Holy Hour4TH Prayer Session for VocationsSeptember 20, 2015

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Theme:“Who is the Greatest?”

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Commentator: In the Eucharist, the Son of God comes to meet us and desires to become one with us; Eucharistic Adoration is simply the natural consequence of the Eucharistic celebration, HOST:

which is itself the Church's supreme act of adoration. Receiving the Eucharist means adoring him whom we receive. Only in this way do we become one with him,

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and are given, as it were, a foretaste of the beauty of the heavenly liturgy. The act of adoration outside Mass prolongs and intensifies all that takes place

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during the liturgical celebration itself. Indeed, only in adoration can a profound and genuine reception mature. And it is precisely this personal encounter with the Lord that then strengthens the social mission

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contained in the Eucharist, which seeks to break down not only the walls that separate the Lord and ourselves, but also and especially the walls that separate us from one

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With these words, Our Holy Father clearly calls the faithful to pray before Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.  It is in this personal encounter with Jesus, itself a reflection of the encounter in the reception of Communion,

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that gives the faithful the strength to respond to Jesus’ invitation to “Come, follow me!” It is also in this encounter with Jesus

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that we make our most urgent desires known to Him, for He sees into the depths of our hearts and leads us to a deeper unity with Himself.

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Opening Hymn

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Presider: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

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Commentator: Amen

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Presider: Lord we ask you to open our hearts and minds to your Spirit. Help us to realize that your call to us as Christians is a call to holiness. Direct us to follow Christ more closely.

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Guide us in discovering new ways to make your Word come alive in our lives and in the lives of young people.

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Bless all who minister in our parish and lead others to respond to God’s call to ministry. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

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Commentator: Amen

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Presider: I love You, O my God, and my sole desire is to love You until the last breath of my life. I love You, O infinitely lovable God, and I prefer to die loving You than to live one instant without loving You.

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I love You, O my God, and I do not desire anything but heaven so as to have the joy of loving You perfectly. I love You, O my God, and I fear hell, because there will not be the sweet consolation of loving You.

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O my God, if my tongue cannot say in every moment that I love You, I want my heart to say it in every beat. Allow me the grace to suffer loving You, to love your suffering,

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and one day to die loving You and feeling that I love You. And as I approach my end, I beg you to increase and perfect my love of You. Amen.

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Commentator:Please be seated for the Liturgy of the Word.

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(Scriptural readings and music)

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Alleluia

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Matthew 16:13-20

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Praise to you Lord, Jesus Christ

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Silence

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Commentator:Please kneel

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Presider: Lord, your sons and daughters kneel before you in humility and trust.

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Assembly: Look with compassion on us as we confess our sins. Heal our wounds; stretch out a hand of pity to save us and raise us up.

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Keep us free from harm as members of Christ’s body, as sheep of your flock, as children of your family.

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Do not allow the enemy to triumph over us or death to claim us for ever, for you raised us to new life in baptism.

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Hear, Lord, the prayers we offer from contrite hearts. Have pity on us as we acknowledge our sins. Lead us back to the way of holiness.

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Protect us now and always from the wounds of sin. May we ever keep safe in all its fullness the gift your love once gave us and your mercy now restores.

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We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Silence

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Prayer for Priests by St. Therese of the Child Jesus

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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.

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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,

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lest the enemy prevail against them, so that they may never do anything in the slightest degree unworthy of their sublime vocation.

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O Jesus, I pray to Thee, for Thy faithful and fervent priests; for Thy unfaithful and tepid priests; for Thy priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields;

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for Thy tempted priests, for Thy lonely and desolate priests; for Thy young priests; for Thy aged priests; for Thy sick priests; for Thy dying priests; for the souls of Thy priests in purgatory.

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But above all, I commend to Thee 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 Thy Body and Blood in Holy Communion;

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the priests who taught and instructed me or helped and encouraged me; all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way, particularly [name a particular priest of your choosing here].

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

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Parent’s Prayer for Family Vocations

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Merciful God, fulfill our desire that our home may become the nursery of vocation to the priesthood or the religious life, that our home be a seminary or novitiate filled with the Holy Spirit and productive of Christian virtue,

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and that we may be God-fearing and pious parents to whom after you, our children can trace their vocations. Grant that we may never fail to utter the encouraging words influencing our children

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toward consecrated lives thus cooperating in Your Divine plan. You have promised a hundredfold and with everlasting life

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to those who leave father and mother, brothers and sisters for Your sake and remember us who have given one of Yours to you.

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