A Special Intention for Holy Week: A Priest In Crisis

A Special Intention for Holy Week: A Priest In Crisis - Updated

JMJ

I just learned of a diocesan priest who is in a crisis. He has already made some bad decisions and is need of prayers, and Holy Week is a time of great grace.

Priests leaving the priesthood is not a new phenomenon, it was happening before the Second Vatican council and continued post-Council. What is new is the heights of systemic attrition from the religious life on the part of priests, monks, brothers and nuns.

It even happens in the SSPX. Some priests go into monasteries, others leave to join an Ecclesia Dei congregation or a diocese. Others join the 'resistance' and sedevacantists. These remain faithful to their call and ordination.

There there's another group. Those that abandon their vocation. This is not unique to priests, but I would wager it is a heavier cost for the Church than the thousands of brothers, monks, sisters and nuns who are unfaithful to their vows.

In this group we find those who lose the faith in toto, join the protestants or orthodox, abandon their vows of celibacy or even worse.

In these latter cases there is the sin of scandal, particularly in the case of a priest as the Devil knows that if he gets a priest he gets a bargain with some of the faithful sure to follow. This is especially true when people felt that the priest was an exemplary example of a Catholic religious.

So I would ask you for this week to pray for the priest in crisis that I am aware of until Easter Sunday and then continue to pray especially for priests.

O Jesus, our great High Priest, hear my humble prayers on behalf of Thy priests. Give them a deep faith, a bright and firm hope and a burning love which will ever increase in the course of their priestly life.

In their loneliness, comfort them. In their sorrows, strengthen them. In their frustrations, point out to them that it is through suffering that the soul is purified, and show them that they are needed by the Church; they are needed by souls; they are needed.

P^3

Resources

SSPX: Prayer Crusade for Priests

SSPX: Holy Hour For Priests (pdf)

Comments

Is it sinful to attend the Novus Ordo (New Mass) - Is it Sinful to Not Attend the Novus Ordo on Sunday?

+ JMJ A non-SSPX Catholic is upset over the SSPX statements on not attending the Novus Ordo Missae. Ladies and gentlemen, what the SSPX, or at least its website editor, is advocating is a mortal sin against the Third Commandment. Unless the priest deviates from the language of the Sacramentary, the consecration, and thus the rest of Mass is to be considered valid. No one may elect not to attend Mass simply because abuses are occurring therein. Might I suggest that such absenteeism is its own abuse? The Third Commandment binds under mortal sin. Father So-And-So from the SSPX has no authority whatsoever to excuse attendance at Mass, be that Mass ever so unpalatable. Source:Restore DC Catholicism Well, this is interesting. First why does the SSPX issue this statement? Because it is sinful to put your faith in danger by attending a protestant service. It is likewise dangerous to put your faith in danger by attending a protestantized mass (ie the Novus Ordo Missae

Auctorem Fidei

Can the SSPX be right about the Novus Ordo? Revision: Feb 11, 2013 On another web forum, I was engaged in a rather heated discussion about the documents of Vatican II.

Magisterium and Levels of Assent

+ JMJ Understanding the levels of assent to be given to the teachings of the Church is a critical success factor in walking the knife's edge during this crisis of the Church. The levels of assent are generally associated with the theological grades of certainty, which are not surprisingly mirrored by the censures for contravening the teachings of the various levels.

War: SSPX

+ JMJ We seem to be in transition from the persecution of the SSPX and other faithful Catholics to a civil war within the Catholic Church i.e. a true schism. Several Bishops, Priests and Dioceses have rejected outright Fiducia Supplicans (link) . This, in my opinion (IMO), is a new inflection point on the way to what will amount to an civil war within the Catholic Church. Pope Francis had spent the past ten years putting the final touches on the fault-lines within the Church and this may be the final blow that actually awakens Our Lord sleeping in the bow of the Barque of St. Peter. That is something that we need to remember, Our Lord is with his Church, even on its way to Calvary. So, what is about to happen is that, IMO, faithful Catholics will find themselves in the same situation as the SSPX. Persecuted and fighting for the heart of the Catholic Church. The history of the SSPX provides a microcosm of what we might expect to happen in the Catholic Church during a 'civil war&#

Morning and Evening and other sundry Prayers

+ JMJ Along the theme of P^3 (Prayer, Penance, Patience), and for my own reference ... here is a collection of Morning and Evening prayers from the Ideal Daily Missal along with some additional prayers. In this crisis of the Church, I do not think it is possible to do too much prayer, penance and have patience. P^3

Tradicat

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