Category Archives: Holy Priesthood

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.  ðŸ™‚
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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Holy Priesthood, Novenas, Our Lady Undoer of Knots, Prayer for Priests

Novena to Our Lady Undoer of Knots – Day 1 – For the Priesthood

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Our original post regarding this is found here on January 1st Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.

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 1

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:
“Dearest Holy Mother, Most Holy Mary, you undo the knots that suffocate your children, extend your merciful hands to our Holy Priesthood. We entrust to You today this knot….and all the negative consequences that it provokes in their lives. We give you this knot that torments them and makes them unhappy and so impedes them from uniting themselves to You and Your Son Jesus, our Savior. 


We run to You, Mary, Undoer of Knots because we trust you and we know that you never despise a sinning child who comes to ask you for help. We believe that you can undo this knot because Jesus grants you everything. We believe that you want to undo this knot because you are our Mother. We believe that You will do this because you love your holy priests with eternal love.

Thank you, Dear Mother.  Mary, Undoer of Knots, pray for our holy priests.  The one who seeks grace, finds it in Mary’s hands.“


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

Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9

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