WHY FAST FOR PRIESTS?
~ Anna Rae-Kelly, OCDS ~
18th ANNUAL LAY FAST FOR PRIESTS
- SATURDAY, 21 OCTOBER 2023
“ 'As God lives, before whose face I stand…' spoke Elijah"
(1 Kings 18:15), for Elijah recognized the Lord’s gaze upon him at every moment.
The gaze of God is
holy, loving, sacrificial, transformative, healing, life giving.
Therefore, under that holy gaze, endlessly, every thought that loves, every word spoken in love, every small sacrifice offered in love, becomes what God's gaze holds
... holy, loving, sacrificial, transformative, healing, life-giving.
Every offering becomes a sacrament in Him in every moment.
All time meets in Him, therefore, every soul for whom sacrifice is offered is drawn under that same gaze and He draws them into Himself to transform, heal, transfigure.
This is the power of our sacrificial prayer for priests, all priests, those who were, those who are, those who are yet to be ordained. These are men who are ordained by God to forgive our sins in His name, who give us the most Holy Eucharist, whose voice will walk us into eternity.
It is these men whom we will offer to God in our sacrificial prayer on October 21.
In our Global Fast, we will beseech God to hold them, endlessly, under His gaze so that each of them will "stand before His face."
Prayer causes the heavens to pour down the Righteous One. Through our world-wide united prayer, each priest will become
... holy, loving, sacrificial, transformative, healing, life-giving.
We beseech God that their "anointed hands which daily touch Christ’s sacred body be unstained, that their lips which are purpled by Your precious blood be unsullied by the world's contagion"
(St. Therese of Lisieux)
and who gives power to our prayer?
It is Spirit Lord, the same Spirit Who brooded over the waters in Genesis, Who raised Jesus Lord from the dead, Who will speak now in us through our sacrificial offering...
“... it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you” (Matthew 10:20)
and we, every one of us, will give God the Father deep delight.
We are engraved on the palm of His Hands (Isaiah 49).
