The Year of Priests is about to start…

Are you ready?

This year can be a great opportunity to benefit spiritually from prayer for sanctification of priests.  You can help strengthen the Church in a powerful way.

Do you have a plan about how you are going to use this year?

And for a few more days, it is still the year of St. Paul.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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32 Comments

  1. Father Bartoloma says:

    Orate pro nobis!

  2. Val says:

    In North Carolina, our humble prayer group is about to start 40 days of prayers and fast for the sanctification of our parish priests until August 4th.
    everybody can join us…
    http://www.cureprayergroup.org/yearofpriest.pdf

  3. Pes says:

    I’ve often thought good things about certain priests in my experience, but this year, I’m going to start telling them about it rather than keeping it to myself. Priests must hear a lot of complaints; perhaps this year, they could use some praise.

    Starting with you, Father. I very much appreciate your being so focused and frank in this age of rhetorical and intellectual pettifoggery. Your close attention to language, your sincere zeal, and your high standards for liturgy and faithful discipline are all inspiring. Thank you.

  4. Karin says:

    I have begun making a Holy Hour each Thursday evening in our parish’s Adoration chapel. I have also signed up to spiritually adopt a priest for this year. I am extremely grateful to you, Father and to all our priests.
    May God continue to bless you in your vocation.

  5. Lukas says:

    I encourage all german speaking catholics to “adopt” a priest for life. I participate in a “Gebetsaktion zur Heiligung der Priester und Ordenschristen” (prayerinitiative for the sanctification of priests). It is run by Pater Michael Schlatzer (Franziskanerkloster, Joseph Haydn Gasse 31, 7000 Eisenstadt) and everyone who participates gets a prayer card with a name of a priest one prays basically for the rest of ones life. I absolutely love it and hope to meet my priest in heaven.
    You can order the prayer card directly under the above address. The initiative got Pope Benedikts apostolic blessing on 22. of June 2005

  6. RJSciurus says:

    I’m sending my son to the seminary starting this fall.

  7. Lukas says:

    Sorry I forgot to add a link:
    http://www.priester.cc/de/Priesterpatenschaft/

    Thank you for participating

  8. JohnE says:

    It appears that in the Archdiocese of Denver we will have a daily prayer calendar. We will pray for all priests on the 19th, the pope on the 20th, Archbishop Chaput on the 21st, Archbishop Conley on the 22nd, and then a different priest in the archdiocese each day. I have not seen any announcement on this, just a calendar in the Denver Catholic Register for the first 12 days.

  9. irishgirl says:

    I offer my daily Rosary and my Holy Communion at the EF Mass on Sunday for all priests and seminarians.

    In my Rosary intentions, I mention the names of priests I know and admire.

    I’ve been also praying the Chaplet of the Sacred Heart as a novena, and offering it for our priests and seminarians.

  10. little gal says:

    The parish is instituting an hour of Eucharistic Adoration for Priests on First Friday’s throughout this year of the Priest. Although I haven’t ever done Eucharistic Adoration, I feel moved to do this now…

  11. Cristero says:

    The Faithful of Mission San Juan Bautista in California have started a Spiritual Bouquet for the Priests of the Diocese, our Bishop, the Holy Father, and for Priests and Bishops throughout the world. We will be doing this throughout the Year of the Priest. We have a counter at the upper right-hand corner of our blog at http://monterey-tlm.blogspot.com/

  12. Mark says:

    I have a few plans on how to use this year. I intend to organise something like a vigil or day or prayer in our cathedral on or around the feast day of St. John Mary Vianney.

    But, on a slightly larger scale (at least for me personally), I have the intention to enter seminary this September. I only need to get my bishop to share that intention… I have already met with him and will do so again next week to dicuss the future. I couldn’t ask for a better year to further discern my vocation, really.

  13. LC says:

    In order to gear up for the Year of the Priest, my family has been adding “Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us us (3x)” after our blessing before meals. When the year starts Friday, we will add “St. John Mary Vianney, Patron of Priests, pray for us.”

    Such prayer fosters great family devotion and love for the Church. I highly recommend such prayers for families (and for all)!

  14. Cromagnum says:

    I saw this on The Anchoress blog

    “Should have posted this yesterday”
    http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/theanchoress/2009/06/17/should-have-posted-this-yesterday/

    Very appropriate title, yesterday was a long time ago.
    As Elizabeth says, “Watch and you’ll understand”
    The Eucharist is the sublime mystery.

  15. mrsmontoya says:

    I dedicate the rosary I say on Tuesdays for all priests, and remember every one I can by name.

  16. Kimberly says:

    I have written a curriculum for young boys, grades 3-5, telling them about, and inviting them to consider, the priesthood. This program had a trial run at my parish and was recieved very well. I have sent the curriculum to Ignatius Press. If anyone has an extra prayer, please pray this will be accepted.

  17. Denise says:

    I was gearing up for the Year of the Priest when I assisted at the Ordination Mass for the Diocese of Arlington this past Saturday. On Friday I hope to attend the Mass at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in D.C. when Archbishop McCarrick will celebrate the daily Mass to initiate the Year of the Priest. On Saturday, the Archdiocese of Washington will have its Ordination Mass at the National Shrine and I hope to offer my prayers there as well. Daily prayers for priests and priestly vocations will be forthcoming.

  18. Jayna says:

    Well, I’ve started by putting up a page on the parish website – something that would never have happened if someone else were running the site (they’re NCR reading types). It’s definitely helped me in preparing for it because I’ve been looking up prayers for priests and articles on the year and such. And I will, of course, watch the Holy Father celebrate Vespers tomorrow afternoon.

  19. Therese says:

    St. John Bosco Books has compiled a lovely little booklet of prayers for the welfare and aid of our priests, complete with truly beautiful engraved illustrations, “Prayers for Priests” (1994). My copy was distributed by Angelus Press in Kansas City, MO. (800-966-7337)

    Many of these prayers have imprimaturs and some are indulgenced. Here is “My Daily Prayer for Priests”:

    “O Mighty Eternal God, look upon the face of Thy Christ, and for the 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 priests; 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 N.N. O Jesus, keep them all close to Thy Heart, and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity. Amen.”

    I have never seen a better collection of prayers on the subject.

  20. benj says:

    Yes. I’m going to become a priest. How appropriate.

  21. Nana says:

    Over the past four plus years our parish in north central IA has dedicated Monday to praying for vocations. We have exposition of the Blessed Sacrament that day from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm, however people can stop in any time of the day to visit Our Lord and pray.

    Each Sunday our traveling Vocation Crucifix is received by families/parishioners at the end of Mass (they sign up for the month ahead), taken home for the week, & returned on Saturday. A booklet of vocation prayers is also provided.

    At the close of weekday Masses in our six parish linkage we recite together a prayer for vocations written by Pope John Paul II.

    With the “Year for Priests” beginning tomorrow copies of the “Litany for Priests” printed from the USCCB website are already available in our church entryway. In fact I’ll be handing them out at our Parish Council meeting tonight & encouraging members to both pray it at home & encourage others to pray it as well during the coming year. “Year for Priests” posters and other information is also available on the USCCB website here: http://www.usccb.org/yearforpriests/index.shtml

    We are truly blessed to have a second year seminarian coming in September to spend a year with our parishes, living with our asst. pastor, visiting the homebound & hospitalized parishioners and helping with the youth.

    May God bless our priests, seminarians and those discerning their vocations to the priesthood during the “Year for Priests” and every year!

  22. adwsem says:

    My summer assignment parish is having a 40-hr devotion starting tonight, going until the priestly ordinations on Saturday morning. Then, there’s about 200 people who’ve signed up to pray an hour a week for a priest of the diocese, so that eventually all the priests in the diocese will get 50 cards saying, “I prayed for you.” Well, not exactly those words but… :)

  23. TJB says:

    Possibly enter a seminary, please pray for me.

  24. Therese says:

    One more thing, and I’ll quit the soapbox: after having attended nearly two years of Traditional Latin Masses (gratias Deo pro Motu Proprio), I am struck hard by the notion that the Holy Father did not free the Old Mass merely for the sake of the faithful–yes, it is edifying, and yes, this Mass has changed me personally for the better. I believe, however, that he also intended the TLM as a gift to our dear, beleaguered priests, who must constantly struggle for prayer and spiritual repose in order to renew their strength. (I know some priests kept so busy with the spiritual needs of their parishioners, I wonder where they find the time. Others have clearly lapsed in their discipline—the TLM is capable of restoring both.)

  25. ETMC says:

    Therese: Thank you so much for posting the \”My Daily Prayer for Priests\”! I\’ve seen it before, and I really wanted to start saying it during the Holy Year, but didn\’t know where to find it!

    As for my plans:
    I plan to send (anonymously, if possible) spiritual bouquets to many priests.

  26. bryan says:

    May I suggest adding, after the Fatima prayer after each decade:
    “God our Father, please send us holy priests, all for the sacred and eucharistic Heart of Jesus, all for the sorrowful and immaculate Heart of Mary, in union with St. Joseph.”

    Maybe this should go in the “good news” posting…but, I was asked to provide my CV and application/spiritual history to the Society of the Oblates of Holy Wisdom for consideration to be sponsored as a second career vocation. Extremely orthodox, moderate in decorum, in full union with the Holy Father, and are focused on the revival of Scriptural exegesis using patristic sources.

    Please offer a prayer that His Will be done, not mine.

  27. We will have plans for the Year of the Priest for our Council when we meet again. Brother Knights to start planning on how we can support our priests, both financially and spiritually. Ora pro nobis!

  28. Mary Rose says:

    I’m going to study in depth the sacraments and the priest’s role with them. (I received a weak spiritual formation when younger.) I also plan to pray more for priests and encourage them more than ever.

  29. Peggy says:

    I’m going to post on my blog the name of a priest in our diocese (roughly) daily over the next year with request for prayers for that priest. I will include active, retired, international priests in service, order/military, a memorial of all deceased, then culminate with the bishop. Our diocese has a fairly accurate list published. We have roughly 100 or so priests in total.

  30. q7swallows says:

    This Year for Priests is such a crucial intention that I am offering all my pains (physical, mental, and spiritual) this year for my parish priest in particular, for all priests in general, and the priests-who-are-to-come.

    Having heard the Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the recent PODCAzT (courtesy of this blog–thank you, Fr. Z!), I have decided that it is *so* appropriate for our times that it will be my mainsail prayer for the coming year.

    A framed copy of the Act has been approved for the sacristy wall to invite the altar boys to offer their service and their daily lives for the solace of Jesus’ wounded Heart.

    Brick by brick on the micro-cosmic level, too!

  31. olmphoto2 says:

    EWTN now carrying Vespers live from the Vatican, opening Year of the Priest!

  32. Jeff Ferguson says:

    I will be offering a daily prayer for priests:

    O Jesus, I pray for Your faithful and fervent priests; for Your unfaithful and tepid priests; for Your priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields; for Your tempted priests; for Your lonely and desolate priests; for Your young priests; for Your dying priests; for the souls of Your priests in purgatory.

    But above all I recommend to You 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 Your Body and Blood in Holy Communion; the priests who taught and instructed me; all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way. O Jesus, keep them close to Your heart, and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity. AMEN.

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