In the past few years Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have declared that the Catholic Church would celebrate the Year of the Father, the Year of the Son, the Year of the Holy Spirit, and the Year of the Eucharist. Most recently Catholics have honored the Year of St. Paul by studying his writings and making pilgrimages to Pauline sites.
Beginning June 19, 2009, Pope Benedict has declared that our Church will celebrate a Jubilee Year of the Priest.
We here at Sacred Heart might consider ways that we can commemorate this year. Some ideas?
We might offer special prayers at Mass for priests. We might make Holy Hours, thanking God for our faithful priests and praying for their special needs. We might also pray for the generous, courageous and joyful response of those men whom God is calling now to become priests. We might also say rosaries for our priests.
Those men who wish to become priests sometimes need help paying off college debts or they just need a little monetary help with seminary expenses. We might make contributions to help them. The Catholic Church Extension Society has set up a "Seminarian Education Fund" to which we might want to contribute.
The Catholic Church Extensions Society
P.O. Box 7298
Chicago, Illinois 60680-9816
Father's Day is coming up. We might send cards to those priests- our spiritual fathers- who have devoted their lives to God and to serving us over the years. We might remember them in a special way on other important days- Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, the anniversaries of their Ordinations, their birthdays... There are other ways to express our appreciation for the loving dedication of the good men: give them a call, visit them, invite them our for a meal, send them a gift that might help defray the cost of a vacation they would like to take... Say thanks for all that they do!
See addresses below for some former priests who served here at Sacred Heart.
The Reverend Father William Miller C.PP.S.
421 West 3rd Street
Sedalia, MO 65301-2311
The Reverend Father Alan Stetz
P.O. Box 501
Conception, MO 64433
The Holy Father has said that St. John Vianney, the Cure of Ars and the Patron of Parish Priests, should serve as a special example to priests this year. This year, too we might seek to learn more about this holy priest. There are other priests who have become saints that we might try to learn from: St. Anthony, St. Maximillian Kolbe, St. Philip Neri, St. Padre Pio, and St. Isaac Jogues.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church has much to say about priesthood and Holy Orders. Why not learn what our Church teaches about these subjects by reading the Catechism?
Whatever we choose to do, we should always remember to pray for priests. Below is one prayer we might say.
Prayer for Priests
Almighty God, look upon the face of Jesus, who is the eternal High Priest, and have compassion on Your priests in today's world. They are but weak and frail human beings. Stir up in them the grace of their vocation. Keep them close to You so the enemy may not prevail against them, so that they may never do anything in the slightest degree unworthy of their sublime vocation.
O Jesus, I pray for Your faithful and fervent priests, for the unfaithful and tepid ones; for those laboring at home and abroad in distant mission fields; for those who are tempted; for those who are lonely and desolate; for those who are young; for those who are dying; and for those who are in purgatory.
But, above all, I recommend to You the priests dearest to me; the priest who baptized me; the priests who absolved me from my sins; the priests at whose Masses I have assisted and who gave me Your Body and Blood in Holy Communion; the priests who instructed me or helped me by their encouragement. I pray devoutly for all the priests to who I am indebted in any other way, in particular for... O Jesus, keep them all close to Your heart and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity. Amen.
O Mary, Queen of the Clergy, pray for us; obtain for us many and holy priests.
