Celebrating the Year for Priests at Blessed Sacrament Church

On the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Friday 19 June 2009, Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI inaugurated a "Year for Priests" in celebration of the 150th anniversary of John Mary Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests worldwide. The "Year for Priests" will conclude on the same Solemnity in 2010.

Our Holy Father wrote in his letter to clergy that this Year is meant to deepen the commitment of all priests to interior renewal for the sake of a more forceful and incisive witness to the Gospel in today's world.

Our parish is encouraging all faithful to support our priests with special prayers and obtaining indulgences. Here are some ideas:

Pray for our priests daily

1. A handout with suggested prayers provided in our church
   You are wholeheartedly invited to pray for our priests. A 2-fold handout with a proposed prayer collection is available on the tables at the church entrances, in the Eucharistic Chapel and/or on the rack at the back of the old part of our church.
2. The Rosary for the Year for Priests
   A beautiful Rosary for Priests is provided on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website at this link.
3. The Peoples’ Prayer for Priests
   Pray this special prayer – also found on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website; click here.

 Pray daily for specific priests - diocesan calendar
Starting in mid-September a diocesan calendar - which assigns a few priests from our diocese to each day of the month - will be available. This way we will be able to pray for a few priests each day and within an entire month we will pray for all of them.
These calendars will also be available first on the tables at the church entrances and then on the racks.

Prayer during weekend Liturgy
- The entire congregation will pray a chosen prayer for priests at the beginning of each Holy Mass.

 Eucharistic Adoration on Monday, September 14th
On September 14th, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, our entire Monday Eucharistic Adoration (7:30 pm – 10:00 pm) will be dedicated to praying for the priests. Please, mark your calendars now and plan to attend.

We will pray especially for the intention of special priestly graces during the Spiritual Day for Priests with Fr. McAlear which will take place on October 1st. The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy at 8:45 pm will also be prayed in this intention.

 Plenary and partial indulgences to the faithful
During the Year for Priests the Pope Benedict grants the following indulgences to the faithful:

Plenary Indulgence
All truly penitent Christian faithful who, in church or oratory, devotedly attend Holy Mass and offer prayers to Jesus Christ, supreme and eternal Priest, for the priests of the Church, or perform any good work to sanctify and mold them to His Heart, are granted a Plenary Indulgence, on the condition that they have expiated their sins through Sacramental Confession and prayed in accordance with the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff.

The remaining days we may obtain this indulgence are:
- On the first Thursday of each month.
- On the closing day of the Year of Priests

The elderly, the sick and all those who for any legitimate reason are unable to leave their homes, may still obtain a plenary indulgence if, with the soul completely removed from attachment to any form of sin and with the intention of observing, as soon as they can, the usual three conditions, "on the days concerned, they pray for the sanctification of priests and offer their sickness and suffering to God through Mary, Queen of the Apostles."

Partial Indulgence
A partial indulgence is offered to the faithful each time they pray five “Our Father,” “Hail Mary” and “Glory Be,” or any other duly approved prayer "in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to ask that priests maintain purity and sanctity of life."

See this link for general information about indulgences.