Hello everyone. I hope you are well and keeping safe. I just returned from St Patrick's Cathedral where I concelebrated the Ordination Mass in which Fr. Luis was ordained. Beautiful! The ordination rituals brought me back to my own day of ordination 28 years ago. Today's Mass was a powerful reminder to me of the call to service to God's holy people.
Fr Luis will get his assignment soon, what a blessing he will be wherever he goes. Would you please join me in praying for him? Here is a great little prayer that I will use:
O Jesus, our great High Priest, Hear my humble prayers on behalf of your priest, Father Luis Silva. Give him a deep faith, a bright and firm hope and a burning love which will ever increase in the course of his priestly life.
In his loneliness, comfort him. In his sorrows, strengthen him. In his frustrations, point out to him that it is through suffering that the soul is purified, and show him that he is needed by the Church, he is needed by souls, he is needed for the work of redemption.
O loving Mother Mary, Mother of Priests, take to your heart your son who is close to you because of his priestly ordination, and because of the power which he has received to carry on the work of Christ in a world which needs him so much.
Be his comfort, be his joy, be his strength, and especially help him to live and to defend the ideals of consecrated celibacy.
Amen.