Fr. Mark Kirby: Spiritual Gifts for Priests

7. "And He said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting" (Mk 9:32). In reparation for the sins of priests and to obtain for them graces of conversion, deliverance from patterns of habitual sin, and fortitude in spiritual combat, you can fast, abstain, or offer some other mortification for priests every Wednesday. (Spy Wednesday was the day of Judas' plotting against Our Lord.)

8. On Thursday (the day of the institution of the Most Holy Eucharist and of the Priesthood) you can spend one hour before the Blessed Sacrament in thanksgiving for the gift and mystery of the priesthood, and in confident supplication for the sanctification of all priests. I recommend that during this hour you meditate Our Lord's own prayer for priests in the 17th Chapter of Saint John's Gospel.

9. On Friday (the day of Our Lord's Blessed Passion) make the Way of the Cross for priests or pray the Litany of the Precious Blood or the Litany of the Sacred Heart for them.

10. Every Saturday (Our Blessed Lady's day) offer for priests five decades of the Rosary or the Ave, Maris Stella, a most suitable liturgical hymn for interceding for priests.

~ Fr. Mark Kirby, from What Can I Do For the Year of the Priest? ~

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.

Express Your Love and Solidarity for Pope Benedict XVI: Join Rosary for the Bishop!

“The somberness of Holy Week is intensified for Catholics this year.

“The recent tidal wave of headlines about abuse of minors by some few priests, this time in Ireland, Germany, and a re-run of an old story from Wisconsin, has knocked us to our knees once again.

“Anytime this horror, vicious sin, and nauseating crime is reported, as it needs to be, victims and their families are wounded again, the vast majority of faithful priests bow their heads in shame anew, and sincere Catholics experience another dose of shock, sorrow, and even anger.

“What deepens the sadness now is the unrelenting insinuations against the Holy Father himself, as certain sources seem frenzied to implicate the man who, perhaps more than anyone else has been the leader in purification, reform, and renewal that the Church so needs.

“Sunday Mass is hardly the place to document the inaccuracy, bias, and hyperbole of such aspersions.

“But, Sunday Mass is indeed the time for Catholics to pray for “ . . . Benedict our Pope.”

“And Palm Sunday Mass is sure a fitting place for us to express our love and solidarity for our earthly shepherd now suffering some of the same unjust accusations, shouts of the mob, and scourging at the pillar, as did Jesus.

“No one has been more vigorous in cleansing the Church of the effects of this sickening sin than the man we now call Pope Benedict XVI. The dramatic progress that the Catholic Church in the United States has made--documented again just last week by the report made by independent forensic auditors--could never have happened without the insistence and support of the very man now being daily crowned with thorns by groundless innuendo."

~ Archbishop Timothy Dolan, quoted from here ~

A GOOD WAY TO EXPRESS YOUR LOVE AND SOLIDARITY FOR OUR HOLY FATHER IS BY JOINING THE ROSARY FOR THE BISHOP CAMPAIGN AND BY MAKING A COMMITMENT TO PRAY ONE ROSARY A MONTH FOR HIM!

Since January of this year, 25 Catholics from 24 parishes in 19 dioceses have made a commitment to pray one or more Rosaries a month for Pope Benedict XVI. Surely, there must be many more Catholics who would want to support our dear Holy Father in this way if they knew about the Rosary for the Bishop campaign. Spread the word!

Of course, it would be appropriate to make a commitment to pray the Rosary for your own diocesan bishop also. Personally, it is easier for me to be faithful to a specific commitment than to a general intention to pray. I am grateful to those who started, promote and maintain the Rosary for the Bishop campaign. This work of the Holy Spirit, seeking the intercession of the Blessed Mother for her bishop sons, is a POWERFUL WEAPON in the spiritual warfare being waged against the Holy Father, bishops, priests and the entire Church!

More information about Rosary for the Bishop can be found 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.

Bread of Life Discourse

"We adore Thee most holy Lord Jesus Christ,

here in all Thy Churches, which are in the whole world,

because by Thy holy Cross, Thou hast redeemed the world."

~ Saint Francis of Assisi ~

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 Mother Teresa: Eucharistic Adoration for Peace on Earth

"The time you spend with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament

is the best time you will spend on earth.

Each moment that you spend with Jesus will deepen your union with Him

and make your soul everlastingly more glorious and beautiful in Heaven,

and will help bring about everlasting peace on earth,"

~ Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta ~

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.

Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa: Message to Seminarians and Priests

"The Eucharist is the principal reason for the ordained priesthood...through our ordination we priests are united in a singular exceptional way to the Eucharist. In a certain way we derive from it and exist for it...The celebration of the Eucharist is the way that we best serve our brothers and sisters in the world...How crucial it is, then, for our happiness and for a fruitful ministry that we cultivate a deep love for the Eucharist--a deep love for the Eucharist."

~ Venerable Pope John Paul II ~

"You have not become a priest to become a social worker."

"This is what we want from you--to teach us to be holy..."

~ Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta ~

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.

Daily Offering to the Holy Trinity for Priests

Holy Blessed Trinity,

I offer You all my prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day.

No matter what little thing I do, I offer it to You.

In reparation for holy priests.

For the conversion of priests.

For more priests.

For the return of many priests who have left the priesthood.

For the priests still in Purgatory, especially those most in need.

I offer myself this day (optional: and hereafter until my death) as an offering for holy priests, in union with the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. And in union with the Sacred Body and Blood of Jesus, Consecrated daily on all the altars of the world by your holy priests. I make this offering freely, trusting that You will take care of all my needs, spiritual and temporal for the state in life to which You have called me.

I make this offering through The Immaculate Hands and Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Divine Love, that she might take this imperfect prayer and present it to her Son, Jesus, that through his Sacred Heart, He might perfect it and present it to our Father by the power of the Holy Spirit. Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

(With ecclesiastical approbation.)

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. 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.