WHY FAST FOR PRIESTS?~ Anna Rae-Kelly, OCDS ~
Closing Remarks
19th ANNUAL LAY FAST FOR PRIESTS - SATURDAY, 19 OCTOBER 2024
"LET US SAVE, ABOVE ALL, THE SOULS OF PRIESTS. WE PRAY, WE SUFFER FOR THEM.
AND ON THE LAST DAY, JESUS WILL BE GRATEFUL."
(Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Patroness of the Lay Fast For Priests)
Under that direction of our Saint Therese, we further learn from another greatly loved Saint, John Paul II: How can we "pray and suffer" for other? He guides us....
"PRAYER UNITED WITH SACRIFICE IS THE MOST POWERFUL FORCE IN HUMAN HISTORY."
Our "prayer" and our "suffering" have met today in our nineteenth Lay Fast for Priests and our Global Sacrifice has been a "most powerful force," raised by millions all across the world for God's Ipse Christus. Today, the Spirit of God, "hovering" (Gen. 1) over the face of the earth has breathed His Love into souls from across the Globe.
People from 186 countries have in turn breathed His love out into a prayer for all priests, all who were, who are and who are yet to be ordained.
In every one of these countries, 93% of the entire world, millions of souls have raised sacrificial prayer to God for priests who forgive us in Jesus' Name who consecrate the Bread and Wine and give us Christ Himself in the Most Holy Eucharist priests whose hands anoint us when we are at last called Home and whose voice will walk us into Eternity. In one of the poorest countries in Africa, an entire village fasted from food and water today for all priests.
We join those beloved children of God in the prayer of St Therese:
"O Jesus, for the priest who baptised me the priests who have absolved me from my sins the priests at whose Masses I have assisted and who have given me Your Body and Blood in Holy Communion". This day, a grandmother, her daughter and son-in-law , four sons and grandsons fasted in their country where, yesterday, priests were dragged from Altars and those who were attending Mass were made to leave the Churches at gunpoint.
We pray with St Therese:
"O Jesus, for your priests labouring at home or abroad in distant mission fields for your tempted priests for your lonely and desolate priests..."
With that grandmother, all of us prayed and suffered for those priests this day. The Bishop who invited his entire Diocese to fast with us today...
"O Jesus, I pray for your faithful and fervent priests... keep them all close to your heart and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity." (St Therese)
We fasted for all of them this day. Therese teaches us that "Love, because it is Eternal, embraces every time and space." We can therefore raise our prayer and sacrifice for all priests, those who live today, those who were, those who are yet to be. In a country where poverty and corruption are life-threatening, a mother joined the Fast but she alone in the family could fast for priests "because the children need the food". This is a country where two priests were murdered yesterday.
"O Jesus, for your young priests for your dying priests for the souls of your priests in Purgatory."
We suffered in our Fast for all of them this day. For the quiet priests who live and give and are faith-filled and suffer and pray and are obedient and offer sacrifice in an anonymity that resembles the mysticism of the ordinariness of the 30 years of their High Priest in Nazareth.
THE WORLD OF FAST-ERS PRAYED AND SUFFERED FOR YOU THIS DAY.
We conclude our prayer and suffering for all priests in union with St Therese as she prays:
“O Almighty Eternal God, Look upon the Face of Thy Christ, and for the love of Him, Who is the Eternal High Priest, have pity on Thy priests. Remember, O most compassionate God, that they are but weak and frail human beings. Stir up in them the grace of their vocation which is in them by the imposition of the Bishop’s hands. Keep them close to Thee, lest the enemy prevail against them, so that they may never do anything in the slightest degree unworthy of their sublime vocation..."
WILL YOU PRAY FOR GOD'S IPSE CHRISTUS AGAIN AS ONE BODY IN HIM FOR THE 20TH GLOBAL LAY FAST FOR PRIESTS ON THE 18th OF OCTOBER, 2025?
May it please our loving God that we will all unite again to pray and suffer together for all priests, for their protection, their faith, their hope, and above all, for their love.
"THE PRIESTHOOD IS THE LOVE OF THE HEART OF JESUS. WHEN YOU SEE A PRIEST, THINK OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST."
(St John Vianney, patron Saint of Priests)
IN CHRIST'S LOVING HEART,
Anna Rae-Kelly OCDS
All are most welcome to join this global army of fasters.
