Cardinal Vincent Nichols is encouraging Catholics to pray for our priests through Holy Week – particularly on Maundy Thursday when we recall the Last Supper and the institution of the Holy Eucharist.
“We’re asking priests to renew their promises, the promises they made at Ordination, in a personal and devotional way. And I ask you, please, to use the time after the Mass of the Lord’s Supper to include prayers for your priests. They give their lives to the Lord in His service.
“I ask you, please, this Holy Week – this Maundy Thursday – to pray for them – that they will be faithful and generous. And I know they are spending a lot of time in prayer for you.
“Let’s pray for our priests as we approach the Sacred Triduum and walk alongside Christ through his Passion, death and Resurrection.”
#PrayForPriests
Maundy Thursday is one of the great days of Holy Week.
It’s the day in which traditionally there are two great ceremonies; one called the Chrism Mass, in the morning, in which the sacred oils are blessed for the coming year and the priests make their renewal of commitment.
The second is the Mass of the Lord’s Supper – our recalling the Last Supper that Jesus had with his disciples.
This year we are not celebrating the Chrism Mass, but we are celebrating the Lord’s Supper, and after it, a time of prayer. During that time of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, we’re asking priests to renew their promises, the promises they made at Ordination in a personal and devotional way.
And I ask you, please, to use the time after the Mass of the Lord’s Supper to include prayers for your priests. They give their lives to the Lord in His service.
And I ask you, please, this Holy Week – this Maundy Thursday – to pray for them that they will be faithful and generous. And I know they are spending a lot of time in prayer for you.
You know, this prayer of intercession unites us with Jesus. We’re told that He intercedes for us continually before His father.
And when we pray for one another, our prayers are carried by Jesus into the presence of our loving Father.
Please pray for your priests. They pray for you. Please pray for me.
Our Father,
Who art in Heaven,
hallowed be Thy name;
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.
