Prayer of Intercession for the Church, within the Heart of Jesus
Lord Jesus, in this month of June, the month in which your Sacred Heart shines most brightly for humanity, we unite as a community of women in prayer at the foot of your altar. We come with souls ablaze, but also with hearts pierced by concern and zeal for your Church.
We gaze upon your Cross, beloved Jesus, and pause before the blessed wound the Roman soldier opened in your side. We see it not merely as a mark of pain, but as the mystical door you left open forever. Today, with humility and boldness, we wish to enter through that wound.
We long to hide in the depths of your Heart. Within that wound of love, where the secrets of your mercy are kept, we wish to weep with you. We let our tears fall into your Heart, seeking to soften it with the trusting supplication of mothers and of spiritual mothers as well, who suffer for your anointed ones.
We pray to you, Lord, for all priests and religious. You know the weight of their ministry and the ferocity of the temptations that beset them today. Our hearts ache to see pastors falter and abandon their ministry, and consecrated women relinquish their post, leaving so many souls orphaned—souls entrusted to them to be guided to Heaven.
Lord, sustain your priests. When discouragement or temptation blinds them, help them remember the day of their ordination. Be their refuge, so that they do not abandon the souls entrusted to them.
Strengthen your nuns. Restore to them the freshness of first love, so that they may continue to be beacons of light and spiritual mothers in a dark world.
We also pray for the young people who feel your call to consecrated and priestly life. The world places walls, doubts, temptations, and obstacles before them that seem insurmountable.
Tear down those walls, Lord!
Give them the courage to cross the threshold of fear, overcome the traps of the enemy, and embrace the religious life.
May new “Alter Christus” arise on earth, and holy women who are mothers to countless souls through their self-giving.
Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, may these 40 Hours of Prayer that we offer you not be a fleeting moment. Multiply the number of women who join in this plea. May each hour of vigil before the Blessed Sacrament be a blow of grace that shakes the world.
We are certain that the prayer of a woman who loves and makes amends can change the course of history. Therefore, we ask you for a new, profound, and fruitful renewal of the evangelization of the world through the holiness of your religious.
Fill us with your love. Hide us in your wound, and do not allow us to leave your Heart without the victory of grace for our beloved Church.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in You.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us and for our priests. Amen.