May 20 2009
A human priest
The unworthy successor of Peter who desires to benefit from the immeasurable wealth of Christ feels the great need of your assistance, your prayers, your sacrifice, and he most humbly asks this of you. – Pope John Paul II
With those words I begin my today’s post. I think of an orphan, who gets fatherly love and care from another man. That man becomes his father. That little child learns its way of life from the one who is fostering it. It learns to understand the world and the values it needs to live with.
Jesus came to teach us to live our lives his father wills for us. He became our father on this earth a mediator of his father to us. He chose for us those who could take the figure of himself after he left. He did not leave us orphans, but gave us the precious gifts of our priests, who will nourish our souls and lead us towards God’s plan for us.
But the one’s Jesus chose for us, are from among us. They are not divine as our Christ himself is. They are humans. Above all, their human nature causes them to be led astray if they give into temptations. And because they are people of God, their temptations are much stronger than we normal humans face.
And so as Pope John Paul asks of us our prayers and sacrifices, for himself, and so, it is our duty to pray for our priests.
Everytime we hear about a priest who has sinned, let us not forget to reflect on the life of Christ himself. Christ never sinned, but his life was a perfect example of all a priest faces everyday. Leaving his family, serving the poor, fighting for justice, fasting, his temptations. Jesus was never accepted or respected by his own people, so I see a lot of catholics not respecting their priests. Its not simple to become a savior without sacrifice. And moreover let us not forget the human nature of our priests.
(Many may still not agree with me - thats simply our human nature 
) Well let us all pray now;
Prayer for our priests
Lord Jesus, we your people pray to You for our priests. You have given them to us for our needs. We pray for them in their needs.
We know that You have made them priests in the likeness of your own priesthood. You have consecrated them, set them aside, annointed them, filled them with the Holy Spirit, appointed them to teach, to preach, to minister, to console, to forgive, and to feed us with Your Body and Blood.
Yet we know, too, that they are one with us and share our human weaknesses. We know too that they are tempted to sin and discouragement as are we, needing to be ministered to, as do we, to be consoled and forgiven, as do we. Indeed, we thank You for choosing them from among us, so that they understand us as we understand them, suffer with us and rejoice with us, worry with us and trust with us, share our beings, our lives, our faith.
We ask that You give them this day the gift You gave Your chosen ones on the way to Emmaus: Your presence in their hearts, Your holiness in their souls, Your joy in their spirits. And let them see You face to face in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread.
We pray to You, O Lord, through Mary the mother of all priests, for Your priests and for ours. Amen.
