September 13, 1948
“Please pray for priests and nuns and help me by doing some penance for them. Pray for them as you have not prayed before. The Sacred Heart of my Son bleeds anew for every fallen priest or nun. To some, pride was the obstacle to go back to the true fold and shame hardened their hearts.”
“I give you now my blessing, little one.”
“I am your Mother.”
September 23, 1948
“I have the permission of my Son to tell you something which will make you happy. All souls consecrated to God are nearest to HIS HEART.”
“I love you my dear little ones and I will keep you safe under my mantle.”
In the different apparitions of the Blessed Mother, not once did she ask to pray for priests, and/or consecrated persons. Why does she put stress on this request? Who or what are PRIESTS?
As the Blessed Mother has said, all souls consecrated to God are nearest to Jesus’ heart. Whom she also keeps under the mantle of her maternal protection, provided of course they are willing or ask for it. Though even before they ask for it, or even before they thought of it, Mary’s maternal instinct to protect her children, her Son’s priests, obliges her to do it without them asking for it.
A priest is “a means by which Christ unceasingly builds up and leads His Church”; therefore it is the mission of the Catholic priest “to feed the Church by the word and grace of God” (LG, 11). As such, a priest is a mediator or ‘bridge-builder’ between God and humanity; he does this by participating in the one priesthood of Jesus Christ, who unites God and humanity in his very being. The priest carries out this ‘bridge-building’ through teaching, divine worship and leading the people (CCC 1592).
A priest offers the ministry of Jesus Christ to us today. When a priest offers the holy sacrifice of the Mass, it is Christ who offers the sacrifice. When he absolves sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, it is Christ who forgives. When he partakes in the mission of the Church to teach and evangelize, it is Christ who speaks through him. When he offers love, comfort and support to God’s people, Christ is truly present with them. For this reason, St John Vianney explained the priesthood in the following terms: “The priest continues the work of redemption on earth … The priest will not understand the greatness of his office until he is in heaven. If he understood it on earth, he would die, not of fear, but of love … The priest is the love of the heart of Jesus” (CCC 1589)
When the priest fails to remember who he is, what is his roles and mission, he fails to do what Jesus ordained him for. He fails to serve God and the Church. He fails the Blessed Mother who trusts that he would bridge the works of her Son on earth until His second coming.
The priests are to lead the people to holiness. They are to bring the good news to the people, that Jesus – the only begotten Son of God was made man, suffered and died for us, to save us from the punishment that we all deserve because of our sins. The priests are to lead the people to Jesus, to God the Father, to teach us to call on the Holy Spirit to guide us on how to get to eternal life.
When the priests fail to do so, when the priests instead live as the world lives, away from God, or neglecting God, or as if God does not exist or do not see what they do, the Sacred Heart of Jesus bleeds anew. When the heart of her Son bleeds, the Immaculate Heart of Mary bleeds as well.
The Blessed Mother has been going around in many apparitions throughout time in the different parts of the world, giving messages for people to return to her Jesus her Son to be saved. She wanted to save people, she wanted even more to save fallen priests and nuns who are supposed to lead people to Jesus, our salvation. When a priest falls out of grace, many people fall with him. When a priest errs, many people err with him because of his misleading.
We are in the end times. Nobody knows the day and the hour. But public revelation ended at the death of the last apostle. We do not know how long the “end times” will be, but we do know we are in it. We all see the signs, chaos both in the secular world and in the Church, wars, pestilence and pandemics, natural calamities and man-made, religious scandals, and signs of the anti-Christ.
People need guides, leaders who will show them the way to our Savior. What would happen if these guides and leaders are the ones who get lost? Many people may lose their way too, no one to turn to, no sure guide to the right path.
As the end times draws to its closure, as the second coming is near, time becomes shorter for people to be guided to the right path. The devil is working double-time to bring more people to eternal damnation with him. The priests of Christ must also work double-time to bring people to our Savior, to lead them to our present time Ark – the Blessed Mother who will bring us to the harbor of Jesus her Son.
As the Blessed Mother asks the people, the ordinary people, the lay people to pray for priests and religious, what does the Blessed Mother ask of priests?
BE HOLY PRIESTS.
OTHER RESOURCES:
1) https://www.vocationcentre.org.au/home/what-is-a-vocation/priesthood/what-is-a-catholic-priest/
2) https://youtu.be/Jxz_14YXb-w
3) Photo: https://philippines.licas.news/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20200125-120th-CBCP-PlenaryAssembly-002-696×464.jpg