Mental Prayer Meditation Helps
Presence of God
Grace I Ask: To see Christ living and acting in His priests.
The Idea: When the priest is ordained, his soul gets a sacramental stamp which makes him another Christ for life. When he absolves sins in confession, Christ absolves. When he says, "This is my Body...This is my Blood" in Mass, Christ becomes present and dies an unbloody, mystical death. The grace of God flows from the hands of the priest into the souls of men.
A priest is a man. He will have the defects and make the mistakes of a man. But in doing priestly work, in giving the sacraments, he is always acting with Christ's power and in His name. He takes Christ's place. He has great reason to be as much like Christ as possible in everything he does.
My Personal Application: Do I consider the priest merely as a professional man like a doctor or lawyer? Or do I see with faith that he has power to act as Christ? Do I see that he has one life's work? - to bring God to me and me to God. Am I friendly and respectful toward priests I know? Do I harm the priesthood by unnecessarily criticizing priests for human failings?
I Speak to God: O God, thank you for giving me priests to help me to get to you. Give us more priests for the whole world. Help me to see you acting in your priests. If possible, may I one day be the father or mother, brother or sister of a priest, or even a priest myself.
Thought for Today: O God, give us more and more holy priests.
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Adapted from Mental Prayer, Challenge to the Lay Apostle
by The Queen's Work,(© 1958)
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