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Views from the Choir Loft

1940’s Prayer for Priests

Fr. David Friel · February 10, 2018

ATE LAST year, in honor of the feast of St. Charles Borromeo, I posted two prayers especially suitable for priests, but also usable by the faithful. One was a prayer of preparation for Mass, and the other was a prayer of farewell to the altar after Mass.

Today I am sharing a third prayer that could well go along with the other two. As the text makes clear, this is a prayer specifically for priests.

I commend it to all of our readers who have been given the care of souls:

Lord Jesus, Eternal Priest,
Thou hast called me to Thy priesthood
to carry on the work which Thou didst begin.
Fit me, I pray Thee, for this task:

with such faith that, through my voice, even the disbelieving may listen to Thy Word;

with such hope that, through my hands, even the despairing may be held fast in Thy grip;

and with such charity that, through my heart, even the despised may know that Thou couldst never cease to love them.

Join me so deeply to Thyself than no one I meet shall lie beyond Thy saving reach.

Amen.

My immediate source for this prayer is a religious brother friend of mine, who says that it was printed in the 1940’s. I have no further information on its original source.

* * * UPDATE * * *

A reader contacted me to say that he received a plaque featuring this prayer in the early 1970’s. That plaque bears a copyright mark attributing it to Berliner & McGinnis, Nevada City, California.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Vesting Prayers Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Anselm Church in Northeast Philly before earning a doctorate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America. He presently serves as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and teaches liturgy at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.—(Read full biography).

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Random Quote

The People’s Hymnal suffers from a too literal and awkward translation. And even in the lovely Slovak “Memorare” in The Saint Gregory Hymnal we are still asked to sing “that anyone who sought thee, or made to thee his moan.” Why not “groan” or “bone” or even “phone?” The only thing necessary, it seems, is that it rhyme with “known.”

— Mons. Francis P. Schmitt (1958)

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