St Therese de Lisieux Prayer for Priests
Sometimes we forget how much priests need our prayers, like this prayer to St Therese for priests.
We see some priests not living up to their vocations or not acting in accordance with Catholic teaching and we are quick to rebuke them on Social Media. At these times, why not also, or instead, pray for them?
Of course we can speak up when priests are teaching heresy or are obviously being influenced and tainted by the world. However, even before we fraternally correct, we need to pray for these priests.
They are human beings just like us and they face temptation just as we do. Why do you think priests have their own confessors?
In St Catherine of Siena’s Dialogue, Our Lord says to her regarding priests:
“So the reverence belongs not to the ministers, but to me and to this glorious blood made one thing with me because of the union of divinity with humanity. And just as the reverence is done to me, so also is the irreverence, for I have already told you that you must not reverence them for themselves, but for the authority I have entrusted to them. Therefore you must not sin against them, because if you do, you are really sinning not against them but against me. This I have forbidden, and I have said that it is my will that no one should touch them.
The Dialogue of St Catherine of Siena, 116
This means we have to be extremely careful about what we say about specific priests. Also, not all of us are qualified or called to make these types of judgments. However, we can all pray.
Social media is a temptation for we laity because it is easy to find others that are criticizing, and so, we feel justified in criticizing as well. We even think we are experiencing righteous anger. How wrong we are sometimes.
Let’s remember to pray for our priests. We need them.
Pray this beautiful prayer for a priest who might need your prayer right this minute.
Priestly Formation in the Human Virtues Volume 1: The Priest as a Man of Justice
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St Therese de Lisieux Prayer for Priests
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.
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Further Reading
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