Editor’s Note: To our heavenly Father and our earthly fathers: Dads, Grandpas, Godfathers, Foster Fathers andStepfathers a very Happy Father’s Day…and a special Father’s Day greeting to all our priests, all our spiritual fathers, from all of us here at spiritualdirection.com. We offer you this beautiful reflection from the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles. Today, when you pray for your fathers, living or deceased, please be sure to include all our priests in your prayers…oh, and thank them, too!
Bless Our Priests
In our Constitutions,* the first and second articles state the name and purpose of our community. The third states that “praying for priests is of primary importance” to our religious family. As Carmelites, it is our great joy and our awesome responsibility to pray for priests, but you don’t have to be Carmelite to join us!
We pray for the men and women who serve in our military for a good reason, we need to pray for our priests too. Our priests serve on the front lines of a spiritual battle which is daily growing more intense and fierce. The enemy knows that…the fastest way to divide and scatter the flock is to strike the shepherd…may our hearts be moved with grateful prayer for all the priests who have given us life through the Sacraments, priests who have taught us, served us, and saved us from untold danger and peril by standing with Christ between us and the enemy of our soul.
Our friend Chris Stefanick put together this video to remind us of the great gift we have in our priests…
Join us in praying for priests! “Bless Our Priests” from our album Lean into the Wind.
*Constitutions: The fundamental rule of life of a religious institute, containing the principles of religious life in general and as understood by a particular community, together with the basic norms by which the members are to put these principles into practice (definition from Servant of God Father John Hardon’s Modern Catholic Dictionary at www.therealpresence.org).
Originally published by the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles. Used with permission, all rights reserved.
Art: Detail from Heiliger Josef mit Jesukind und Batist dem Täufer (Saint Joseph and Jesus with John the Baptist), Melchior-Paul von Deschwanden (1811-1881), date unknown, photo by Wolfgang Moroder 23 November 2012, CCA-SA, Wikimedia Commons.
About Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles
PROMOTING A DEEPER SPIRITUAL LIFE THROUGH HEALTHCARE, EDUCATION AND RETREATS.
The way of life of the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles is rooted in the Gospel, the Church, and the spirituality of Carmel as lived out through the charism of our foundress, Venerable Mother Maria Luisa Josefa of the Most Blessed Sacrament. In His merciful goodness, God has graced our Institute with the Carmelite charism which has its foundation in a long history and living tradition. Our vocation is a grace by which contemplation and action are blended to become an apostolic service of the Church as we promote a deeper spiritual life among God’s people through education, healthcare, and spiritual retreats.
We are called by God to be a presence inflamed within our world, witnessing to God’s love through prayer, joyful witness and loving service. Our mission flows from each sister’s profound life of prayer as Mother Luisita, our foundress, wrote, “the soul of each Carmelite raises herself to Christ, Who is her heaven, while her shadow falls in charity upon earth doing good to all people.”
