Optional Celibacy: So All Can Be At the Table
During the Church's Year for the Priest, pray for our ordained priests and for those whose calls to be priests and deacons go unheard because of current church discipline. Access our great Catholic tradition of intercessory prayer by praying this novena on the first Friday of the month throughout the Year of the Priest, which ends in June, 2010. Share the novena with your friends. If you would like an email reminder to pray the novena, sign up for our FutureChurch Update E-newsletter.
Novena to the Holy Spirit for an Inclusive Priesthood
to be prayed on the first Friday of every month
during the Church’s Year for Priests
Holy Spirit, I believe in your work among us and within us.
I come to you committed to the full expression of the Gospel through the work of the Church. I am saddened by the lack of priests to provide the Eucharist, the Bread of Life, especially in the developing world. I am one of many who hunger for an inclusive priesthood that allows all who are so called to discern ministry to the People of God as a deacon or a priest.
I ask your grace and intercession:
O Holy Spirit, may the fire of your love renew priests all over the world in love and service to the People of God.
O Holy Spirit, let our Church celebrate the gift of celibacy as a powerful grace and yet recognize that it is not given to all called to the ministerial priesthood. We pray for the day that both celibate and married priests serve you through the sacrament of Holy Orders.
O Holy Spirit, let our Church celebrate the powerful expression of love and commitment that is the gift of marriage, a gift that can only enhance the ministerial priesthood for those so called.
O Holy Spirit, continue gifting Catholic women with love, service, and trust that their faithful perseverance will one day lead to structures that mirror their full baptismal equality in the Catholic Church.
O Holy Spirit, open the hearts and ears of our bishops and our Pope to support and encourage the diaconal and presbyteral calls of both married and celibate Catholics.
O Holy Spirit, I bring to you my love and concern for the worldwide Church and ask for your guidance as we move ever closer to the reign of God where all have a place at the table of God.
Amen.
