A PRAYER FOR PRIESTS, by Saint Therese

O Jesus, Eternal Priest, keep all your priests within the shelter of Your Most Sacred Heart where none can touch them.

Keep unstained their anointed hands, which daily touch Your Sacred Body.

Keep unsullied their lips daily tinged with Your Precious Blood.

Keep pure and unworldly their hearts, sealed with the sublime mark of the Priesthood

Let Your Holy Love surround and protect 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 their everlasting crown in the hereafter. Amen.

NOTE:  Please pray for the innocent victims of the sex abuse scandal, which include our holy and chaste priests, who are certainly suffering — and for the upcoming February 21-24, 2019 Worldwide Meeting of Bishops on the  Church  Abuse Crisis convoked by Pope Francis.

IN UNION, THEY WEEP

(2/17/2019, by Teresa Linda)

The purified bodies of holy priests
Are tabernacles of the Word,
Purged by the constancy of an eternal Flame,
Surrounded by a fortress, a stronghold built by the Creator
Caressed but undisturbed by the world.

But in the deep dwelling places of the indwelling Spirit
Where these shepherds cling to their Beloved One,
They weep with Christ incarnate,
Their tears mingled with water and blood,
At the desolation of the Mystical Body.

Every moment of every day,
In union, they suffer the crucifixion;
In union, they live the resurrection,
And celebrate the Holy Communion
That has already overcome all things.

But oh!
How excruciating, this wound of love!