2008 World Day of Prayer for Priests
Solemnity of the Sacred Heart
Friday, May 30, 2008, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, will be the Seventh Annual World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests. Pope John Paul II established the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests in 2002 and decreed that it should be observed every year on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart.
Prayer Over Action
According to the Zenit news services, the April 12, 2008 Italian edition of L’Osservatore Romano contained a message to the priests of the world signed by Cardinal Claudio Hummes and Archbishop Mauro Piacenza of the Congregation for the Clergy. The message invites priests to give priority to “prayer over action.” It calls daily celebration of Holy Mass and Eucharistic adoration the very breath and light of priestly life.
Your Response
How will your diocese, your parish, or your community observe the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests? What are you going to do? I invite the readers of Vultus Christi to leave comments sharing their initiatives and plans.
Add a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I will say the Litany of the Sacred Heart for all priests.
Well…I pray for priests all the time (and please pray for me, Father…I’m discerning my Vocation and I think Padre Pio has directed me towards a particular community. But it’s still a big IF. And I really need a spiritual director!)
Anyway, part of my job is Vacation Bible School, and the curriculum we are using is solid..but we’re adding to it. Today we discussed a particular intention; that of praying for priests. Each day of the program has a different virtue or theme: faith, purity, chastity, joy…etc. And so we are going to compose prayers, simple ones, encompassing the themes and focus that theme or virtue on priests.
This won’t happen until June, and we may, as a group decide not to do this, so if that happens, my backup plan is this: VBS is amazing foreign to me, I don’t know what to do, I can’t run it but here I am, in charge of something I can’t even fathom. So I’m offering this suffering on behalf of priests, and entrusting it into the hands of our Blessed Mother and the Saints we’ve chosen and who have chosen us.
Will that help?
Um..I also have two priests I’ve specially adopted.
Our Diocese celebrates the Day of Prayer for Priests in Advent, but on the universal day, I will offer my Mass and Communion, and say the Litany of the Sacred Heart that God might have mercy on the Body of his Son, the Church, for it is sorely wounded by sin and grieved by scandal.
Fasting and Adoration on these special days and each Thursday. Also a daily Chaplet of Divine Mercy for the priest who is in “most need of Thy Divine Mercy”.