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O almighty and eternal God, look upon the face of Thy Christ, and for love of Him who is the Eternal High-Priest, have pity on Thy priests.  Remember, O most compassionate God, that they are but weak and frail human beings.  Stir up in them the grace of their vocation which is in them by the imposition of the bishop's hands.   Keep them close to Thee, lest the enemy prevail against them, so that they may never do anything in the slightest degree unworthy of their sublime vocation.

O Jesus, I pray Thee for Thy faithful and fervent priests;  for Thy unfaithful and tepid priests;  for Thy priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields; for Thy tempted priests; for Thy lonely and desolate priests; for Thy young priests; for Thy aged priests; for Thy sick pritests, for Thy dying priests; for the souls of Thy priests in Purgatory.

But above all I commend to Thee the priests dearest to me; the priest who baptized me; the priests who absolved me from my sins; the priests at whose Masses I assisted and who gave me Thy Body and Blood in Holy Communion; the priests who taught and instructed me or helped and encouraged me; all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way, particularly ...    O Jesus, keep them all close to Thy Heart, and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity.  Amen.

(prayer composed by Fr. Bruno, S.V.D.)


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I believe that all Catholics ought to be praying this prayer every day.  Our priests need our prayers these days more than ever.

It's the kind of prayer that in the past would have made it into the Raccolta and given some kind of indulgence.  But in our day, indulgences are pretty much swept under the rug, probably in order so the Vatican can be more cozy with the Lutherans (who would view promotion of the concept of indulgence as an assault against Luther's 95 Theses).  

Few things are more important to pray for.  

In any event, Matthew, please consider pinning this prayer at the head of this sub-forum so it's readily available for anyone who might like to read it!!  

Please print this OP out and share it with your local priest because it would be great for him to duplicate it and pass it out to his faithful.  Let's all pray for our priests!

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