Prayers for Priests

1. Agony in the Garden* We pray that all priests may be like Jesus, living only to do our Father’s will.
2. Scourging at the Pillar* We pray for priests who are persecuted, physically or mentally abused; those who are imprisoned or prevented from offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass or receiving Holy Communion.
3. Crowning with Thorns* We pray for priests who suffer for defending authentic Catholic doctrine. We pray that all Bishops will uphold the true teachings of the Catholic Church and resist temptations to compromise doctrine in the face of cultural and social pressures.
4. Carrying of the Cross* We pray for all priests with heavy crosses; those who are weak, lonely, or have fallen from God’s grace in some way. We pray for the Holy Father, who perhaps has the heaviest of crosses: the widespread persecution and abandonment of the Church from within and without.
5. Crucifixion and Death* We pray for all priests who are in their last agony and those who will die today. We pray for those who thirst for the salvation of souls. We pray that the crucifixion of their wills may accomplish God’s designs for the salvation of the whole world.

Prayer for Priests by St. Therese of Lisieux

O Jesus, eternal Priest,keep your priests within the shelter of Your Sacred Heart, where none may touch them.

Keep unstained their anointed hands,
which daily touch Your Sacred Body.
Keep unsullied their lips, daily purpled with your Precious Blood. Keep pure and unearthly their hearts, sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood.

Let Your holy love surround them and
shield them from the world’s contagion.
Bless their labors with abundant fruit and may the souls to whom they minister be their joy and consolation here and in heaven their beautiful and everlasting crown. Amen.

Prayer for Priests by St. Teresa of Calcutta

Mary, Mother of Jesus throw your mantle of purity over our priests.  Protect them, guide them and keep them in your heart.  Be a mother to them especially in times of discouragement and loneliness.  Love them and let them belong completely to Jesus.  Like Jesus, they too are your sons, so keep their hearts pure and virginal.  Keep their minds filled with Jesus, and put Jesus always on their lips, so that He is the one they offer to sinners and to all they meet.  Mary, Mother of Jesus, be their Mother, loving them and bringing them joy.  Take special care of sick and dying priests and the ones most tempted.  Remember how they spent their youth and old age, their entire lives serving and giving all to Jesus.  Mary, bless them and keep a special place for them in your heart.  Give them a piece of your heart, so beautiful and pure and immaculate, so full of love and humility so that they, too, may grow in the likeness of Christ.  Dear Mary, make them humble like you and holy like Jesus.  Amen.

A PRAYER FOR PRIESTS by John Cardinal O’Connor

Lord Jesus, we your people pray to You for our priests. You have given them to us for OUR needs. We pray for them in THEIR needs.

We know that You have made them priests in the likeness of your own priesthood. You have consecrated them, set them aside, annointed them, filled them with the Holy Spirit, appointed them to teach, to preach, to minister, to console, to forgive, and to feed us with Your Body and Blood.

Yet we know, too, that they are one with us and share our human weaknesses. We know too that they are tempted to sin and discouragement as are we, needing to be ministered to, as do we, to be consoled and forgiven, as do we. Indeed, we thank You for choosing them from among us, so that they understand us as we understand them, suffer with us and rejoice with us, worry with us and trust with us, share our beings, our lives, our faith.

We ask that You give them this day the gift You gave Your chosen ones on the way to Emmaus: Your presence in their hearts, Your holiness in their souls, Your joy in their spirits. And let them see You face to face in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread.

We pray to You, O Lord, through Mary the mother of all priests, for Your priests and for ours. Amen.

March, 1995