Prayer for Priests

PRAYER FOR PRIESTS

O Jesus, Eternal Priest, keep Thy priests within the shelter of Thy Sacred Heart, where none may touch them.

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

Keep unsullied their lips, daily purpled with Thy Precious Blood.

Keep pure and unearthly their hearts, sealed with the sublime mark of Thy priesthood.

Let Thy holy love surround them, and shield them from the world’s contagion.

Bless their labours with abundant fruit,

and may the souls to whom they minister be their joy and consolation here on earth,

and in heaven, their everlasting crown.
Mary, Mother of Priests, pray for priests and vocations to the priesthood.

St. Therese of Lisieux
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The devil hates priests. He works day and night to draw them into sin and error. He slanders the name of good priests. He tries to prevent the ordination of good men to the priesthood. He tries to drive them to despair or presumption. He delights when they can be ensnared in his devices, when he can parade them as a scandal before the world. His real enemy is the Eternal High Priest, Jesus Christ Our Lord. May Our Lord defend His priests; may Mary, the mother of priests, keep them from harm. May the glories of the priesthood be exalted before the world, and be a terror to the enemies of the Church. Amen.

Lots of Commemorations

I always appreciate commemorations at Lauds and Vespers, and yesterday (Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension) was a fine specimen. Three commemorations, according to the very fine Ordo from the St Laurence Press: St Norbert, St Boniface, and the Octave of the Ascension.

Commemorations can arise when one feast is displaced by another - for example, yesterday St Boniface was displaced by the Sunday. They can arise when 1st vespers of one saint is recited, but the saint of the day just finishing is commemorated. And during an octave, the octave can also be commemorated. The week after Christmas can get exciting, since several octaves overlap (depending on which rubrics you're using). It all gets complicated, which is why we need fine people like the St Laurence press to keep us on the straight and narrow.

All of this is, of course, simplified in the various Novi Ordines, where virtually nothing is commemorated, and there are virtually no octaves. Dull.

The way a commemoration takes place is that, after the main collect for the day, the Antiphon for the Magnificat (or Benedictus, at Lauds) is recited, together with the versicle and response, and then the collect of the feast being commemorated.

Commemorations for the Sunday in the Octave of the Ascension, AD MMXI

For St Norbert

O holy Priest and Bishop, thou worker of so many mighty works, and good shepherd to Christ's flock, pray for us unto the Lord our God.

V. The Lord loved him, and adorned him.
R. He clothed him with a robe of glory.
 
Let us pray.

O God, who didst appoint Saint Norbert, thy Confessor and Bishop, to be an excellent preacher of thy holy word, and through him hast enriched thy Church with a new offspring : grant, we beseech thee; that, by the intercession of his merits, we may of thee be enabled to perform those things which he taught both in word and in deed. Through etc.
 
For St Boniface
 
If any man shall come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
V. The righteous shall flourish like a palm-tree.
R. And shall spread abroad like a cedar in Libanus.

Let us pray.
O God, who by the labours of blessed Boniface, thy Martyr and Bishop, didst vouchsafe to call many nations to the knowledge of thy Name: mercifully grant that we, who as on this day do keep his feast, may by his advocacy find favour in thy sight.

For the Octave of the Ascension

Father, I have manifested thy Name unto the men whom thou hast given me: and now I pray for them, not for the world, because I come to thee, alleluia.

V. God is gone up with a merry noise, alleluia.
R. And the Lord with the sound of the trumpet, alleluia.

Let us pray.
Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God: that like as we do believe thine only-begotten Son our Saviour to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell. Who liveth etc.

Meditations for the Octave of Corpus Christi by St Alphonsus Liguori, Day 4

MEDITATIONS FOR THE OCTAVE OF CORPUS CHRISTI
by St Alphonsus Liguori

MEDITATION IV.

ON THE GREAT LOVE WHICH JESUS CHRIST HAS SHOWN US IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT.

"Jesus, knowing that His hour was come, that He should pass out of this world to the Father: having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end" (St. John xiii. 1). Jesus knowing that the hour of His death was come, desired to leave us, before He died, the greatest pledge of His affection that He could give us; and this was the gift of the Most Holy Sacrament: "He loved them to the end;" which St. Chrysostom explains, 'He loved them with extreme love' He loved men with the greatest love with which He could love them, by giving them His whole Self. But at what time did Jesus institute this great Sacrament, in which He has left us Himself ? On the night preceding His death: "The same night in which He was betrayed" (writes the Apostle), "He took bread; and giving thanks, broke and said, Take ye and eat; this is My Body" (1 Cor. xi. 23, 24). At the very time that men were preparing to put Him to death, He gave them this last proof of His love. The marks of affection which we receive from our friends at the time of their death, remain more deeply impressed on our hearts; for this reason did Jesus bestow on us this gift of the Blessed Sacrament just before His death. With reason, then, did St. Thomas call this gift 'a sacrament and pledge of love;' and St. Bernard, ' the love of loves;' because in this Sacrament Jesus Christ united and accomplished all the other acts of love which He had shown us. Hence St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi called the day on which Jesus instituted this Sacrament, 'the day of love.'

AFFECTIONS AND PRAYERS.

O infinite love of Jesus, worthy of being loved with a like infinite love! Thou, my Lord, dost love men so much; how is it, then, that men love Thee so little in return? What more couldst Thou do to make Thyself loved by them? O my Jesus, Thou art so amiable and so loving; make Thyself, I pray Thee, known; make Thyself loved. When shall I love Thee as Thou hast loved me? Oh, discover to me more .and more the greatness of Thy mercy, in order that I may burn ever more and more with Thy love, and always seek to please Thee. O beloved One of my soul, would that I had always loved Thee! Alas, there was a time when I not only did not love Thee, but despised Thy grace and Thy love! I am consoled by the sorrow which I feel for it, and I hope for pardon through Thy promise to forgive him that repents of his sins. To Thee, O my Saviour, do I turn all my affections; help me, through the merits of Thy Passion, to love Thee with my whole strength. Oh, that I could die for Thee, as Thou didst die for me! O Mary, my Mother, do thou obtain for me the grace from henceforth to love God alone.