Priests' Saturday -Your Prayers, Please

"Sanctify them in truth." St. John, 17:17.

Several years ago a knowing and amiable priest in New York City set­tled a 39-month-old strike of several hundred employees of a Broadway restaurant. For that many months pickets had paraded before the eating place, covering more than seven times the distance to the moon, and wear­ing out over seven thousand pairs of shoes. A host of civic organizations and even Mayor La Guardia himself had failed in repeated attempts to break the deadlock between the management and the workers. The priest succeeded.

This is just one example of the hundreds of cases in our country alone where priests have successfully and satisfactorily served as arbiters, um­pires, and go-betweens in the settlement of strikes. The ordination cere­mony does not specifically mention that the holy oils give us that skill. At the same time, the efficient work of priests in this field emphasizes the many-sided activities of our spiritual leaders, and will strengthen my ap­peal for prayer and penance in their behalf.

In particular I want to recommend to you the devotion called Priests' Saturday. It is so simple and so easy, yet appealing and powerful a devo­tion, that it has spread through many countries, and, I hope, will spread more widely among Americans. Here is how it works:

Offer up the Saturday after the First Friday of each month to our Savior, through the merciful hands of Mary His Mother, for the sanctifi­cation of all priests and students for the priesthood. Give that Saturday wholly and entirely to our Lord, that is, offer to Him Holy Mass, Holy Communion, all your prayers, your work, your pains and pleasures, joys and sorrows. If you cannot attend Mass and receive Communion on that particular Saturday, do so the next day, Sunday.

The point is that you offer some definite day and some definite deeds for priests and priests-to-be throughout the world. The Saturday after the First Friday will be comparatively easy to remember. Better still, offer, as many do, every Saturday, particularly for your own pastor and priests.

You do not need to sign your name, or send it to any organization, you make no pledges or promises, you pay no dues. Simply decide right now that you are going to pray for your priests. Their work is so many-sided, their work needs so sorely the grace and help of God, that it is only through prayer and penance of the people united with their priests, that those same leaders will be able to carry on their divine work effectively.

Why such a devotion? Listen to the late Pope Pius XI:

"God in heaven and I on earth, we desire nothing more ardently than prayer and sacrifice for priests. . . . Let us beg God that He may give us holy priests. If we have this, all else will follow; but if this be wanting, all else will avail nothing."

When the idea of the Priest's Saturday was presented to His Holiness, he exclaimed:

"We heartily praise and bless the work. . . . We repeat, the thing pleases Us. . . . We praise and bless it heartily."

Echoing the Holy Father's words, bishops and priests throughout the world have eagerly greeted the Priests' Saturday. Bishop Bares of Berlin in whose diocese the devotion was established in 1934, made the statement:

"It is with great joy that I welcome this saving thought of the Priests' Sat­urday. If a holy priest is the best gift of heaven to earth, then the efforts of the faithful through prayer and sacrifice for holy priests will be the fairest gift of earth to heaven."

Perhaps you are wondering why we priests ask for prayers. Perhaps you are thinking that we have all the prayers and graces we need. True, God is generous to us with His graces, but we need many more. In fact, we cannot do our work without your spiritual help. Let me give you some reasons you should pray for your priests:

1. He has many heavy responsibilities. Some of these are financial; some are spiritual. In the confessional, for example, the priest is responsible for the soul before him. He is responsible for every soul in his parish, for non-­Catholic as well as Catholic. He is responsible for leading his people to God. That is a tremendous responsibility.

2. Consider the many temptations of the priest. He is tempted to pride, because people honor him in many ways. He is tempted to impatience. He is tempted to laziness and to intemperance. He is tempted to impurity and to jealousy. His lonely life demands many special graces, which you can win for him.

3. The priest has trials. Some have the trial of bad health, others of limited talents, others have opposition from certain people within and without the Church.

4. The priest has tasks of which most people know nothing. He spends hours in keeping books, in instructing converts, in visiting the sick, in teaching catechism. On Sunday he fasts until after the last Mass. That is for many a priest a great physical drain.

These things are mentioned not to create sympathy or to drive you to tears of compassion for your pastor and your assistant. Rather, we mention these as reasons for helping your spiritual leaders with your prayers and your penance.

I know you all want to share in our work. Pray for our work. Offer the sacraments, offer Saturday and everything in it for our work, and you will be sharing in all the blessings that it is our privilege to impart. Amen.
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Adapted from Occasional Talks
by Fr. Arthur Tonne, OFM (©1949)