Why Pray for our Priests

Priests are men who choose to sacrifice some of the comforts and pleasures of life to serve God and his church.  As such he should strive to be worthy of this calling in everything he does and anywhere he goes.  Ordinary church members assume them to project an image of Jesus.  They expect an image of perfect righteousness and an impeccable personality that would not give in to temptations, and much less, commit sin.  We have forgotten that priests are also human beings of flesh and blood which have also faults, weaknesses and shortcoming and thus, are also fallible to commit sin.  They are just ordinary persons whose physical, mental and sometimes spiritual capacities are subject to limitations and are no different from normal people who also need prayers to be strong.

We should pray for our priests:

•  Who are now dwindling in numbers and the proportion against the members of the flocks that they are suppose to herd  need  superpower capabilities for them to be able to fully attend to.
•  Who are pious that they may maintain that zest and devotion to their vocation and thus vigorously guide and inspire their parishioners. 
• Who are already on their advanced age and those who are ailing or sickly that they will be blessed with physical, emotional and spiritual competencies for despite their physical in-capacities they still hold on to whatever strengths they have to be of service to their parish.
• Who are erring for they need the support and not condemnation of the church community to be able to pull through.   They are the ones who need our prayers most to be strong in fighting and overcoming temptations and weaknesses.

Our priests are the pillars of our faith and their performance and behavior directly affect and influence the community they are in charge of.   Negative reports involving our priest had put the church in disgrace but sacrifices of some particularly those assigned in very remote areas where government services are difficult to access or not available are seldom known or heard.  These negative cases however, are out-shined by sacrifices and noble deeds of devout priests who abandoned personal comforts, family concerns and some to the extent of sacrificing their lives in the service of God and rallying in defense of His church and people.  Between the above performances however, what mark most and is retained on the minds of the people particularly the ones who find satisfaction on attacking the Catholic faith are the transgression of a few.

Above considerations are affecting the leadership of our faith and usually discourage one’s aspiration as well as the support of his families and friends into becoming a priest.  As laymen,  one effective involvement we could extend in support of our church is offering prayers for our priest for in these trying times our church and its leaders really need it.