O my God, pour forth upon thy priests the spirit of sacrifice in its fullness. It is their glory as much as their duty to be victims, to consume themselves for souls, to often live without human joys, to often undergo mistrust, injustice, and persecution.
May they reflect upon what they say each day at the altar: “This is My Body; this is My Blood.” May they reflect on it and apply it to themselves: “I am no longer myself, I am Jesus, and Jesus crucified. I am, like the bread and wine, a consecrated substance which has ceased to be itself”
O my God, I burn with the desire of the sanctification of Thy priests. I would that all those consecrated hands which touch Thee be friendly hands whose contact be sweet to Thee, and that the mouths which pronounce at the altar words so sublime never lower themselves to trivial formulas.
May they keep in their entire person the habit of their noble functions. May one find them simple and great, like the Host, accessible to all and superior to other men.
O my God, make them carry away from the Mass of today the thirst for the Mass of tomorrow, and may each of them, filled with gifts received, have the grace to communicate them generously to others. Amen.
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