The Priest: A prayer on sunday night

When we received this reading material years back, I set it aside it  knowing it would prove inspirational to our  priests who would be able to relate to a prayer that speaks as though it were his own words and to our brothers and sisters who perhaps set the bar so high they forget that our brother the priest also struggle with their humanity as we do. 

The words are sincere and the prayer so honest that it uncloaks a priest's struggles and  loneliness and it unveils their humanity, imperfections and all- for our understanding.  But moreover, it speaks of how God loves them back and how in God's divine way, He needs His most precious jewels to fulfill  His special design on earth.  May it help serve as a reminder that they have been chosen and called by Jesus for a higher purpose closely tied to the way of the cross.  

I know today this can and will reach people, and I pray that it will bring to light an important message to help them through their struggles and to bridge understanding.

Please do share this to those who you believe will benefit from reading it. I apologize for not being able to name the source (but God knows who you are!) because this just happened to cross my path unnamed..... and what a timing, really for it to resurface just today!  Thank you so much for this....

Let us continue to pray for our priests. They are in need of our prayers, our understanding and our support. Let us pray for their fortitude in their vocation, true discernment,  unconditional selflessness, true love for God so that they will not exercise double standards in bringing Jesus to life, and humility through all circumstances. Let us not be their judge, but rather their cane. Let us be one with them because they too need us, as much as the church, the people, need them.

God bless!

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The Priest: A Prayer on Sunday Night

People ask a great deal of their priest, and they are right. But they should understand that it is not easy to be a priest. He has given himself in all ardour of youth, yet he still remains a man and every day the man in him tries to take back what he has surrendered. Its a continual struggle to remain completely at the service of Christ and of others. A priest needs no praise or embrassing gifts; what he nees is that those committed to his charge should, by loving their fellows more and more, prove to him that he has not given his life in vain. And as he remains a man, he my need once in a while a delicate gesture of disintereted friendship...some sunday night when he is alone.

 

Come with me, and I will make you fishers of men (Mark 1,17)

You did not choose me: I choose you. I appointed you to go and bear fruit that shall last (John 15,16)

Forgetting what is behind me, and reaching out for which lies ahead, I press towards the goal to win the prize which is God's call to life above, in Jesus Christ (Phil 3,13-14)

 

Tonight, Lord, I am alone.

Little by little the sound died down in the church.

The people went away, and I came home. Alone.

I passed people who were returning from a walk.

I went by the cinema that disgorging its crowd.

I skirted cafe terraces where tired strollers were trying to promong the pleasure of a Sunday holiday.

I bumped into youngsters playinng on the footpath.

Youngsters, Lord, others people's youngsters who will never be my own.

Here I am, Lord.

Alone.

The silence troubles me.

The solitude oppresses me.

Lord, Im 35 years old.

A body made like others, ready for work, a heart meant for love.

But Ive given you all. Its true, of course that you need it.

Ive given you all, but its hard, Lord.

Its hard to love everyone and to claim no one.

Its hard to shake a hand and not want to retain it.

Its hard to inspire affection, to give it to you.

Its hard to be nothing to oneself, in order to be everything to others.

Its hard to be like others, among others, and to be of them.

Its hard always to give without trying to receive.

Its hard to seek out others and to be unsought oneself.

Its hard to suffer from sins of others and yet be obliged to hear and bear them.

Its hard to be told secrets and be unable to share them

Its hard to carry others and never, ever for a moment be carried

Its hard to sustain the feeble and never be able tolean on one who is strong.

Its hard to be alone.

Alone before everyone

Alone before world.

Alone before suffering, death, sin.

 

"Son, you are not alone. I am with you. I am you.

For I needed another human vehicle to continue my Incarnation and my Redemption.

Out of eternity, I chose you.

I need you.

I need your hands to continue to bless.

I need your lips to continue to speal.

I need your body to continue to suffer

I need your heart to continue to love.

I need you to continue to save.

Stay with me, son. "

 

Here I am, Lord,

Here is my body

Here is my heart

Here is my soul

Grant that I may be big enough to reach the worlds.

Strong enough to carry it.

Pure enough to embrace it without wanting to keep it.

Grant that I may be a meeting-place but a temporary one

A road that does not end in itself , because everything to be gathered there,

everything human, leads towards  you.

Lord, tonight, while all is still and I feel sharply the sting of solitude,

While men devour my soul and I fell incapable of satisfying their hunger

While the whole world presses on my shoulders with all its weight of misery and sin

I repeat to you my "yes" - not in bursts of laughter, but slowly,

Alone, Lord, before you,

In the peace of the evening.