Category Archives: 40 Days for Priests

40 Days for Priests, Catholic Priest, catholicism, Fraternity of Saint Peter, FSSP, Holy Priesthood, Prayer for Priests, vocations

Adopt-a-Seminarian: A Bitter Sweet Story

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Before our move two months ago, I prayed that we could live near our parish so that we could have our Pastor or priests interact with our family and basically be like family.  Todd and I have a strong devotion to pray for the priesthood, after all we created 40 Days for Priests, and pray that we are blessed with at least one if not many vocations!  When I grow up, I want to be like this mom who had ten children and they all became a priest or a nun and one even a Bishop!  Can you imagine that?  We pray this prayer for the vocation of my children all of the time.

Here they are with Pope John XXIII:

Ask and you shall receive:

We have had the wonderful opportunity to help a Seminarian friend of ours names Allan learn English.  He is from Brazil and needs to learn the language to be able to attend Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary this Fall.  We have been working with him for almost four weeks now.  Every weekend, Todd picks him up on Saturday mornings and Allan stays at our home all day, eats lunch and dinner with us and then he goes back to the Rectory.  Same thing happens on Sundays and on a couple occasions, we got him to come over during the week.  It has been a total honor and privilege to help this holy young man learn English and for such an amazing cause!  {By the way he blogs over at Vida Sacerdotal if you want to pay him a visit, it is in Portuguese though}
Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary
BUT he is such a handful!  He’s funny, knowledgeable in the Faith, and he loves children…to us he is like having a living saint at our home.  My children simply adore him!  I think God works in mysterious ways…and His plans are so perfect.  Allan’s presence in our home has been a total blessing.  I think we have been the ones to thank him for the opportunity to help him learn English and for teaching us so much more!

This week Allan leaves to Nebraska and we aren’t sure when it will be the next time we get to see him.  I *know* we are all going to cry (bitter sweet tears) when we last see him this coming Thursday morning after Ascension Thursday Mass.  You see Allan has become part of our family. 

I’d like so share some pictures of our time together with him:
my kids adore him!

this was Allan’s idea…just so you can get a gist of his personality :p

he really enjoyed our walk in the park/woods

St. Francis look alike :p

yes that is a seminarian in a cassock riding a skateboard down my street!

Allan sitting on our front porch
What do you think?  Can we find a better way to foster vocations with our children?  I don’t think so I like this new “program” of temporarily adopting a seminarian.  🙂
Allan, you will be in our prayers and missed dearly but know that you have five littles ones praying for you constantly!  We love you!

Friends, can I beg you for prayers for Allan?  Thank you!

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40 Days for Priests, Novenas, Our Lady Undoer of Knots, Prayer for Priests

Novena to Our Lady Undoer of Knots – Day 2 – For the Priesthood

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The petition:  For the protection of the Holy Priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church and especially all falsely accused priests. Will you join us? {Leave us a comment so we know who is joining us 🙂 }

Novena to Our Lady Undoer of Knots – Day 2

1. Make the sign of the cross.

2. Say the Act of Contrition. Ask pardon for your sins and make a firm promise not to commit them again.

“Oh my God I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee. I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell. But most of all, because I offended Thee, oh my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen”

3. Say the first 3 decades of the Rosary.

4. Make the meditation of the day:
“Mary, Beloved Mother, channel of all grace, we return to You today their hearts, recognizing that they are sinners in need of your help. Many times they lose the graces you grant them because of their sins of egoism, pride, rancor and lack of generosity and humility. We turn to You today, Mary, Undoer of knots, for You to ask your Son Jesus to grant our Holy Priests a pure, divested, humble and trusting heart. We will live today practicing these virtues and offering you this as a sign of our love for You. We entrust into Your hands this knot (…describe) which keeps them from reflecting the glory of God.

Mary, Undoer of Knots, pray for them.  Mary offered all the moments of her day to God.”

5. Say the last 2 decades of the rosary

6. Finish with the Prayer to Our Lady the Undoer of Knots:“Virgin Mary, Mother of fair love, Mother who never refuses to come to the aid of a child in need, Mother whose hands never cease to serve your beloved children because they are moved by the divine love and immense mercy that exists in your heart, cast your compassionate eyes upon your holy priests and see the snarl of knots that exist in their lives. You know very well how desperate they are, their pain and how they are bound by these knots. 


Mary, Mother to whom God entrusted the undoing of the knots in the lives of his children, we entrust into your hands the ribbon of their lives. No one, not even the Evil One himself, can take it away from your precious care. In your hands there is no knot that cannot be undone. 

Powerful Mother, by your grace and intercessory power with Your Son and Our Liberator, Jesus, take into your hands today this knot…we beg you to undo it for the glory of God, once for all, You are their hope. 

O my Lady, you are the only consolation God gives them, the fortification of their feeble strength, the enrichment of their destitution and with Christ the freedom from their chains. 

Hear our plea for our Holy Priests whom we love so much because they are Christ on earth. Keep them, guide them, protect them, o safe refuge!

Mary, Undoer of Knots, pray for them!

+JMJ+


The Novena has the Cardinal ecclesiastical approval, receiving the “NIHIL OBSTAT and IMPRIMATUR
Imprimatur Paris Archdiocese
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40 Days for Priests, Novenas, Our Lady Undoer of Knots

Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

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Today is the Feast of Mary, the Mother of God (a Holy Day of Obligation). Last night in adoration, Father said to us that we, because of the fall of Adam and Eve, have a fractured relationship with God.  But if we turn to Mary and imitate her, we learn the real way we should be loving, trusting, and adoring God, in a perfect way.  Our New Year resolution is to do just that!  To turn to Mary with all our needs and to watch her more closely as our guide through this journey to Heaven.  She is the perfect example for us so we turn to her in Novenas and prayer devotions.

We just came across this lovely website with a Novena to Mary, Undoer of Knots. Who would like to join us in this Novena?  The petition? For the protections of the Holy Priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church and especially all falsely accused priests. Mary has a very strong love for the priesthood, so in her honor on her Feast day, we begin in prayer for one of her favorite group of people.  Will you join us?  {Leave us a comment so we know who is joining us 🙂 }

This is a joint effort, we will be posting the daily Novena to remind you to pray with us for the Holy Priesthood here on Raising Little Saints and on our other blog:  40 Days for Priests.  We will post them at Midnight so that you have it in your “hands” for the entire day and can pray when you normally would.  Make sure you have signed up to receive posts via e-mail, your reader of choice (see the right column), by Twitter (@40Days4Priests) or Facebook.  Also Raising Saints has several ways to keep you posted on things like these.

Thank you for your prayers for the Holy Priesthood!
Blessings to you and your family in 2012!

+JMJ+

The Novena:



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40 Days for Priests, priesthood

Have You Prayed for Our Priests Today?

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‎
“Having taught priests, lived with priests, laboured for them, loved them, and suffered with them for over 30 years, there are no words that I can use that would be strong enough to state that the Catholic priesthood needs prayer and sacrifice more now since the time when Our Lord died on the Cross at Calvary.

Why do priests need special graces from God? It is because they have extraordinary responsibilities before God. They are to be more than ordinarily holy, more generous, more zealous, and more patient. In a word, those who are responsible for Christ’s presence on earth are to be, of all people, the most Christ-like. They are to be examples of what Christ wants us to be. Look back on all of the grave crises in the Church over the centuries. Every single one of them was due to the fact that priests had failed the people of God.

Why do we need to pray for priests? It is because, through prayer, we gain graces for them which otherwise they would not obtain. If we all need the help of each other and we receive the graces we need, how much more should we pray for priests from whom we have received Jesus Christ in the Eucharist – and by whom we have been so often absolved from our sins. I don’t want to even think of the state of my soul if I had not had the absolution that over the years I have received from priests. As fellow members of the Mystical Body, priests desperately need our help.

I would recommend that all the faithful offer daily at least one prayer for all the priests in the Church and especially for those who have done most for them in their lives. I try to remember every day at Mass the priest who baptized me, the priest who heard my First Confession, who gave me my First Holy Communion, the bishop who ordained me, and the bishop who confirmed me. I recommend, therefore, that all the faithful, in a special way, pray for priests every day. Also, I advise the faithful to offer up some sacrifice for priests each day. I am tempted to say some little sacrifice. NO! I suggest it be the most difficult sacrifice of the day for priests.



I further recommend that when we hear about a priest who has been unfaithful to his high calling, that our first and immediate reaction should be to pray for him. I believe that we should do everything in our power to extend and propagate the apostolate of prayer and sacrifice for priests.

The Church of the future will not only survive, but thrive. However, that will occur only where and insofar as the priests have not only been faithful to their vocation, but have lived their priesthood in a living martyrdom in union with the first martyr, Jesus Christ. It is, therefore, no mere recommendation or exhortation that I make, but an imperative to pray and sacrifice for priests.

Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, you ordained the Apostles priests at the Last Supper to continue your mission of mercy to the end of time. We believe that every Catholic priest traces his ordination to that first ordination on Holy Thursday night. We know how much you expect of your priests and we also know how weak and human they are. Inspire us, dear Jesus, to pray and sacrifice for your priests, who are also ours, that by their faithfulness to you in this life they may bring countless souls to you in the life to come. Mary, Mother of priests, pray for priests that they may love your Divine Son unreservedly as you did, all the days of their lives. Amen.”

– Fr. John Hardon

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40 Days for Priests

40 Days for Priests First Campaign – Join us!

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Heard of 40 days for Life?  Here is another wonderful campaign, with a twist:  We introduce you 40 Days for Priests!  Join us as we participate in this campaign to pray for our priests!

Make sure you spread the word and share this!  Thank you!  🙂


WHY 40 DAYS? WHY SUPPORT THE PRIESTHOOD?

Who is the salvation of humanity? Jesus Christ. How did He create the means to achieve salvation? The Sacraments of His Church. Who offers us the means of these Sacraments? His priests!
Everyone has seen in their lives, and parishes, and in their families, the increase in the stress on Catholic priests, and the simultaneous attack on the priesthood in general.
The Priesthood is at the core of our Faith. Our priests sanctify, preach, and lead in their threefold office of Priest, Prophet and King.  Jesus uses them to forgive our sins through the power of Confession. They give us the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. They Baptize us, and our children. They often Confirm us in the Faith, and they are there for us in our last moments, with Extreme Unction aka Anointing of the Sick. Lastly, they make new priests by Ordination, by the hands of the Apostles, our bishops, the fullness of Priesthood.
The Priesthood gives to us all the means of our santification, and it is often a thankless job, or stressful job even when thankful. Let us list some of the ways priests suffer now:
  • Being overworked, spread too thin, or stressed from the demands.
  • False allegations.
  • Weakness in true allegations.
  • Lack of support from parishioners or even fellow priests.
  • Firm faith and preaching causes isolation.
  • Empathy for disenfranchised groups causes isolation.
  • Depression and loneliness.
  • Temptations of the world around them.
  • Alcoholism or drug dependency.
  • Derision from non-Catholics.
  • Derision from Catholics.
  • Lack of trust on the part of laity or the public because of scandals.
  • Normal human temptations.
  • Fear of persecution for speaking up on cultural issues.
  • Poor formation or lack of continuing formation.
  • … and the list goes on and on.
Compelled by a desire to doing something more productive than spend time on Facebook, we envisioned and put into place in three short days the 40 Days for Priests. There is no set time for this devotion. There are no set prayers for this devotion, though we offer have, and are adding, a wide variety of prayers for priests. See the labels section for kinds of prayers in the right hand column on the blog.
So please, choose a devotion, and begin 40 days of prayer for the priests that YOU know, and for all priests, bishops, deacons and seminarians. We have priests ask us to pray for them all the time. Respond to the call by forsaking time spent on Facebook or other things, and make a 40 day devotion for the sanctification of the clergy. God will reward you in many, MANY ways for your faith in His Church, and His priests!
God bless you, and all you pray for!
“The witness of a priestly life well lived brings nobility to the Church, calls forth admiration among the faithful, and is a source of blessings for the community; it is the best way to promote vocations, the most authentic invitation to other young people to respond positively to the Lord’s call. It is true collaboration in building the Kingdom of God!”
—Pope Benedict XVI, Meeting with clergy and religious in Aparecida, Brazil, May 12, 2007
Please visit our blog for prayers and updates, thank you:  http://40daysforpriests.blogspot.com/
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