Prayer to the Virgin Mary for Pastors

O Mary,
Mother of Jesus Christ and Mother of priests:
accept this title with which we honor you today
to exalt your motherhood
and to contemplate with you
the Priesthood of your only-begotten Son and of your children,
O Holy Mother of God.

Mother of Christ,
who to the Messiah Priest gave a body of flesh
by the anointing of the Holy Spirit
to save the poor and contrite of heart:
guard in your womb and in the Church every priest,
O Mother of the Savior.

Mother of faith,
who accompanied the Son of Man to the temple,
in fulfillment of the promises
made to our Fathers:
present to God the Father, for his glory,
the priests of your Son,
O Ark of the Covenant.

Mother of the Church,
who with the disciples in the Cenacle
implored the Spirit
for the new People and their Shepherds:
attain for the order of priests
the fullness of His gifts,
O Queen of Apostles.

Mother of Jesus Christ,
you were with Him at the beginning of His life
and mission,
you sought Him as Master among the crowd,
you accompanied Him on the cross,
exhausted by the unique and eternal sacrifice,
and you had John at your side, as your son:
welcome from the beginning
those called to the priesthood,
protect them in their formation
and accompany your sons
in their life and ministry,
oh Mother of priests. Amen.

Saint John Paul II

Work of Love through the priests

Venerable Mother Louise Margaret Claret de la Touche - (1868 -1915),

a religious of the Visitation Order

Yesterday I was before the Blessed Sacrament, I was suffering and in that state of tired and painful spirit in which I had been for some weeks, when Jesus made Himself felt in my soul.                                                        

I was adoring Him, sweetly consoled by His presence, and praying to Him for our little novitiate, I asked Him to give me some souls to form for Him. Then He answered me: “I will give you souls of men”. Deeply surprised by these words, the meaning of which I did not understand, I remained silent, trying to explain them to myself. And Jesus continued: “I will give you souls of priests”.  Even more surprised I asked Him, “My Jesus, how will you do it?” - “You will immolate yourself for my clergy,” He told me. “I want to instruct you during this octave; write whatever I tell you.”

I did not want to write any more, but I will obey Jesus.                                                               

Yesterday evening He said, "My priest is another Me; I love him, but he must be holy. Nineteen centuries ago, twelve men changed the world; they were not only men, they were priests; also now twelve priests could change the world".                                                                 

And this morning: "The priest is a being so vested in Christ that he becomes almost a God, but he is also a man, and he must be a man. He must feel the weaknesses, the struggles, the pains, the temptations, the fears and the rebellions of man; he must be miserable in order to be merciful, and he must also be strong, pure, holy in order to be a sanctifier.                 

"It is necessary for my priest to have a heart that is broad, tender, ardent, powerful to love.

"The priest must love so much! He must love Me, his Lord, his brother, his friend, his consoler, as I have loved him, and I have loved him to the point of confusing my life with his, to the point of making me obedient to his word. He must also love my Bride, his own, the Holy Church, and with what love! With an intense and zealous love, zealous for her glory, her purity, her unity and her fruitfulness.                       

“Finally, he must love souls as his own children. What father has so many children to love as the priest?”

"The heart of my priest must be a burning flame that burns and purifies. If my priest only knew the treasures of love that my Heart contains for him! Let him come to my Heart, let him take from it, let him be filled with love until it overflows from it and spills it over the world!

“Margaret Mary has shown my Heart to the world, show it to my priests, draw them all to my Heart”.

From the book: The Love and Service of God

We have been praying the 40 hours for a long time now, and this thought always comes to my mind that can help us in those moments when we are praying and Jesus is waiting to give us so much.

The Lord wants to hear our prayers and then give us so much more than we expect.

And this thought is from the words of Jesus to St. Faustina when he tells her: Take care of my “precious pearls”, which are the souls of the priests and the souls of the religious.

 And as the “precious pearls” of Jesus, whom he loves so much, today they are so persecuted, so attacked, so confused, with so many crises, so many priests who leave their priesthood, so many religious who, being Spouses of Christ, follow the fashions of the world.

I wonder how the Heart of Jesus, with what tears he says the same thing to us, the women of the 40 hours?  The Lord tells us every month: look at my “precious pearls” which are the priests and the religious, how they are lost!

Then, together with this other thought, that also, the Heart of Jesus in a pact that He made with St. Margaret says to her: Take care of my things (and it reminds me of: take care of my “precious pearls” that He says to St. Faustina) and then He adds: I will take care of yours, I see so clearly that the more we implore for the “precious pearls”, the more we take care of His things, the more blessings we will attract to our things, the more special graces our own will have.

Our 40-hour prayers will be a constant raising of prayers of intercession for priests and nuns and a descent of blessings for them and also for ours. This widens our hearts, makes our prayer more fervent, because at the same time that we console Jesus, at the same time that we intercede for His “precious pearls”, He consoles us by taking care of ours.

May this thought, of this month of August, be for all the women of the 40 hours of so much joy!