Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests, for Priests in Purgatory, and for Vocations

"If the faithful love Me, if they want to glorify Me as is their duty of love, nothing can be greater for them to do for Me than what they do for My priests, which is as they would have done for Me Myself..."

"The mission of faithful souls lasts, to free priests from that place of purification, to gain for Me the joy of seeing them finally in the bosom of my glory. This will be an act of charity for them and a joy that they will give Me."

~ Jesus to Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida ~

Excerpted Introduction from the book Praying for Our Priests:

There can be no more fruitful investment in the life of Holy Mother Church than time spent in prayer for Her priests and vocations to the priesthood. This project had its origin in the early days of 2006 when Monsignor Peter Dunne, recovering from a long and critical illness, experienced a deepening awareness of the need to pray for his brother priests in Purgatory. (emphasis mine)

At the same time, Vicki Herout, his longtime caregiver, spiritual daughter, and coworker in many projects, began to realize in her own prayers an intense and persistent call to pray for the priesthood. Eventually, they brought together a group that has continued to meet regularly to pray for priests. This booklet, initially compiled as an aid to this prayer group, has been adapted for use by individuals as well as small and large groups in a variety of settings.

The meditations on the priesthood that you will read in this booklet came out of the hearts and prayers of the authors – out of the heart of Monsignor Dunne who has loved and lived his priesthood to the fullest for sixty-five years – and out of the many months his coauthor spent praying, meditating and writing before the Blessed Sacrament. These prayers are meant for all to pray – priests, religious and laity – but they are written with the special purpose of providing insights into the life of a priest and into the mystery of the priesthood itself that will awaken and encourage in the laity a desire to pray for priests and for holy vocations.

As this booklet is about to be published, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has announced a special ‘Year for Priests’, emphasizing the centrality of Christ in the “…priestly ministry, without which there would be no Eucharist, no mission, not even the Church.” The Holy Father, in his message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations in May, 2009, also stressed that “…prayer for vocations should be continuous and trusting.” Dear readers, just as we believe that there is no more fruitful investment in the life of the Church than prayer for Her priests, so we believe that one of the many fruits of a holy priesthood is vocations. We pray that this booklet will be an aid to those who will answer the Holy Father’s call to prayer – throughout the year and beyond.

~ Excerpted from page 4 of Praying for Our Priests. ~

~ Previous posts on Charity for Faithful Departed Priests ~

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.

Transformation of Priests into Christ-Victim

"...sacrifice is one of the culminating points and is the base for transformation into Me who was a Victim from the very moment of My Incarnation on to My death.

"To be acceptable to My Father, a victim must be pure and sacrificed. My entire life is reduced to this beautiful work which synthesizes the essence of the Christian and even more that of the priest: immolation! I was voluntarily immolated on earth and I continue this life of immolation on the altars.

 "I came into the world to sanctify suffering and to take away its bitterness. I came to bring about love of the cross, and the most perfect transformation into Me must be brought about by loving suffering, by painful love.

"Thus then, a priest who wants to assimilate himself to Me as is his obligation, must love sacrifice, must aspire to voluntary immolation, by devoting himself, by renouncing his own self and sacrificing himself constantly on behalf of souls.

"Priests means one who offers himself and offers, who immolates himself and immolates.

"Priests must love the cross and be in love with Me crucified. I am their model" (Diary, Jan. 1, 1928).

"The Holy Spirit inspired My death on the Cross. This death was the work of infinite love toward My Father and toward souls, but with so noble a purpose as to associate very especially to My Cross, to a life of sacrifice, all My future priests, who on being other Christs, making themselves one with Me would have to perpetuate My Sacrifice in themselves and on the altars to honor My Father, offering themselves and Me as one sole Victim pure and holy who would glorify Him" (Diary, Dec. 12, 1931).

~ Jesus to Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida,

from Conchita, A Mother's Spiritual Diary ~

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.

Jesus Seeks Souls To Sacrifice Themselves on Behalf of the Church

"The Lord told me many a time: 'Sacrifice yourself for the Church. My Church is what I love most and she it is who caused Me to suffer most. In truth, I live crucified in her.' (I realized He was alluding to evil priests and to ministers who do not seek the interests of Jesus Christ, but their own interests, coupled with numerous laxities and culpable behavior). 'I want you to be a victim on behalf of the Church. You do not know the value of that. Do not resist. It is a gift I want to give you. Souls sacrificing themselves as victims for the Church, receive a special recompense'" (Diary, May 28, 1898).

"Souls who are victims for the Church must unite themselves to My Heart, the supreme Victim, to offer themselves to the eternal Father on behalf of this so beloved Church, in order to expiate sins. I love My Church so much that in union with My Heart I seek victims who immolate themselves in order that the just wrath which menaces her be assuaged and changed into a shower of graces "I want, more than external martyrdom, interior martyrdom of the heart. That is why I want them to unite themselves to My Heart which is broken more than any other. I want to obtain this glory for My Father, and the Holy Spirit will ever bless the victim souls who united themselves to Me" (Diary, June 14, 1898).

~ Jesus to Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida,

excerpts from Conchita, A Mother's Spiritual Diary ~

The Seven Sorrows of Mary

"As co-redemptrix, Mary heard in her soul so wholly pure the echo of all My agonies, humiliations, outrages and tortures, felt the weight of the sins of the world which made My Heart bleed, and the moving sorrow of the abandonment of heaven which obtains graces."

~ Jesus to Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida ~

~ Related post: Mary Queen of Martyrs ~

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.

Feast of The Triumph of the Cross: Paradox of the Cross

"The Church sprang from My Heart on the Cross. There it is that the Church so pure and beautiful was born from My side as Eve from Adam's side, in order to be the Mother of all Christians, of all souls, to save them through the infinite merits I deposited in her immaculate soul" (Diary, March 14, 1928)."

"Through the external cross which all can see, I was a victim acceptable to the Father by shedding My blood, but it was above all through the interior cross that Redemption was accomplished" (Diary, Sept. 7, 1896).

~ Jesus to Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida,

excerpts from Conchita, A Mother's Spiritual Diary ~

Today on the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, Fr. Dominic preaches on the remarkable paradox of a triumph coming from an instrument of defeat. By humiliating himself on the Cross he triumphed over the pride of Satan, the pride of sin. So now the Cross is a sign of hope toward which we should all lift our eyes and hearts in gratitude and joy. Ave Maria! For Audio go to http://airmaria.com/?p=14737

~ Related post: Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross and in the Mass ~

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 Concepcion Cabrera de Armida Intercession Prayer

"Offer yourself as a victim for My priests.

Unite yourself to My sacrifice for gaining them graces.”

~ Jesus to Venerable Concepcion, Conchita,
from Conchita, A Mother's Spiritual Diary, Sept. 24, 1927 ~

Heavenly Father, in your goodness, may you grant me the graces I confidently ask for through the intercession of the Venerable Concepción Cabrera de Armida, lay woman and mystic. (Here mention your intentions). Glorify your servant on earth so that all priests, religious and laity, inspired by her example, experience the desire to be transformed into your son Jesus Christ, Priest and Victim. May this be for the greater glory of the Trinity, the holiness in your Church and the building of your kingdom. Amen.

If you receive a favor for intercession of Conchita, please write your testimony and send an email to the Postulator of the Cause of 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.

Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida: A Life Offered Up For Priests

Conchita teaches us how to love the Church.

To love the Church is not to criticize her, not to destroy her, not to try to change her essential structures, not to reduce her to humanism, horizontalism and to the simple service of a human liberation.

To love the Church is to cooperate with the work of Redemption by the Cross and in this way obtain the grace of the Holy Spirit come to renew the face of this poor earth, conducting it to its consummation in the design of the Father's immense love.

Conchita, a simple laywoman, far from criticizing priests, gives her life for them. In a sublime elevation of the Trinity she cries out: "I deliver into Your hands by an absolute, total, unconditional donation, all my being on behalf of priests. "I want to carry in my heart Our Holy Father, charged with the whole burden of the Church, the cardinals, the archbishops, the bishops, the parish priests, the priests, the seminarians who waver and struggle in their vocation.

"I myself am worth nothing, but I possess You and I beg You to utilize me for the good of the beloved Church and of all her hierarchies which I love and respect with all my heart."

Then, as did Therese of Lisieux who prophesied: "I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth," Conchita ends her prayer saying to Christ, after having offered up her life even to her extreme agony for priests: "I will offer up my life for them on earth and I will spend my time in heaven in their service for Your love" (Diary, Nov. 30, 1928).

~ Excerpts from Conchita, A Mother's Spiritual Diary. edited by Marie-Michel Philipon, O.P , available online 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 vice of His Church, to offer up to God Eucharistic adoration for priests. Amen.

Thank You for Praying for Priests!

"If the faithful love Me,

if they want to glorify Me as is their duty of love,

nothing can be greater for them to do for Me

than what they do for My priests,

which is as they would have done for Me Myself..."

~ Jesus to Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida ~

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.

Consecration of the World and Priests to the Holy Spirit

"The world is foundering because it rejects the Holy Spirit, and all the evils which afflict it have therein their origin. The remedy is found in Him. He is the Consoler, the author of all grace, the bond of union between the Father and the Son and the supreme conciliator since He is charity, uncreated and eternal Love.

"May the whole world have recourse to this Holy Spirit since the day of His reign has arrived. This last stage of the world belongs very specially to Him that He be honored and exalted.

"May the Church preach Him, may souls love Him, may the whole world be consecrated to Him, and peace will come along with a moral and spiritual reaction, greater than the evil by which the world is tormented.

"May all at once this Holy Spirit begin to be called on with prayers, penances and tears, with the ardent desire of His coming. He will come, I will send Him again clearly manifest in His effects, which will astonish the world and impel the Church to holiness" (Diary, Sept. 27, 1918).

"Ask for this renewal, this new Pentecost, for My Church has need of priests sanctified by the Holy Spirit. The world is foundering in the abyss since it lacks priests who will help it from falling in; priests who bear the light to shine on the paths of good; pure priests to pull out of the mud so many hearts; priests afire who will fill the entire universe with divine love.

"Ask, supplicate heaven, that all may be restored in Me by the Holy Spirit" (Diary, Nov. 1, 1927).

"I want to return to the world in My priests. I want to renew the world of souls by making Myself seen in My priests. I want to give a might impulse to My Church infusing in her, as it were, a new Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, in My priests" (Diary, Jan. 5, 1928).

"To obtain what I ask, every priest must make a consecration to the Holy Spirit, asking Him, through Mary's intercession, to come to them as it were in a new Pentecost, to purify them, to fill them with love, possess them, unify them, sanctify them and transform them into Me" (Diary, Jan. 25, 1928).

~ Jesus to Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida (Conchita) ~

from Conchita, A Mother's Spiritual Diary

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.

Mary, Mother of the Church

"Mary was chosen among all women that in Her virginal womb the Incarnation of the Divine Word be brought about and from that very moment She, wholly pure, the Virgin Mother, She who consented to it with love in most total submission to My Father's will, has never ceased offering Me to Him. The victim came from heaven to save the world, but She sacrificed Her maternal heart to the divine will of the Beloved Father.

"She reared Me to be a Victim, attaining the supreme oblation of Her soul when She delivered Me up to be crucified. One sole sacrifice was there, that which I offered on the Cross and which took place in Her heart. She continued this sacrifice by Her martyrdom of solitude, offering up Her sufferings to the eternal Father in union with me.

"When I left the world, when I parted from My Disciples, I left them Mary, to represent Me by Her virtues, in Her maternal tenderness, in Her Heart; perfectly faithful to Mine. I left Her to be a necessary factor for the foundation of My Church, as well as sustenance for My Apostles and My first disciples.

"The nascent Church relied on Mary, who sustained Her by Her sufferings and Her virtues, Her prayers and Her love.

"That is why, when I sent the Holy Spirit to My Apostles, I did not take Mary away, although She was even now full of grace and filled with the Holy Spirit. This was in order that the Church see in Her, her Queen, that priests judge Her indispensable, and that neither they nor the faithful suffer from the absence of their Mother's love and sacrifice" (Diary, April 6, 1928).

~ Jesus to Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida (Conchita) ~

from Conchita, A Mother's Spiritual Diary

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. James Farfaglia: Renew our Love for the Eucharist and the Catholic Priesthood

The root cause of the attacks against the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic priesthood is Satan's intense hatred of Jesus Christ and His Real Presence in the Eucharist. His hatred is spewed out in unrelenting vindictiveness against our Lord and Savior, targeting especially the men Jesus has chosen to be 'other Christs' and shepherds of his flock.

A most powerful weapon against these attacks is an increased love and devotion for Jesus in the Eucharist, increased attendance at Mass, increased Eucharistic adoration, increased prayers and sacrifices for His priests.

Jesus said to Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida, "If the faithful love Me, if they want to glorify Me as is their duty of love, nothing can be greater for them to do for Me than what they do for My priests, which is as they would have done for Me Myself..."

Fr. James Farfaglia reflects:

"At every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we participate in a marvelous miracle, the miracle called Transubstantiation."

"When the priest repeats the words that Jesus spoke at the Last Supper, the bread is no longer bread, and the wine is no longer wine. Instead, the entire substance of the bread and the entire substance of the wine have been changed into the substance of The Body and Blood of Christ."

"Without the priesthood there is no Eucharist. So, is it any wonder that there is such a frontal attack on the Catholic priesthood today?"

"A true renewal of the Catholic priesthood is needed. We desperately need holy priests and courageous bishops."

"Despite the fact that vocations are on the rise and many wonderful things are happening in the Catholic Church both in this country and throughout the world, there is an undercurrent that seems to be constantly working against the work of God and his Church."

"My dear friends, we do live in difficult times. But, let us never be discouraged. On this Holy Thursday let us renew our love for the Eucharist and the Catholic priesthood. Let us pray to Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Michael Archangel so that the clergy may always be holy, faithful and courageous."

~ Excerpts from A Holy Thursday Reflection by Fr. James Farfaglia ~

On Holy Thursday night, Father James Farfaglia does not shy away from controversy, but deals with it directly. Father explains the cause of the abuse scandal in the Church and defends Pope Benedict XVI. He ties in the open rejection of Humanae Vitae and the immoral world that we deal with today. He does not shy away from the attacks on the Church from freemasonary and the international communism of the former Soviet Empire. He exhorts young men contemplating the Catholic priesthood to be great heroes, great saints and great martyrs.

~ Fr. Farfaglia's Holy Thursday homily; The Pope, the Priesthood and the Eucharist ~

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.

Spiritual Value of Penance

" Penance is the rampart protecting chastity.

Penitence appeases God's justice and transforms it into graces.

It purifies souls,

extinguishes the fires of purgatory

and receives in heaven a most sublime recompense.

Penance pays for personal faults and those of others.

Penance is the sister of mortification. Both work together hand in hand.

Penance helps the soul rise above things of the earth.

Penance cooperates with the Redemption of the world.

Penance humbles man,

it penetrates him with an inner feeling of his baseness and his wretchedness.

Penance brings light to the soul.

It consumes and causes to disappear all in it that is purely material.

It raises him higher and higher above the earth,

making him taste of delights hitherto unknown and pure.

But this penance should be the daughter of reverence

and exist in the soul, hidden from all humans" (Diary, Sept. 24, 1895).

~ Our Lord to Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida,

from Conchita A Mother's Spiritual Diary ~

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.

Eternal Father Wants Priests Transformed Into Jesus

"My Father wants to see the priest transformed into Me,

not only during the Mass, but at all times.

He wants to see him transformed in such a way

that no matter where or when the priest can truly say,

in the interior of his soul, these blessed words,

constantly fulfilled in him by his transformation into Me:

This is My Body; This is My Blood."

~ Jesus to Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida ~

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.

The Interior Cross of the Heart of Jesus

"I wish that above all, there be honored the interior sufferings of My Heart, sufferings undergone from My Incarnation to the Cross and which are mystically prolonged in My Eucharist. These sufferings are still unsuspected by the world. Nonetheless I declare to you that, from the first moment of My Incarnation, the Cross already planted in My Heart, overburdened Me and the thorns penetrated it. The blow struck by the lance might have been some solace causing to gush from My Side a volcano of love and of suffering but I did not consent to that until after My death. I only receive ingratitude. That is why My Heart overflowing with tenderness will ever feel the thorns of the Cross. In heaven, as God, I cannot suffer. To find this Cross which above did not exist, I descended into this world and became man. As God-Man, I could suffer infinitely to pay the price of the salvation of so many souls. During my life, I never desired anything except the Cross, and ever the Cross, wanting to show the world that which is the sole wealth and happiness on earth, the currency which will buy an eternal happiness."

"I only remained on the Cross of Calvary for three hours, but on the interior Cross of My Heart, my whole life...These sufferings remained hidden during My life. I smiled, I labored. Only My Mother was aware of this martyrdom which crushed My loving Heart. My external Passion lasted but a few hours. It was like a gentle dew, a comfort for the other Passion, terribly cruel, which tortured ceaselessly My soul!" (Diary, Sept. 25, 1894).

~ Jesus to Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida,
from Conchita A Mothers's Spiritual Diary ~

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 Concepcion Cabrera de Armida's Litany for Priests

Jesus said to Venerable Concepción Cabrera de Armida,

"My Father wants to see the priest transformed into Me,

not only during the Mass, but at all times.

He wants to see him transformed in such a way

that no matter where or when

the priest can truly say, in the interior of his soul, these blessed words,

constantly fulfilled in him by his transformation into Me:

This is My Body; This is My Blood."

The following Litany for Priests was written by Venerable Concepción Cabrera de Armida, spiritual mother of priests, on September 18, 1921.

LITANY FOR PRIESTS

For our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, R. Lord, give him your Heart of the Good Shepherd.

For the successors of the Apostles, R. Lord, give them fatherly concern for their priests.

For your Bishops chosen by the Holy Spirit, R. Lord, keep them close to your sheep.

For your Pastors, R. Lord, teach them to serve rather than to seek to be served.

For confessors and spiritual directors, R. Lord, make them docile instruments of your Spirit.

For those who announce Your Word, R. Lord, let them communicate your Spirit and Life.

For those who help the lay apostolate, R. Lord, encourage them to give witness.

For those who work with the youth, R. Lord, may they commit the youth to you.

For those who work among the poor, R. Lord, make them see and serve you in them.

For those who care for the sick, R. May they teach them the value of suffering, Lord.

For poor priests, R. Help them, Lord.

For sick priests, R. Heal them, Lord.

For elderly priests, R. Give them joyful hope, Lord.

For the sad and afflicted, R. Console them, Lord.

For anxious and troubled priests, R. Give them your peace, Lord.

For the ridiculed and persecuted, R. Defend their cause, Lord.

For lukewarm priests, R. Inflame them, Lord.

For the discouraged, R. Give them courage, Lord.

For those who aspire to the priesthood, R. Give them perseverance, Lord.

To all priests, R. Give them fidelity to you and your Church, Lord.

To all priests, R. Give them obedience and love for the Holy Father, Lord.

To all priests, R. Let them live in communion with their Bishop, Lord.

That all priests, R. Be one as you, Lord, and the Father are One.

That all priests, R. May promote the justice with which you, Lord, are just.

That all priests, R. Collaborate in the unity of the Presbyterate, Lord.

That all priests, filled with your presence, R. Live joyfully in celibacy, Lord.

To all priests, R. Grant them the fullness of your Spirit, Lord, and transform them into yourself.

In a special way, I pray for those priests through whom I have received your graces. I pray for the priest who baptized me and for those who have absolved me of my sins, reconciling me with you and with your Church. I pray for those priests in whose Masses I have participated and who have given me your Body as nourishment. I pray for those priests who have shared your Word with me, and for those who have helped me and led me to you. Amen.

Prayer: Divine Heart of Jesus, Heart full of zeal for the Glory of your Father, we pray for all your priests. By your Holy Spirit, fill them with faith, zeal and love. Amen.

Brief Form of the Litany: For all priests: Transform them into You, Lord. May the Holy Spirit possess them, and through them renew the face of the earth. Amen.

The Litany is from a brochure that also includes an Offering Holy Communion for Priests prayer. The brochure is available for printing from here.

If you missed it, some of you might have an interest in reading an earlier post on offering Holy Communion for priests.

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.

Sisters of the Cross of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: 112 Years of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration

"He made me see an immense procession of religious women.

It would be the oasis of purity and suffering,

His consolation on this earth.
There He would be adored day and night, exposed in the Eucharist."

~ From Conchita, A Mother's Spiritual Diary ~

There is a small group of nuns that live on the outskirts of Rome, in a house near the Appian Way. At first glance, it might seem that they only carry out simple work but the reality is that they have a greater mission: to worship the Eucharist and to pray for the world 24 hours a day. They are the Sisters of the Cross of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Sister Veronica Angel Lopez, Sisters of the Cross of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
"We take turns to adore the Eucharist throughout the day, each of us prays half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the afternoon, and at night we have one-hour turns. And that's how we cover all 24 hours."

Sister Maria Belen Camargo, Sisters of the Cross of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
"When we are in front of the Eucharist, He transmits to us His divine life, His Trinitarian life and so, in a mysterious way, we contribute to the transformation of the world through Jesus, and especially in the transformation of priests."

Each community prays for a particular priest every year, but all of them pray for the Pope's heart because, as they say, that's where he carries all of the Church's problems.

The nuns say that thanks to their communion with Jesus - that is through a continuous and deep prayer - they've been able to develop an exceptional intuition to perceive the needs and problems of the world.

Sister Elzbieta Sadowska, Sisters of the Cross of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
"Each one of us has a mission, you never know what mission Jesus will give you today, for what He wants you to pray, for which cause on its behalf He wants you to pray. For example: one year you might need to pray for a problem that at that time the world neglects or is simply not interested in. But then your one-year prayer prepares the hearts of the people so that at any given time, they re able to respond to the necessities of others."

Concepción Cabrera de Armida founded the religious Order in Mexico in 1862. She was a wife and the mother of nine children, and at the same time, she led a life of holiness and of devotion to the Eucharist. The Mother Superior of the community in Rome says the founder's life could be an example to today's young girls.

Mother Superior Doris Herrera, Sisters of the Cross of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Her message to young girls is that they should not be afraid of a commitment that is forever, whether in marriage or in religious life. They should dare to make a commitment forever because that's what they are most afraid of today and it's the most beautiful thing that can exist.

The Order of the Cross of the Sacred Heart of Jesus has about 300 women that live in communities in the United States, Spain, Mexico and other countries. In May, they'll celebrate their 112th anniversary of continuous adoration of the Eucharist.

~ From Rome Reports, 5-6-09 ~

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.

Imploring Graces for Priests

"Offer yourself as a victim for My priests.

Unite yourself to My sacrifice for gaining them graces.”

~ Jesus to Venerable Conchita, Diary, Sept. 24, 1927 ~


THE OFFERING OF THE INCARNATE WORD

Heavenly Father, through the hands of Mary, we offer You, as a victim, the Incarnate Word, in whom You are well pleased. Compelled by the love that the Holy Spirit has over flooded in our hearts, we will constantly offer ourselves, in His union, as living hosts, and we will sacrifice ourselves for Your love, in all the occasions that may arise, imploring graces for the world, the Church and especially for priests. Jesus, savior of all people, save them!

From Apostleship of the Cross

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.

Priests in Purgatory Wait for Help From Charitable Souls

"These priestly souls, straying and sunken in abominable vices, when they are repentant and saved, they have an incalculable purgatory, and they give Me grief and my Heart of love is moved when seeing them suffer. I am not able according to the laws established by Me, I, WHO CAN DO EVERYTHING, to diminish their purgatory, if the militant Church does not apply my infinite merits to them.

"I have here another pain for my Heart that no one sees, nor knows of it, nor grasps all its extension and it is this: seeing myself as idle, without being able in a certain sense, with the devouring flames of my love, to sweeten their pains, to diminish their time of purification, to draw them out of the flames and to transport them within my Heart to heaven.

"This same justice impedes love; and as I myself am love, mercy and justice, this last attribute comes as a deterrent to love on this point--who would believe it!--I am eager and yearning because souls on earth can do what I am not able to do in heaven.

"This is another secret that I disclose today of the thousands of martyrdoms of love that I bear in my Heart of the Savior God. I struggled with divine and human means--how many times, years upon years!--to save souls of fallen priests, unfaithful to the church, renegades, apostates, schismatics etc. etc.: I succeeded in saving them with my very Blood, with tears from my soul, with pleading groans to the Father, with my infinite merits; and they arise from the world contrite and pardoned.

"Then, when they are in purgatory, alas! now nothing is possible for them to do , but WAIT, wait that there are charitable souls that ransom them, lessen their pain and time."

~ Jesus to Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida, from To My Priests ~

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.

Jesus Wants Charity for Priests in Purgatory

In His confidences to Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida and written in To My Priests, Jesus revealed that it grieves Him when priests forget to remember their departed brother priests. He said:

"I want that in the memento of the departed at Mass, they put their brother priests in the first place, without ever forgetting them. This is my chosen portion and the joy I experience in receiving a priestly soul in heaven equals and even surpasses greatly the love that I professed for them on earth."

"One more martydom of love. I desire that they apply to them in Masses, like the suffrages, my Blood and my merits; I hope that priests, their brothers, sacrifice me on their behalf; and alas! They forget this chosen portion; these souls continue even in purgatory their state of being favored of my Heart and whom I love, not only on earth but still more in purgatory and heaven.

"What my priests do in their charity of JUSTICE with their brothers, drawing them out of purgatory, THEY DO TO ME..."

"...when a soul of a priest comes from purgatory, my Heart beats with more violence; and I receive them and contemplate them with a gaze of indefinable love, and I make heaven tremble with joy."

"Now they will see if my heart of a God-man will eagerly desire to preserve these souls, caring for them,watching for them, hurling myself into the precipice in which many lie, taking them in my arms and saving them.

"But there I find a DIKE that stops Me in my tracks...and this is purgatory. There is no obstacle to my redemptive nor my saving action but to my JUSTICE; and my agonies of waiting begin and of more waiting, the intimate pains of seing those souls suffer that tend toward Me like steel to a magnet, and that remain here, until the militant Church, that is to say, my priests bring them to heaven directly by personal charity or by that of other souls, paying their debts to the offended Divinity."

"All my pains are caused by love and by the little charity of souls. I am charity, I am love and my sorrows consist in the faults against this charity that ought to be burning on earth, and in priestly souls it ought to inflame the Church.

"In my infinite Wisdom I formed my Church: and do they know of what material? From the substance of love, and in all its fibers, and in all its arteries, and in all its dispositions, they will see love and only love. And consequently, I became man, to unite the divine and the human, and to bring to heaven souls WITHOUT DUST.

"Purgatory itself is Love."

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.

Impediments to Receiving Priestly Graces

Jesus spoke with Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida (To My Priests) of His great desire to empty His Heart of the special graces needed by priests, and of the necessity of prayer and sacrifice for priests so they will be open and prepared to receive them:

"There are impediments to receiving these graces: sin, culpable inaction, dissipation, the world, and concupiscence of the senses. There are impediments: little faith, pride from the ones who feel themselves sufficient, needing nothing, the lack of an interior life that exhausts the supernatural energies and makes one insensible for the life of grace. I cannot stop saying that the interior life is the support of the priest, that prayer is his defense and purity of soul, his life.

"All these graces are graces of love, arisen from Love itself, who is the Holy Spirit, and completed by Him, suitable for the heart of the priest. They are very special graces--that they need--graces of power: the fortitude for their temptations, of abnegation for sacrifices, of light for diffusing it into souls, of purity for shielding them against the enemy, of uprightness for the charges that they dispense, of zeal for the glory of my father, of crosses for transforming them into Me...

"It is necessary to pray, to cry out, to sacrifice and to immolate oneself, saying to my Father, through His Word, that these priestly souls may be opened, humbled, and enlarged to receive them.

"To the measure that this is done, my Father will be moved, the Holy Spirit will be felt in those sacerdotal hearts, and the rocks of many hearts will be burst open, and the portals of lukewarm priests will be opened and the hearts of fallen priests will react, and the tempted will turn their sights to heaven, and good priests will grow in virtues, in action and in unction, for receiving all this beneficial rain of gifts and of graces from the Holy Spirit which will transform them into ME.

"Then my Heart will rest from this weight of graces that I eagerly desire to spread in my beloved Church; in this way they will help me in the sanctification of priests, in the glorification of my beloved Father and they will thus console my Heart."

AN APPEAL FOR ONE HOUR OF EUCHARISTIC ADORATION FOR PRIESTS

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.