Jesus said to his apostles, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest” (Luke 10:2).
Praying for good and holy priests should be a daily habit for us, asking God to inspire men in our community to follow him in total service.
One way to do that is to invoke the intercession of the Blessed Mother, who looks kindly upon all priests.
St. Peter Julian Eymard had much to say about the Virgin Mary and priests in his collection of writings entitled Month of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament.
Pray, therefore, for the priesthood. Ask that vocations to it may be multiplied. Obtain for the people holy priests, men of fire and flame. This was Mary’s prayer, her apostolate of predilection. And now she protects holy vocations, she implores them of her Son. The priest is the privileged child of Mary. It is she who trains him to piety when young, and shields his virtue. It is she who nourishes his fervor, who leads him by the hand to the foot of the altar, and who presents him to the Bishop, as she once offered Jesus in the Temple.
Here is Eymard’s brief prayer to the Blessed Mother for priests.
O Queen of the clergy,
St. Peter Julian Eymard
send workmen into the vineyard
of thy Divine Son!
And today we celebrate...