Prayer for Priests
Dear Friends in Christ,
There is a program I am drawn to share with you. Something that I have felt burning within me from childhood, that I was not aware there was a name for: Spiritual Motherhood. Simply stated, it is the prayer of consecrated women, both in the convent and in the world, offered for our pope, our priests, to uphold them, and to obtain new religious vocations.
I grew up in the wilderness, and we did not have a priest, but we longed for a holy priest, for the Sacraments he alone could bring, with all of our hearts. We children built chapels in the woods out of drift wood and pine boughs, complete with homely little altars manufactured out of scraps of wood. We painted our own holy pictures and hung them on the walls, and there we prayed for a priest to come to our family someday.
That burning, hungering prayer within never left, and it has tormented me with uncertainty over the years. I wondered if perhaps it was an unanswered religious vocation, and even asked many a perplexed priest if a mother could have two vocations somehow! It was so powerful yet perplexing, I joined a Third Order in an attempt to see if this overwhelming urge was satisfied, and it was somewhat. But still, there was such a strong pull to pray for religious, it seemed a vocation in and of itself!
I beg of you to please read this document. It is rather lengthy, but it is well worth printing out and sharing. Ponder it, act upon it… after reading it, I think you will see how you too are called to put this prayer into action. Within your own life, within your own parish. Our Pope is asking us to help him. Not only mothers, but everyone. If you are reading this, he is asking you. God is asking you. Please go to this
Thank you and God Bless You!
Kathy Holbrook
Owner TradeMark Stationery
The following are a few excerpts from this beautiful and inspiring document:
EUCHARISTIC Adoration for THE SANCTIFICATION
OF priests AND SPIRITUAL MATERNITY
Approximately 120 years ago, Jesus began to reveal his plan for the renewal of the priesthood to consecrated women living in and out of convents. He entrusted this so-called “Priest Work” to spiritual mothers.
Blessed Maria Deluil Martiny is a precursor of this work for priests. Regarding this great intention of her heart, Mother Maria Deluil Martiny said, “To offer yourself for souls is beautiful and great… but to offer yourself for the souls of priests is so beautiful, so great, that you would have to have a thousand lives and offer your heart a thousand times… I would gladly give my life if only Christ could find in priests what he is expecting from them. I would gladly give it even if just one of them could perfectly realize God’s divine plan for him!”
She did, in fact, seal her priestly motherhood with the blood of martyrdom at age 43. Her last words were, “This is for the work, for the Priest Work!”
My Priesthood and a Stranger
William Emmanuel Ketteler (1811-1877)
Each of us owes gratitude for our lives and our vocations to the prayers and sacrifices of others. One of the leading figures of the German episcopacy of the 19th century,
and among the founders of Catholic sociology, Bishop Ketteler owed his gratitude
to a simple nun, the least and poorest lay sister of her convent.
In 1869, a German diocesan bishop was sitting together with his guest, Bishop Ketteler from
He continued, “Originally, I wasn’t planning on becoming a priest. I had already finished my law degree and thought only about finding an important place in the world to begin acquiring honour, prestige and wealth. An extraordinary experience held me back and directed my life down a different path.
“One evening I was alone in my room, considering my future plans of fame and fortune, when something happened which I cannot explain. Was I awake or asleep? Did I really see it or was it just a dream? One thing I do know, it brought about a change in my life. I saw Jesus very clearly and distinctly standing over me in a radiant cloud, showing me his Sacred Heart. A nun was kneeling before him, her hands raised up in prayer. From his mouth, I heard the words, ‘She prays unremittingly for you!’
“I distinctly saw the appearance of the sister, and her traits made such an impression on me that she has remained in my memory to this day. She seemed to be quite an ordinary lay sister. Her clothing was very poor and rough. Her hands were red and calloused from hard work. Whatever it was, a dream or not, it was extraordinary. It shook me to the depths of my being so that from that moment on, I decided to consecrate myself to God in the service of the priesthood.
“I withdrew to a monastery for a retreat, and I talked about everything with my confessor. Then, at the age of 30, I began studying theology. You know the rest of the story. So, if you think that I have done something admirable, now you know who really deserves the credit—a religious sister who prayed for me, maybe without even knowing who I was. I am convinced, I was prayed for and I will continue to be prayed for in secret and that without these prayers, I could never have reached the goal that God has destined for me.”
“Do you have any idea of the whereabouts or the identity of who has prayed for you?” asked the diocesan bishop.
“No, I can only ask God each day that, while she is still on earth, he bless and repay her a thousand-fold for what she has done for me.”
The sister in the barn
The next day, Bishop Ketteler visited a convent of sisters in a nearby city and celebrated Holy Mass in their chapel. He was distributing Holy Communion to the last row of sisters when one of them suddenly caught his eye. His face grew pale, and he stood there, motionless. Finally regaining his composure, he gave Holy Communion to the sister who was kneeling in recollection unaware of his hesitation. He then concluded the liturgy.
The bishop who had invited him the previous day came and joined him at the convent for breakfast. When they had finished, Bishop Ketteler asked the Mother Superior to present to him all the sisters in the house. Before long she had gathered all the sisters together, and both bishops went to meet them. Bishop Ketteler greeted them, but it was apparent that he did not find the one he was looking for.
He quietly asked the Mother Superior, “Are all the sisters really here?”
She looked over the group of sisters and then said, “Your Excellency, I called them all, but, in fact, one of them is not here.”
“Why didn’t she come?”
“She works in the barn,” answered the superior, “and in such a commendable way that, in her enthusiasm, she sometimes forgets other things.”
“I would like to see that sister,” requested the Bishop.
A little while later, the sister who had been summoned stepped into the room. Again Bishop Ketteler turned pale, and after a few words to all the sisters, he asked if he could be alone with the sister who had just come in.
“Do you know me?” he asked her.
“I have never seen Your Excellency before.”
“Have you ever prayed for me or offered up a good deed for me?” he wanted to know.
“I do not recall that I have ever heard of Your Excellency.”
The Bishop was silent for a few moments and then he asked, “Do you have a particular devotion that you like?”
“The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus,” was the response.
“You have, it seems, the most difficult task in the convent,” he continued.
“Oh no, Your Excellency” the sister countered, “but I cannot lie, it is unpleasant for me.”
“And what do you do when you have such temptations against your work?”
“For things that cost me greatly, I grew accustomed to facing them with joy and enthusiasm out of love for God, and then I offer them up for one soul on earth. To whom God chooses to be gracious as a result, I have left completely up to him and I do not want to know. I also offer up my time of Eucharistic adoration every evening from 8 to 9 for this intention.”
“Where did you get the idea to offer up all your merits for someone totally unknown to you?”
“I learned it while I was still out in the world,” she replied. “At school our teacher, the parish priest, taught us how we can pray and offer our merits for our relatives. Besides that, he said that we should pray much for those who are in danger of being lost. Since only God knows who really needs prayer, it is best to put your merits at the disposition of the Sacred Heart of Jesus trusting in his wisdom and omnipotence. That is what I have done,” she concluded, “and I always believed that God would find the right soul.”
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