St. Jean Vianney: Spirit of Sacrifice

Fr. Bing Arellano, spiritual director of the Alliance of the Holy Family Intl., tells the story of St. John Vianney, a humble secular priest, who converted his parishioners and exorcised the demons of Ars, France with his deep prayer, holiness, and ascetical life.

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

Prayer to St. Jean Vianney for Priests

O Holy Curé of Ars:

During this Year of the Priesthood,

we turn to you, the patron saint of priests,

asking your intercession for all those Christ has called

to serve us in this sacred ministry.

Help all priests to imitate

your total confidence in God’s grace,

constant devotion to prayer,

fatherly care for the poor,

humble willingness to serve the least,

contagious love for the Mass,

joyful fervor in teaching the faith,

willing martyrdom as a confessor,

and burning zeal to show us the path to heaven.

Gain for all priests, especially those who are struggling,

a renewal in the grace of their ordination;

aid the whole Church to grow in appreciation of the gift of the priesthood;

and shepherd in a particular way

those with the vocation to serve us as priests in the future.

Help us all to see and experience the priesthood

as the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Amen.

The prayer and a beautiful stained glass window of the Holy Curé of Ars was found at St. Anthony of Padua Parish, New Bedford, MA.

St. Louis de Montfort: Consecration to Jesus Through Mary

"As Mary is the treasurer and dispenser of the gifts and graces of the Most High God, she reserves a choice portion, indeed the choicest portion, to nourish and sustain her children and servants. They grow strong on the Bread of Life; they are made joyful with the wine that brings forth virgins. They are carried at her breast. They bear with ease the yoke of Christ scarcely feeling its weight because of the oil of devotion with which she has softened its wood,"

~ St. Louis de Montfort, from True Devotion to Mary ~

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.

New USCCB Website: For Your Vocation

This new website is an initiative of the Bishops of the United States, and is meant to be a resource for men and women in discernment, as an aid for promoting a vocation culture within the home, and a range of tools for educators, youth leaders and vocation directors. Vocations to the Priesthood and Consecrated Life are tremendous and essential gifts to the Church, and it is the bishops’ desire that their two goals for this initiative are achieved:

To help individuals hear and respond to the call by God to the priesthood or consecrated life,

and

To educate all Catholics on the importance of encouraging others through prayer
and activities to promote vocations.

For Your Vocation website

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

Bishop Edward Slattery: Suffering, Obedience, Personal Holiness

Excerpts from Bishop Edward Slattery's Homily at the Solemn Pontifical Mass at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception - Washington, D.C. - celebrating Pope Benedict's fifth anniversary as our Holy Father:

"But the point which we must clarify is that Christ reveals Himself to those who suffer in Christ, to those who humbly accept their pain as a personal sharing in His Passion and who are thus obedient to Christ’s command that we take up our cross and follow Him. Suffering by itself is simply the promise that death will claim these mortal bodies of ours, but suffering in Christ is the promise that we will be raised with Christ, when our mortality will be remade in his immortality and all that in our lives which is broken because it is perishable and finite will be made imperishable and incorrupt."

"Christ’s Sacred Heart is the image of the obedience which Christ showed by his sacrificial love on Calvary. The Sacrifice of Calvary is also for us the means by which we are made obedient and this is a point which you must never forget: at Mass, we offer ourselves to the Father in union with Christ, who offers Himself in perfect obedience to the Father. We make this offering in obedience to Christ who commanded us to “Do this in memory of me” and our obediential offering is perfected in the love with which the Father receives the gift of His Son.

"Do not be surprised then that here at Mass, our bloodless offering of the bloody sacrifice of Calvary is a triple act of obedience. First, Christ is obedient to the Father, and offers Himself as a sacrifice of reconciliation. Secondly, we are obedient to Christ and offer ourselves to the Father with Jesus the Son; and thirdly, in sharing Christ’s obedience to the Father, we are made obedient to a new order of reality, in which love is supreme and life reigns eternal, in which suffering and death have been defeated by becoming for us the means by which Christ’s final victory, his future coming, is made manifest and real today.

"Suffering then, yours, mine, the Pontiffs, is at the heart of personal holiness, because it is our sharing in the obedience of Jesus which reveals his glory. It is the means by which we are made witnesses of his suffering and sharers in the glory to come."

(The entire homily and an opportunity to post your comments to Bishop Slattery are here. To hear his homily 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.

St. Francis of Assisi: The Sublime Humility of God

"For One in such a lofty position to stoop so low is a marvel that is staggering. What sublime humility and humble sublimeness, that the Lord of the Universe, the Divine Son of God, should stoop as to hide Himself under the appearance of bread for our salvation! Behold the humble way of God, my brothers. Therefore, do not hold yourselves to be anything of yourselves, so that you may be entirely acceptable to One Who gives Himself entirely to you."

~ St. 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.

Fr. Michael J. Denk: God's Call to the Priesthood

"Unlike buying a car or a house or choosing a college or even a career path a vocation is a call from God. It is not something that we sit down and look at the different options and try something out, no, we believe that it is a call from God in the depth of our heart. God calls us and we respond. It’s not something that we pick out or choose what we think best suits us. God knows us better than we know ourselves. We hear the message in this Sunday’s Gospel Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me."

"I felt the call to the priesthood since I was a young child but I didn’t enter the seminary until I was near the end of college. There were many things that kept me from going, as there are surely a lot of reasons for young men not to answer today, and a lot of it was because I didn’t want to listen to God’s call. It wasn’t until I said yes that I came to discover what a wonderful life the priesthood is. Anyone that knows me well knows I am truly happy in this life. It is better than I ever imagined it could be."

"If you think someone is called to the priesthood let them know. I think people are afraid to invite young men to this life because of the sacrifice as well as some of the bad publicity in the news. All too often I hear parents encourage their sons: “Go to college first, see if you can be successful at something else, if that doesn’t work, then go be a priest.’ Why would you say that to anyone who is being called by God to the priesthood? I’m sure you know good priests, holy priests, who love their life. If someone has this call why would you ever want them to follow something else? I’ve had a number of grown men come up to me over the years and say “Father, I should have been a priest.” God is calling and this is the rest of your life, so pray about it, and with great courage answer the call and you will discover a life beyond anything you could imagine."

~ Fr. Michael J. Denk, excerpts from Year for Priests: The Call~

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.