UPDATE 31 July 2020:
GREAT news. I have in the past written about the Seven Sisters Apostolate. This is one of the best initiatives I know. I am grateful to them.
I was contacted by some women who want to form a Seven Sisters group for the priest who asked for prayers. I gave them his name and location. This is simply something that must be done.
Ya’ know… there are discouraging days writing this blog, dealing with the knucklehead stuff you don’t see. To have been a conduit in this development for the priest who asked for a hand… wow. Just. Wow.
Let there be sung Non nobis and Te Deum.
ORIGINALLY Published on: Jul 27, 2020 ______
I asked for permission to post this. A priest asks for prayers.
From a priest… my emphases:
Dear Reverend Father,
Thank you for all you do. It’s had an effect greater than we may know this side of the grave. I’ve followed your blog for years, even secretly in the dark days of the gulag that was called a seminary. From greater attendance to the sacraments, to trying – and failing – to learn the Traditional Mass, you have been a great influence for the good.
After years of abuse as a seminarian – mental, verbal, and much worse – I was ordained as the first local priest in nearly two decades to my diocese. As a curate it has not been better. As the young-ish mad conservative that needed to be kept from ruining the diocese, obviously my pro-Catholic proclivities were scrupulously observed and punished.
To some consternation after only a very few years of priesthood I have guided a fine young man to entering the seminary this September. Thankfully, he is a far better man than I, and will by the grace of God be a better priest. Please God, the stain of my reputation will not cause him too much hardship.
God has also blessed many other initiatives richly. The power of prayer and personal penance, however slight I can offer, must be remembered by priests. I can see the results, and thank God His mercies.
Natural attrition seems to be necessitating me becoming a pastor of a parish soon. I am a very flawed man, but want to be a good priest of Jesus Christ and His Holy Church. This parish, of a geographical size comparable to a medieval Irish kingdom, needs a great deal of love and God’s grace. I am deeply afraid, and yet filled with the hope that comes from trusting in the Lord.
This is very embarrassing – but St. Paul tells us to be fools for Christ’s sake. I am begging, as all of us are beggars before God, for you to solicit prayers for my future parish. After 50 years and more of abuse of all kinds, they are in nearly unimaginable need. I am not the man for the job, but I am the only man to do the work. Please pray for this enormous but unremembered parish.
Be assured of my thanks, my prayers, my penance, and a Mass for your intentions. Never hesitate to ask for my aid.
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May Our Lord bless this priest and all priests. We, the faithful are in such desperate need of good men to heed the Lord’s Call to His Priesthood. I can only imagine how satan hates priests. Therefore, may Heaven come to their aid with the prayers of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, St. Michael the Archangel and St. John Vianney and all the Saints in Heaven. God bless you Fr. and all of your brother priests. May He give them strength and courage and wisdom to do what He has called them to do. +JMJ+
This petition will be in my rosary tonight
Would you be able to set up a way to deliver a Spiritual Bouquet to this priest in need?
[It seems to me this combox can function for that.]
Gabe will be with him…he’s a jokster and is an amazing administrator.
On it!
I shall fervently pray for this priest, and all good and holy priests, and those that aren’t so good and holy so that they become so. A good priest is a wonderful gift to any parish and I pray that your correspondent’s new posting be fruitful and rewarding for both him and the parish.
May Father remain as a humble open vessel to be used by God in His Holy Will.
May Father step aside with his plans to allow God’s graces to flow through him.
May Father remain uniquely aware of God’s total Presence within him.
Even in “failure”, it is all a gift in God’s eyes.
As Clinton R. says above, may God give you strength and courage and wisdom to do what God has called you to do.
May the angels precede your every step.
And quoting Pope Benedict:
…”In fact, Mary loves them (priests) with predilection for two reasons: because they are more like Jesus, the supreme love of her heart, and because, like her, they are committed to the mission of proclaiming, bearing witness to and giving Christ to the world.”…
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/mary-as-the-mother-of-priests-6760
“Chris Garton-Zavesky says:
27 July 2020 at 8:53 PM
Would you be able to set up a way to deliver a Spiritual Bouquet to this priest in need?”
Absolutely great idea! Count me in.
In the meantime, daily prayers are being offered for this Priest.
Prayers on the way.
On it
Grateful for all of you good, holy, suffering priests. PRAYING!!!
I will be praying
Father appears to be the very man for the job. Praised be Jesus Christ!
This priest was put through an obstacle course of abuse just in order to attain his legitimate, praiseworthy goal of fulfilling his vocation. Now we ordinary folk are being put through an obstacle course of fear tactics and stupid regulations and hoops to jump through just in order to be able to go about our legitimate daily business. Maybe we can offer this up for the conversion of bad priests and bishops, and the uplifting of good ones.
He sounds just the man for the job to me, from his own words. St John Vianney started very similarly, and the graces poured in, for him and his people.
He has our prayers, and we ask for his in return.
Dear Lord you alone know the trials, tribulations, pain and suffering of this Priest. He humbled himself enough to ask for prayers. Please Lord bless him with every grace possible that he needs to do Your will and to bring as many souls to heaven as possible. Give him wisdom, clarity and guidance Holy Spirit and inflame his Faith to be able to serve others and to bring You Lord to as many people as possible. Amen.
Prayers said.
Praying. Our Precious Mother, mother of all priests, will surely help.
Dear Father,
You are certainly in my prayers. Your journey sounds like it was not unlike my own. It took me nearly 20 years to become ordained a priest and I suffered a great deal on account of those charged with my formation. The emotional and psychological toll it has taken has been immense, but the grace of being able to celebrate Mass and to bring the sacraments to others has been great.
Earlier this year, due to an emergency situation, I was made administrator of two parishes right before the coronavirus hit and I was forced to close down both parishes. It has been a wild ride to be sure, but there have been a lot of graces which have come with it as well.
Please know that you are in my prayers.
Any sincere priest, like this one, is a joy to read about. A real plus for him, and all of us, is that he reads Father Z, and adheres to his well thought out advice. This Sunday at our TLM I will light a candle, and mention him in my prayers.
How about getting him a Seven Sisters group to pray a Holy Hour for him each day?
Will commit to a Memorare each day.
[Outstanding suggestion!!]
I shall offer Vespers for 3 days for his intention: today, tomorrow and Thursday.
Brother, you are in my prayers.
All of us priests need to be united in prayer as we are at the altar.
GBY
Father, your humility is the beauty of your soul. Do not despair in your weakness, be boldly confident in our Father’s goodness. You and your parish are in my prayers. May God pour out his blessings abundantly upon you all of your days.
Send forth, O Lord, laborers into Thy harvest.
Fr I will pray for you, and that we be blessed with 100″s more like you. Your humility is a blessing to us all, all success in all of your endeavors and don’t let the shrews get you down
Father knows his weakness and his faults, and relying on Jesus for their remedy, he has found his strength. Sounds like he is offering his own penance for his parishioners to which I will add my own.
His story reminds me of how so many people have become cozy with their demons and begin to shriek when asked to become uncomfortable. Never back down they moan about your effective Traditional methods. We must die on a bed of sharp stones rather than become complacent in our sins!
Prayers for this priest and his parish. May Our Lord Jesus Christ, Mary Mother of Priests and St. Joseph Terror of Demons strengthen the faithful.
I am adding Father to my Rosary intentions from now on. He sounds like a humble and holy man.
May God bless and strengthen this priest! We need more like him.
There is a lovely prayer that I found many years ago to say at the priest’s Communion. I can’t remember where I found it, but I pray it at every Mass::
O Lord, may thy find shelter and rest gently within the heart of Thy priest…
Make him, O Lord, a priest according to Thy heart: meek, humble, zealous, so that all he does will be for Thine honor and glory. Mold him into a man of prayer and labor, insensible to earthly things, and sensible only to Thy love and to the graces of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
There is also St. Faustina’s prayer for Priests:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjJkouwjfvqAhXQWhUIHbyjBj0QFjANegQIBhAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fusccb.org%2Fbeliefs-and-teachings%2Fvocations%2Fpriesthood%2Fpriestly-life-and-ministry%2Fupload%2FPrayer-for-the-Holy-Church-and-for-Priests-WDPSP.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2ae5T-TGfq9oEywUDgwwBU