Lord...That I May Be Your Heart Today

Lord Jesus,

You have chosen Your priests from among us

and sent them to proclaim Your Word

and to act in Your Name.

For so great a gift to Your Church

we give You our 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 in their weakness.

In their afflictions let them never be crushed:

in their doubts never despair:

in temptations 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 them Your Spirit,

and help them to praise Your heavenly Father,

and pray for 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 brokenhearted.

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 the Father.

Amen.

(From the Diocese of Legazpi in the Philippine Islands)

The beautiful song in the video was composed by Fr. Manoling Francisco, S.J.

PRAY FOR UNBORN FUTURE PRIESTS

40 DAYS FOR LIFE DAY 8: A MOST INCREDIBLE WEEK!

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.

Passionate Love for Jesus in the Eucharist

"Love cannot triumph unless it becomes the one passion of our life.

Without such passion we may produce isolated acts of love;

but our life is really not won over or consecrated to an ideal.

Until we have a passionate love

for our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament

we shall accomplish nothing."

This video tribute was created by a non-Christian of the Islam faith whose heart was touched by Jesus through the exemplary life of Blessed Mother Teresa. It was her passionate love for our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament that was the foundation for her outstanding holy accomplishments, a lesson for all who seek to serve the Lord. Her words of wisdom bear repeating:

"UNTIL WE HAVE A PASSIONATE LOVE

FOR OUR LORD IN THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT

WE SHALL ACCOMPLISH NOTHING."

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PRAY FOR UNBORN FUTURE PRIESTS

4o DAYS FOR LIFE DAY 7: NOT JUST MOMS & BABIES

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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.

Year of the Priest: First Thursday Indulgence

Just a reminder--this Thursday is the First Thursday of the month. First Thursdays of the month are days in which the faithful may gain plenary indulgences during the Year for Priests. The indulgences may be applied to souls in purgatory to speed their entrance into heaven. During this special year, it would be a great kindness to offer the indulgence for priests in purgatory.

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PRAY FOR UNBORN FUTURE PRIESTS

40 DAYS FOR LIFE DAY 6: 38 LIVES SAVED!

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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. Michael McGivney

Venerable Fr. Michael McGivney, born in the USA, was a parish priest in Hartford, Connecticut until his death in 1890 at age 38. The postulator for his cause for sainthood, Fr. Gabriel O'Donnell, said of Fr. McGivney, "Fr.McGivney lived an ordinary life in the most extraordinary ways."

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Fr. McGivney's cause for sainthood was opened in 1997, presented to the Vatican in 2000, and he was declared Venerable by Pope Benedict XVI in March, 2008. The claim of a miracle through Father McGivney's intercession is under study in Rome and additional testimony concerning this reported miracle has recently been sent to Rome in hopes of bolstering the original claim.

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Since Father McGivney was Founder of the Knights of Columbus, his beatification would be a cause of great joy and justifiable pride in their founder for the 1.7 million Knights throughout the world. In discussing this latest development of additional testimonies, Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight, said, "Fr. McGivney's beatification would be an important event, not only for Knights of Columbus, but for many thousands of parish priests who quietly do the Lord's work in parishes each day and regard him as an outstanding example for priests everywhere. In this Year for Priests it is an especially appropriate step forward."

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Of the thousands of canonized saints, there are no American-born parish priests who have been officially recognized by the Church as saints. Fr. McGivney's beatification and canonization would be a great encouragement for the many faithful USA Catholic priests, unsung heroes, who have stayed the course and weathered the storms.

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In Loving Memory of Father McGivney

Venerable Father Michael McGivney's Influence Today

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PRAY FOR UNBORN FUTURE PRIESTS

40 DAYS FOR LIFE DAY 5: MORE THAN WE CAN IMAGINE

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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.

Saturdays for Priests In Union with Blessed Mother Mary

"My priests...I love them so much!...

I invite them to become OTHER CHRISTS.

That is their vocation...

Will you give Me each Saturday,

in union with My divine Mother,

to love Me,

to pray for My priests

and deny yourself for them?"

~ Jesus to Blessed Dina Belanger ~

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PRAY FOR UNBORN FUTURE PRIESTS

40 DAYS FOR LIFE DAY DAY 4: UNEXPECTED BLESSINGS

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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.

Whatever Happened to Penance on Fridays?

In 1966 American bishops took advantage of Pope Paul VI's permission to modify the discipline of abstinence from meat on Fridays. The theory was that since abstinence from meat was not a sacrifice for some Catholics, it would be better if each Catholic chose for themselves a sacrifice that was truly penitential for them personally. The bishops encouraged temperance, self-denial and good works for those who chose to do a penance other than Friday abstinence from meat. Bishop William Higi of Lafayette, Indiana offers some thoughts on the topic:

"With the intention of reinvigorating the observance of Friday as a penitential day, the bishops urged Catholics to be mindful of their sins on Fridays as well as the sins of mankind which we are called to help expiate; asked Catholics to make each Friday a day of self-denial and mortification in prayerful remembrance of the passion of Jesus Christ in preparation for Sunday; and abolished the mandatory nature of Friday abstinence outside of Lent allowing Catholics instead to choose their own acts of voluntary self-denial and personal penance. Abstinence, they said, should still take priority among Friday acts of penance."

"In a time of post-Vatican II euphoria, it apparently was thought that adult Catholics would seek out the high ground. It didn't work. A basic rule of thumb was overlooked: people gravitate to the least demanding level of the ladder. The rationale behind the change in practice and the other truly beautiful thoughts in the call to maintain a spirit of penance were overlooked or soon ignored. Today, the fact the Fridays of the year should be days of penance is judged an antiquated idea without relevance by many. This failure to embrace penance conflicts with the view of the Church gleaned from the Scriptures and summarized in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: 'The human heart is heavy and hardened. God must give man a new heart...the human heart is converted by looking upon Him whom our sins have pierced' (1432)."

"In 1983, the American bishops repeated the call to observe Friday as a day of penance. They wrote: 'As a tangible sign of our need and desire to do penance we, for the cause of peace, commit ourselves to fast and abstinence on each Friday of the year. We call upon our people voluntarily to do penance on Friday by eating less food and by by abstaining from meat. This return to a traditional practice of penance, once well observed in the U.S. Church, should be accompanied by works of charity and service toward our neighbors. Every Friday should be a day significantly devoted to prayer, penance and almsgiving for peace.''

POINTS TO PONDER: Have most U.S. Catholics complied with the American bishops' call for penitential Fridays; or are they so content personally, and at the state of the nation and the world, that they feel no need to make amends to an offended God by acts of penance? Are there no sins to make reparation for? Are American Catholics confident that their souls are so pure that they will skip right into heaven after death and bypass purgatory? Are they so charitable that their sins are covered by that charity?

The saints were penitential souls, and not just on Fridays. If some or most of American Catholics are not penitential, is it because they are wiser and holier than the saints? Or, could it be that they have forgotten, or never heard, the bishops' call for Friday penance? It couldn't hurt for the bishops and priests to repeat clear instructions to all the Catholic faithful in order to clear up any confusion or misunderstandings about the Church requirement for Friday penance.

MORE FROM BISHOP HIGI

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PRAY FOR UNBORN FUTURE PRIESTS

40 DAYS FOR LIFE DAY 3: ABORTION WORKER QUITS!

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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 Celibate Priests

"St. Peter was a widower and had a virgin and simple, arduous, at the same time candid, soul. For this reason, among other reasons, widowers could be priests...And if all priests are not virgins, yes they ought to be pure...

"...My Church is so white, that I only give her as Spouse to those who vow to be pure...

"...Priests are more than angels for Me, by the sublime mission that they play on earth, which is that of representing Me... They are other Me's in the Mass and they represent Me in the Sacraments, transformed into Me. I am more than all the angels. I am their Creator and Conserver. But priests are more than angels to Me. They are other Me's themselves, and ought to be OTHER ME'S on earth, that is to say, the holy, pure and spotless Body of which I am the Head, in God's Church...

"...This is one of the principal reasons for which priests ought not to be married, because they ought to be reflections of the Virgin Father whose Paternity they represent. Their fruitfulness in souls ought to be the same as the Father's with which He engendered His Word, with the holy and virgin fruitfulness of the Holy Spirit who produced in Mary the Word made flesh for making Him compatible with man. And to realize this fraternity of the Word with man He founded the Church; and the instruments of this Church are priests, who receive the Father's fruitfulness and have to make man compatible with Me, BY IMITATION OF ME, now that by the Incarnation He made them sons of one same Father who is in Heaven.

"Priests are the bonds of union that unites Christians with Christ. They are FATHERS, because they represent the Father, to produce in souls the extension of the Word, the transformation into Me, so that my Father realizes the ideal that He had formed for man of seeing the portrait of His Word and the reflection of the Trinity in man.

"Priests ought to be pure as my Father is pure; perfect, as my Father is perfect; and always radiate charity, light, truth and to sanctify souls, transformed into Me...

"...Yes, the married will have the Father's fruitfulness, but material, in the sense that He is the Center of all life, because all life comes from the Father. But the divine and spiritual fruitfulness which engenders souls for heaven, the pure and holiest fruitfulness, the same that engendered the divine Word, this is not given to the married, but only to priests who ought to be celibates, whose sublime and holy mission is that of the Father with the Word, that of the Trinity with souls...

"...Do priests see why they do not have to be married? There are many reasons of an inferior order for saying this is not so, but the fundamental reason is that which I said of the supernatural mission that the Father places in the anointed hands of the priests and in their hearts, for being, in imitation of Me, fruitful and virgin, fathers and holy."

~ Jesus to Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida ~

(Excerpts from To My Priests)

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PRAY FOR UNBORN FUTURE PRIESTS

4o DAYS FOR LIFE DAY 2: BABY SAVED AT KICK-OFF EVENT!

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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.