Offer up a prayer for priests every day in union with Christ. Our ordained priests, as ordained ministers, act in persona Christi, when they minister the sacraments to the faithful.
This means “it is Christ himself who is present to his Church as Head of his Body, Shepherd of his flock, high priest of the redemptive sacrifice, Teacher of Truth. This is what the Church means by saying that the priest, by virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders, acts in persona Christi Capitis” CCC 1548.
Our prayers can help strengthen priests who are called to live lives of holiness and service to the Church.
I loved in the face of hatred. I loved in the face of death. I loved even in the netherworld, where the just of the ages awaited My coming among them. It is by love that I vanquished hell, by love that I triumphed over death, by love that I undid what Satan, in his envy, had plotted against the creatures whom I so love and whom My Father destined for the praise of His glory. Love is not a feeling; it is an act of the will, a movement of the heart, a glance of hope directed to My Father - for where there is love, there is confidence, and where there is confidence, the victory of love is assured.
Let us pray for our priests with love and in union with Christ so that they may be blessed and grow in sanctity.
A Prayer for Priests to Be Recited by the Laity
by Cardinal Richard Cushing
O Almighty, Eternal God,
Look upon the face of Your Son and for love of Him,
who is the Eternal High Priest, have pity on Your priests.
Remember, O most compassionate God,
that they are but weak and frail human beings.
Stir up in them the grace of their vocation
which is in them by the imposition of the bishop’s hands.
Keep them close to You, lest the enemy prevail against them,
so that they may never do anything in the slightest degree
unworthy of their sublime vocation.
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 the lonely and desolate priests;
for Your young priests; for Your dying priests;
for the souls of Your priests in purgatory.
But above all, I commend to You the priests dearest to me,
the priest who baptized me,
the priests who have absolved me from sins,
the priests at whose Masses I have assisted
and who have offered me Your Body and Blood in Holy Communion,
the priests who have taught and instructed me
or helped and encouraged me,
and the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way.
O Jesus, keep them all close to Your heart,
and bless them abundantly in time and eternity.
AMEN.
If you liked this prayer, you may want to pray the Litany of Jesus Christ, Priest and Victim.
Download 4x6 inch Pray for Priests Prayer Card
Download this PDF file of Cardinal Cushing’s Prayer for Priests 4×6 inch prayer card and send it to your local printer for production.
If you liked this prayer, you may want to see our page: Pray for vocations to the priesthood.
Saints on why we Pray for priests
“When people want to destroy religion they begin by attacking the priest; for when there is no priest, there is no sacrifice: and when there is no sacrifice, there is no religion.” – St. John Vianney
As the shepherd, so the sheep; as the priest, so the people. Priest-victim leadership begets a holy Church. Every worldly priest hinders the growth of the Church; every saintly priest promotes it. If only all priests realized how their holiness makes the Church holy and how the Church begins to decline when the level of holiness among priests falls below that of the people! – Ven. Bishop Fulton Sheen
It is easier for the earth to exist without the sun than without the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. – St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina
3 Responses
Thank you for these prayers for our beloved priests.
Is Cardinal Cushing’s prayer for Priests available in holy card format?
Thank you
Hi Paula, Yes, you can download and take the prayer card here to your local printer. It has crop and bleed marks and they can make several you can then use to distribute after Mass. God bless you!