A Prayer for Priests

Keep them, I pray Thee, dearest Lord,
Keep them for they are Thine 
Thy priests who lives burn out before 
Thy consecrated shrine.
Keep them, for they are in the world,
Though from the world apart;
When earthly pleasures tempt, allure,
Shelter them in Thy heart.
Keep them, and comfort them in hours
of loneliness and pain,
When all their life of sacrifice
For souls seems but in vain.
Keep them, and O remember, Lord,
They have no one but Thee,
Yet they have only human hearts,
With human frailty.
Keep them as spotless as the Host,
That daily they caress;
Their every thought and word and deed,
Deign, dearest Lord, to bless.

A Prayer for the Church and Priests

	O my Jesus , I beg you on behalf of the whole Church: Grant it love and the light of Your Spirit and give power to the words of priests so that hardened hearts might be brought to repentance and return to you, O Lord.
	Lord give us holy priests; you Yourself maintain them in holiness. 
	O Divine and Great High Priest, may the power of Your mercy accompany them everywhere and protect them from the devil's traps and snares which are continually being set for the souls of priests. 
	May the power of Your mercy, O Lord, shatter and bring to naught all that might tarnish the sanctity of priests for You can do all things. 
	I ask you, Jesus, for a special blessing and for light for the priests before whom I will make my confessions throughout my lifetime.