For when you see the Lord sacrificed, and laid upon the altar, and the priest standing and praying over the victim, and all the worshippers empurpled with that precious blood, can you then think that you are still amongst men, and standing upon the earth? Are you not, on the contrary, straightway translated to Heaven, and casting out every carnal thought from the soul, do you not with disembodied spirit and pure reason contemplate the things which are in Heaven? Oh! what a marvel! what love of God to man! He who sits on high with the Father is at that hour held in the hands of all, and gives Himself to those who are willing to embrace and grasp Him. And this all do through the eyes of Faith! (St. John Chrysoston, On the Priesthood Book III)
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 priest 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 (especially …).
O Jesus, keep them all close to your heart,
And bless them abundantly in time and Eternity. Amen.
-St. Thérèse de Lisieux
