I sincerely believe that the Prayer for Vocations which I posted here, and which seems to be spreading across the lands, will bear great fruit.
Today I received a note from a priest in Sacramento with a link to a parish bulletin. The parish is entrusted to the FSSP! Notice that it is meant to be clipped out.
Alas, I regret that they tinkered with the prayer, but I’m glad they are praying!
Don’t tinker with it. LEAVE it as it is, but use it!
Here is the original card. You can change “archdiocese” to “diocese”, but otherwise, please, don’t fiddle with it.
At the parish where I serve, the pastor and I had cards printed with an old prayer for vocations used at my home parish, where there was on average a First Mass every year. From now on, at every Sunday and Holy Day Mass, after the Gospel and before the announcements and sermon, everyone will kneel and say this prayer:
LEADER: Please kneel for our prayer for vocations. Let us ask God to give worthy priests, brothers and sisters to His Holy Church.
ALL: O God, we earnestly beseech Thee to bless this (arch)diocese with many priests, brothers and sisters, who will gladly spend their entire lives to serve Thy Church and to make Thee known and loved.
LEADER: Bless our families. Bless our children.
ALL: Choose from our homes those who are needed for Thy work.
LEADER: Mary, Queen of the Clergy!
ALL: Pray for us. Pray for our priests and religious. Obtain for us many more.
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That is a beautiful prayer, authorized by ecclesiastical authority.
I do not think such a prayer should be prayed, by either priest or people or both, *during* the Mass, whether it be in the ordinary or extraordinary form. When I have led novenas at a local Carmelite Monastery, I always lead such prayers after the Mass has concluded. To the general rule of not changing the liturgy or adding to it, I add:
“…there are those who, without wholesome liturgical and pastoral criteria, mix practices of piety and liturgical acts in hybrid celebrations. It sometimes happens that novenas or similar practices of piety are inserted into the very celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. This creates the danger that the Lord’s Memorial Rite, instead of being the culmination of the meeting of the Christian community, becomes the occasion, as it were, for devotional practices. For those who act in this way we wish to recall the rule laid down by the Council prescribing that exercises of piety should be harmonized with the liturgy not merged into it. Wise pastoral action should, on the one hand, point out and emphasize the proper nature of the liturgical acts, while on the other hand it should enhance the value of practices of piety in order to adapt them to the needs of individual communities in the Church and to make them valuable aids to the liturgy.” (Paul VI, Marialis cultus, 31)
The prayer directly underneath it is also a rather efficacious prayer for mothers.
In the very small village of Lu, Italy, the mothers gathered every Tuesday for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, asking the Lord for vocations. They received Holy Communion on the first Sunday of every month with the same intention. After Mass, all the mothers prayed a that prayer together imploring for vocations to the priesthood. The end result was more than 300 priestly and religious vocations.
I’m in the process of having cards printed for my three parishes. We will pray the prayer before Mass. We pray the St. Michael prayer after Mass. And, for the record, I didn’t tinker with the words! [Outstanding.] I fear that if I did that Fr. Z would stalk me and take vengeance upon me by forcing me to wear rainbow stoles and “children of the world” chasubles.
[You have chosen well, young jedi.]
That would be cruel and unusual punishment of the sort to which nobody should be subjected.
The FSSP Sacramento Parish (St. Stephen’s) has been using this prayer for years. Some time ago, I was at that parish on a First Sunday which they called, “Vocation Sunday”. It was the first time that I had seen this prayer and brought it back to the priest in my parish. We use it on First Sundays, as well. Alas! I didn’t notice the changes. We may have to make some adjustments…
This prayer is said in my home parish before all masses. It is usually led by the lector at daily masses and the cantor at Sunday masses. The only notable difference is that, in the last line, we add deacons to the list of those for whom we are asking Mary to pray (“pray for our priests, deacons, and religious…”). We’ve had a thanksgiving mass a year for the past four years (two this year), and we’ll have one next year as well.
There are a number of nearby parishes that also pray it. It seems that its usual place is either between the Gospel and the homily or following the petitions. I’ve even heard it prayed in some more progressive parishes (unmodified, believe it or not), though apart from sound catechesis and the true spirit of the liturgy it doesn’t seem to be very effective.
Given how many vocations the Fraternity now gets for both its North American and European seminaries, I’d say that the prayer must be working.
My only complaint is that it only praying for one form of consecrated life. Would much perfer if it said consecrated life instead of sisters. There are other forms of consecrated life in the church. There is secular intitutes, diocesian hermits and consecrated virgins living in the world. I am a consecrated virgin and not a sister or nun.
Please keep it the same, Father. I hate that our diocesan prayer feels the need to avoid giving offense. It’s a prayer for priests!
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