Pray for the Church and our Priests

We can see around us a great spiritual battle going on in the world...the forces of evil seem very strong but God is greater than all this.  The world is in a pretty awful state and the Church has been shaken to its foundations.  But we are called to pray and remember that Christ is victorious.  Through the Cross, Our Lord Jesus broke the chains of death.  He has given us the Church, the Sacraments, the Holy Eucharist and has called men out to minister to His people.  These men are human, are open to many temptations, they need our assistance and our prayers.

Again I cannot empahise more the need to pray for our Priests.  It is too easy to criticise them for their shortcomings but we must pray for them instead.  They are very special to Jesus and Our Lady and we need to encourage them, love and respect them and their ministry.  Perhaps you can pray this prayer below for your own Priests in your Parish.  Or maybe you could start praying for your Priests with someone else.

As I said before, my friend and I started a small Divine Mercy meeting where we pray the Rosary, Chaplet of Mercy, read some of the Diary of St. Faustina and we pray this prayer for Priests and we also include the Holy Souls in Purgatory and those who need prayer very much.  But our Rosary and Chaplet are offered for Priests specifically.  We also have a book where we have put the names of all the Priests we know of, who we pray especially for. This little meeting only takes an hour.  It is not too much to ask considering that our Priests have given their whole lives to the Church for us to have the privilege of the Sacraments that we too often take for granted. 

St. Faustina's Prayer for Priests

"O my Jesus, I beg You on behalf of the whole Church: Grant it love and the light of Your Spirit, and give power to the words of Priests so that hardened hearts might be brought to repentance and return to You, O Lord. Lord, give us holy Priests; You yourself maintain them in holiness. O Divine and Great High Priest, may the power of Your mercy accompany them everywhere and protect them from the devil's traps and snares which are continually being set for the soul of Priests.

May the power of Your mercy, O Lord, shatter and bring to naught all that might tarnish the sanctity of Priests, for You can do all things."  -  St. Faustina's Diary  1052