CLOSING MESSAGE - LAY FAST FOR PRIESTS 2024

 

"LET US SAVE, ABOVE ALL, THE SOULS OF PRIESTS.

WE PRAY , WE SUFFER FOR THEM.

AND ON THE LAST DAY, JESUS WILL BE GRATEFUL."

        (Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Patroness of the Lay Fast For Priests)                

Under that direction of our Saint Therese, we further learn from another greatly loved Saint, John Paul II:

                                  How can we "pray and suffer" for other?

                                                    He guides us....

                                    "PRAYER UNITED WITH SACRIFICE
                    IS THE MOST POWERFUL FORCE IN HUMAN HISTORY."

Our "prayer" and our "suffering" have met today in our nineteenth Lay Fast for Priests and our Global Sacrifice has been a "most powerful force,"  raised by millions all across the world for God's Ipse Christus. 

Today, the Spirit of God, "hovering" (Gen. 1) over the face of the earth has breathed His Love into souls from across the Globe. People from 186 countries have in turn breathed His love out into a prayer for all priests, all who were, who are and who are yet to be ordained.

In every one of these countries, 93% of the entire world,  millions of souls have raised sacrificial 

prayer to God for priests who forgive us in Jesus' Name; who consecrate the Bread and Wine and give us Christ Himself in the Most Holy Eucharist; priests whose hands anoint us when we are at last called Home and whose voice will walk us into Eternity.

In one of the poorest countries in Africa, an entire village fasted from food and water today for all priests. 

We join those beloved children of God in the prayer of St Therese :

"O Jesus, for the priest who baptised me;

the priests who have absolved me from my sins;

the priests at whose Masses I have assisted and

who have given me Your Body and Blood in Holy Communion".

This day, a grandmother, her daughter and son-in-law , four sons and grandsons fasted in their country where, yesterday, priests were dragged from Altars and those who were attending Mass were made to leave the Churches at gunpoint. 

We pray with St Therese :

"O Jesus, for your priests labouring at home or abroad in distant mission fields;

for your tempted priests; for your lonely and desolate priests..."

With that grandmother, all of us prayed and suffered for those priests this day.

The Bishop who invited his entire Diocese to fast with us today...

"O Jesus, I pray for your faithful and fervent priests...

keep them all close to your heart and bless them abundantly

in time and in eternity." (St Therese)

We fasted for all of them this day. 

Therese teaches us that "Love, because it is Eternal, embraces every time and space."

We can therefore raise our prayer and sacrifice for all priests, those who live today, those who were, those who are yet to be.

In a country where poverty and corruption are life-threatening, a mother joined the Fast but she alone in the family could fast for priests "because the children need the food". This is a country where two priests were murdered yesterday.

"O Jesus, for your young priests; for your dying priests;

for the souls of your priests in Purgatory."

 We suffered in our Fast for all of them this day.

For the quiet priests who live and give and are faith-filled and suffer and pray and are obedient and offer sacrifice in an anonymity that resembles the mysticism  of the ordinariness of the 30 years of their High Priest in Nazareth. 

THE WORLD OF FAST-ERS PRAYED AND SUFFERED FOR YOU THIS DAY. 

We conclude our prayer and suffering for all priests in union with St Therese as she prays: :

“O Almighty Eternal God, Look upon the Face of Thy Christ, and for the love of Him,

Who is the Eternal High Priest, have pity on Thy 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 Thee, lest the enemy prevail against them,

so that they may never do anything in the slightest degree

unworthy of their sublime vocation..."

WILL YOU PRAY FOR GOD'S IPSE CHRISTUS AGAIN AS ONE BODY IN HIM FOR THE 20TH GLOBAL LAY FAST FOR PRIESTS ON THE 25th OF OCTOBER, 2025?

May it please our loving God that we will all unite again to pray and suffer together for all priests, for their protection, their faith, their hope, and above all, for their love. 

"THE PRIESTHOOD IS THE LOVE OF THE HEART OF JESUS.

WHEN YOU SEE A PRIEST, THINK OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST."

(St John Vianney, patron Saint of Priests)

 IN CHRIST'S LOVING HEART,

Anna Rae-Kelly OCDS

WHY WE PRAY AND FAST FOR PRIESTS

  “O Jesus, eternal Priest,
keep your priests within the shelter of Your Sacred Heart,
where none may touch them.
Keep unstained their anointed hands,
which daily touch Your Sacred Body.
Keep unsullied their lips,
daily purpled with your Precious Blood.
Keep pure and unearthly their hearts,
sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood.
Let Your holy love surround them and
shield them from the world’s contagion.
Bless their labors with abundant fruit and
may the souls to whom they minister be their joy and consolation here
and in heaven their beautiful and
everlasting crown.”

 (St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face)

 

TO FAST AND PRAY FOR PRIESTS.

We pray and fast for the priest who baptizes our soul.

Hidden in our priest is the Holy One Who waits and yearns to be revealed in the humility and innocence of a child. The powerlessness of this little child is absolute when they are lowered into the Baptismal Font.

And Spirit Lord, unseen, unheard, obeys the voice of our priest and rushes into the soul of that little one. In the Name of Father, Son and Spirit, justifying and sanctifying grace floods that soul and their life in the Spirit of God has begun, sealed with the mark of Christ.

We pray with St Therese ...

"Keep pure and unearthly the heart (... of a loving, humble priest),

sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood."

We wait in line to be forgiven in the Sacrament of Confession / Reconciliation.

Sitting beside us, we see our Savior, waiting with us.

In His Image, our priest sits, kneels beside us, weeps with us in deep compassion 

in this Sacrament of spiritual healing and graces to defeat our sins.

As the embodiment of the One Whose Name is Humility,

our priest's demeanor, tone, gentleness,compassion speak to us.

Through holy listening, Spirit Lord empowers us 

to hear our priest tell our wounded soul that 

the Confessional is a Sacred Space where our soul is safe ...

and in His Name, our priest absolves us from our sins.

"Go! I forgive you. Borrow My strength. Sin no more."

And with St Therese, we pray for our priest....

"Bless their labors with abundant fruit and may the souls to whom they minister be their joy and consolation here, and in heaven, their beautiful and everlasting crown."

 We fast and pray for the priest whose voice God obeys at the Consecration of the Mass.

"THIS IS MY BODY. THIS IS MY BLOOD."

PRIEST. IPSE CHRISTUS.

At the command of the priest,

the bread and wine are transubstantiated

into the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Savior.

Our Savior, in His Divine Silence, in His Glory, in His Strength,

before Whom angels are prostrating themselves,

is placed on our tongues, our outstretched hands.

His powerlessness is total again. As it was on the Cross.

He enslaves Himself again to our love,

whether our love for Him is little or much.

And He gives us His Father, His Spirit, His Mother, His All.

THROUGH HIS PRIEST.

"Keep unstained their anointed hands,

which daily touch Your Sacred Body.

Keep unsullied their lips,

daily purpled with your Precious Blood.

Keep pure and unearthly their hearts,

sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood.

Let Your holy love surround them and

shield them from the world’s contagion."

Jesus, High Eternal Priest, shares His earthly life with our priest

who is ordained

to be in His likeness.

His priests, His "other selves", will live and die like Him, for us.

 Our priest will be tempted (Matthew 4:1-11); 

he will be vulnerable (John 13:1-17);

he will be filled with anguish (Matthew 26:36-46);

his parishioners will desert him (John 6: 53-66);

his friends will reject him (Luke 22:57);

he will endure embarrassment and humiliations and suffering of soul and body

(Matthew 26 -27, Mark 14-15, Luke 22-23, John 12-19).

 This is why we pray and fast for our priests.

"O Jesus, High Eternal Priest,

keep your priests within the shelter of Your Sacred Heart,

where none may touch them ... let your holy love surround them."

(St Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face,

Patroness of the annual Lay Fast for Priests)

The 19th, annual LAY FAST FOR PRIESTS will take place on

Saturday, 19 October 2024

from Dawn until 3 PM.

To join the global army of fasters, please sign up at:

http://www.annaprae.com/lay-fast-for-priests-2024.html