My Dear Parish Family:

I am asking for all members of the parish to join me in a Novena (9 days) of prayer for priests.

With all the sadness we have had recently regarding the priesthood of Jesus Christ, I believe that the civil law and the Church should be responsible regarding every allegation and punish the guilty and free all those unjustly accused (and believe me there are many who have been unjustly accused).

We, as Catholics, must never doubt or lose hope in the power of prayer. Jesus desires to have a holy Church here on earth and to have holy men leading the faithful to His Sacred Heart and into Heaven.

So, please join me in prayer. Friday, September 21st is the feast day of St. Matthew, the apostle and evangelist. Nine days later is the feast day of the Guardian Angels, Michael, Gabriel and Rafael.

Please find two prayers (in the back of Church or the rectory) that can be prayed at home each day for the Catholic priests to be holy and protected. The priests will lead the prayers each day of the Novena at daily Mass. Please join me in prayer.

We will begin on Friday, September 21st with the day of Adoration in the Chapel and end our Novena with Holy Mass at 8:30 A.M. on Saturday, September 29th.

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Prayer of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus

O Jesus, I pray for your faithful and fervent priests;for your unfaithful and tepid priests;
for your priests laboring at home or abroad in distant

mission fields;
for your tempted priests

for your lonely and desolate priests;for your young priests;
for your dying priests;
for the souls of your priests in purgatory.

But above all, I recommend to you the priests dearest to me;

the priest who baptized me;
the priests who absolved me from my sins;the priests at whose Masses I assisted and

who gave me your Body and Blood in Holy Communion;the priests who taught and instructed me;

all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way (especially .......);

O Jesus, keep them all close to your heart, and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity.

Amen.

Until next week, St. Benedict and Cardinal Cooke, Servant of God, pray for us!

Fr. Stephen P. Norton