: The Kindness of the Priest

"Want of urbanity effects no good and affability does no evil. The priest who is rough with people does injury to himself and to others; he sins, at least in ignorance, against charity, patience, poverty, humility and self-denial. He scandalizes all who see him and hear him. Hundreds of souls turn away him, from God and from religion. Thousands reject the Church and the sacraments and perish in eternity solely because they have been badly treated by a priest.

"A long experience has taught me the great lesson that God leads men in a human manner by other men whom he appointed to be in His place and who should be of the same kindness as he himself was while on earth. Many a soul might be gained for the true faith and eternal life if sometimes a little more charity, a little more self-denial would be evinced, and if persons would be treated as their personal dispositions and human nature would require. It is true that it requires great virtue and experience to find always the right measure in these things, but we cannot fail much if our intention remains pure."

~ Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, C.Ss.R., quoted from official website ~

~ Previous post on Blessed Francis Seelos ~

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.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: Servant of All

As Father Andrew Apostoli has said, "Our Church needs a hero of the faith like Archbishop Fulton Sheen, and maybe now more than ever. We can't let his voice go silent; there's too much at stake."

The film "Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: Servant of All" was developed by The Archbishop Fulton John Sheen Foundation to ensure this hero lives on to inspire new generations. The Foundation's mission is to make known the life, works and thoughts of Archbishop Sheen — and this film is perhaps its most important effort in leading others to a deeper relationship with God and His Church using Sheen's example. The goal of the film is to fill viewers with the same zeal for the Church that Archbishop Sheen himself experienced.

Information from the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation found here.

Fr. John Hardon: The Blessed Virgin Mary and the Holy Eucharist

"There is no secret about how the Blessed Virgin is related to the Holy Eucharist. It is very simple: except for the Blessed Virgin, we would not have the Holy Eucharist.

"The key to this relationship is the humanity of Jesus Christ. God as God, was present in the world from the dawn of creation. The same almighty power by which God brought the world into being is the same almighty power by which He sustains the world in existence and provides for its constant activity.

"But something historic happened at the Annunciation. The moment Mary told the angel, "Be it done to me according to Your word," God began to be present in the world as man. The infant in Mary's womb was her God become Incarnate. It was the Word made Flesh. It was the Lord of the Universe become a human child.

"It was from Mary that the Son of God took our human nature. It was from Mary that the Second Person of the Trinity received His humanity. It was through Mary that Jesus Christ, who is God from all eternity, became man, lived visibly on earth in Palestine and is now invisibly on earth in every church and chapel in the Catholic world where the Holy Eucharist is offered, received and reserved.

"Mary's relationship to her Son has not changed since the Annunciation. As His Mother, she remains the Mother of Divine Grace, through whom He pours out His blessings on a sinful world. As Pope John Paul II observed in Redemptoris Mater, "Mary guides the faithful to the Eucharist." ( Source)

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

Prayer for the Beatification and Canonization of Fr. John Hardon, S.J.

Almighty God, You gave Your servant, Father John Anthony Hardon of the Society of Jesus, the grace of consecration as a religious dedicated to the apostolate and the grace of consecration as an ordained priest, after the Heart of Your Divine Son, our Good Shepherd.

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.

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 Cyprian Michael Tansi and Cardinal Francis Arinze

"In the final analysis only God knows why a particular individual is attracted to the priesthood, or religious life or marriage. But in our own weak, human way of analysing it, I can say when I was a boy, there was a parish priest we had, Father Michael Tansi, and he impressed many of us, and many boys in that area wanted to become like him, so they wanted to become priests.

"That's the human explanation I can give. Actually that priest later on became a monk, and he became Blessed--he's beatified now... But the origin of a religious or priestly vocation--only Divine Providence can finally analyse it, how God attracts a person..." (Cardinal Francis Arinze)

About Cardinal Francis Arinze:
With no objection from his parents, young Anizoba, like his brothers and sisters, who also were educated by the missionaries, converted to Catholicism in 1941, at the age of 9, taking the name Francis. Father Tansi not only baptized the youth, but also heard his First Confession, gave him his First Holy Communion, prepared him for Confirmation, and taught him to serve Mass. The two remained friends until Father Tansi's death in 1964.

Excerpt from a Retreat preached by Father Cyprian Michael Tansi in August 1962:

"We do very little good when we embark on our own. We do much good when we allow God to direct us and direct our enterprises. The apostles, you remember, went out fishing, laboured the whole night and got nothing. They were on their own, the Lord came and told them to cast the net and they would find. They did so and were not able to draw up the net, so great was the number of fish caught. When they worked by themselves, they took nothing. When they worked in the company of our Lord, they were full. So with us. We must learn to avoid worrying ourselves about things, learn to do away with anxieties of all sorts.

"When you have something to do, an assignment to perform, remembering that we are not doing our work, but God's work, we must first go to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, place our plans before Him and ask for his advice and assistance. We must examine before him how he would like us to produce, whether he would like us to do one thing or the other. If any doubt, consult your spiritual director for advice. You should never undertake to do anything unless you are sure that God wants it done in the way you are planning. Above all things you should never do your own will: you should do only what the superiors want to be done. You should never force the superiors to yield to your will by any stratagem.

"And while doing whatever you have to do, you should do it at a pace and speed that will allow you time continually to turn to God for guidance. Your conversation with God should be continual. Remember that you cannot achieve this spiritual disposition in a day. You need time, practice and patience. All that I request you now is to examine and to see whether what you are told is the truth. If it is, then make a resolution to continue to make effort in this direction without minding whether you succeed or fail."

- Michael I. Tansi, o.c.s.o., Irrational Love: Incarnation and Redemption, an Incomprehensible Love (Onitsha, Nigeria: Archiocesan Secretariat, 1989), p.35.

~ Retreat excerpt from here. ~
~ More information about Blessed Cyprian Michael Tansi from Clerus.org ~

~ Official site for cause of canonization of Blessed Cyprian Michael Tansi ~

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.

Fr. Walter Ciszek: Appreciation for the Holy Eucharist

Servant of God Fr. Walter Ciszek was born in Pennsylvania, became a Jesuit priest and volunteered to be sent to Russia as a missionary. He entered Russia in 1939, was arrested in 1941 as a Vatican spy and suffered in prison and at hard labor until 1955. In his book, He Leadeth Me, Fr. Ciszek wrote:

“Sometimes I think that those who have never been deprived of an opportunity to say or hear Mass do not really appreciate what a treasure the Mass is” (pg. 122).

“Mass and the Blessed Sacrament were a source of great consolation to me; they were the source of my strength and joy and spiritual sustenance”(pg. 132).

From the Walter Ciszek Prayer League:
"... for the first time in five years he met another priest and was able to say Mass. Polish prisoners had made wine out of stolen raisins, the paten was a cover for a gold watch, the chalice was a shot glass. "But my joy at being able to celebrate Mass again cannot be described. . . . I heard confessions regularly and from time to time was even able to distribute Communion secretly after I'd said Mass. The experience gave me new strength. I could function as a priest again, and I thanked God daily for the opportunity to work among this hidden flock, consoling and comforting men who had thought themselves beyond His grace."

(Above quotes from the official website for the Cause for Canonization of Servant of God Fr. Walter Ciszek, SJ)

Five months after Fr. Ciszek's return to the United States, he wrote: "... when I walked through St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, do you know what impressed me most? The few people, out of all the crowds streaming by, who came in through those open doors to make a visit. I understand that my impression was not fair, that at noontime on a working day the church is jammed with office workers who take time out from their lunch hour to go to Mass and to Communion. At first glance religion here seems almost a formality, an obligation that can be dispensed with if you have been out late the night before.

"In Siberia, when I said Mass, people risked arrest to come; here, they risk nothing, neither do they always come. In Krasnoyarsk and Norilsk, when people learned a priest was in town or was saying Mass at such and such a place, they came for miles, bringing their children to be baptized, going to confession before Mass and then Communion during Mass, asking to have their marriages blessed after Mass, begging me to come and bless their homes or sing the panikida (a requiem service) for members of the family who had died. They came to huts, to barracks rooms, to private homes, and they risked their jobs, their union membership, their chance for an apartment or an education for their children. Having ministered to such faith, therefore, it was incredible to me to think that people here could look on Sunday Mass as an obligation, or the supporting of their parish and their school as a burden.

"I should repeat again that these were my first reactions, my impressions, and are not meant in any way as criticisms. I am only reporting what struck me when I first looked at America again. As a priest who had worked very hard to help people who were so eager just to be able to go to Mass, I could not help being struck, thunderstruck, at this initial impression of indifference to religion in a country where there was nothing to restrain its open practice. (Quotes from article written by Fr. Ciszek for America Magazine) .

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.

Fr. Solanus Casey: "Blessed Be God in All His Designs"

"Confidence in God is the very soul of prayer."

~ Venerable Solanus Casey ~

PRAYER FOR THE BEATIFICATION OF VENERABLE SOLANUS CASEY

O God, I adore You. I give myself to You.
May I be the person You want me to be,
and may Your will be done in my life today.

I thank You for the gifts You gave to Father Solanus.
If it is Your Will, bless us with the beatification of
Venerable Solanus so that others may imitate
and carry on his love for all the poor and suffering of our world.

As he joyfully accepted Your divine plans,
I ask You, according to Your Will,
to hear my prayer for . . . (your intention)
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

“Blessed be God in all His designs.”

Imprimatur: Adam Cardinal Maida, Archbishop of Detroit
March 31, 2007 © F.S.G. 3/07

~ Offical site for cause for Beatification of Venerable Fr. Solanus Casey ~

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.