Vocations Director: Pray novena for Priesthood Sunday
Priesthood Sunday is a special day set aside to honor, celebrate, and pray for our priests. It is a day to reflect upon and affirm the priesthood's central role in the Church's life. The US Council of Serra International coordinates and sponsors this nationwide event. The day is celebrated annually on the last Sunday of September, which falls on September 29 this year.
As our diocesan Director of Vocations and the chaplain to our local Serra Club of Spokane, I am delighted to invite you to join us in praying a novena to pray for our priests prior Priesthood Sunday. I also encourage you to consider finding ways to honor your parish priest(s) in your own way on Priesthood Sunday itself. Suggestions for how to do this can be found on the webpage of the Serra Club of Spokane.
To pray for our priests, we will use a novena to St. John Vianney, who is the patron saint of parish priests and a powerful intercessor for the sanctity of priests and for an increase in vocations. As our world faces numerous challenges, it is paramount that we come together in prayer for our priests, who selflessly lead our Church communities, make our Eucharistic Lord present, and are conduits of Jesus’ mercy. I invite you to join us in praying this novena in the nine days leading up to Priesthood Sunday, September 29, 2024. Novenas are prayed over the course of nine days, typically ending on the vigil of the notable day—in this case, it will begin on Friday, September 20 and end on Saturday, September 28.
You can use the prayers below - one for each day - to pray this novena:
Novena to St. John Vianney, Patron of all Priests
Pray the Novena for all priests.
1st Day - Ardent Faith (9/20)
Saint John Marie Baptist Vianney you were born of a deeply religious mother; from her you received the holy faith; you learned to love God and to pray. At a young age, you were seen kneeling in front of the statue of Mary. Your soul was supernaturally carried towards the things on high. Despite the high cost, you answered your vocation! Against many obstacles and contradictions, you had to fight and suffer to become the perfect priest which you were. But your deep spirit of faith supported you in all these battles. O Great Saint, you know the desire of my soul. I would like to serve God better; from Him I have received so many good things. For this, obtain for me more courage and especially the depth of faith. Many of my thoughts, words, and actions are useless for my sanctification and for my salvation, because this supernatural spirit does not stir up my life. Help me to be better in the future. Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession. Pray also for all our priests during this novena that they will have a strong faith in God and acknowledge His power working through them in Holy Orders. May they work zealously to convert souls and enlarge the Kingdom of heaven. (Pray one Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be)
2nd Day - Complete Trust In God (9/21)
Saint John Marie Baptist Vianney, what confidence the people had in your prayers!You could not leave your old rectory or your humble church without being surrounded by imploring souls, who appealed to you as they would have appealed to Jesus Himself during His earthly life. And you, O good Saint, gave them hope by your words, which were full of love for God. You, who had always counted entirely on the Heart of God, obtain for me a deep filial trust in His Providence. As the hope of divine goods fills my heart, give me courage, and help me to always obey the Commandments of God. Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession. Pray also for all our priests during this novena that they will place all their trust in God’s divine providence and do His Holy Will. (Pray one Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be)
3rd Day - True Love of Neighbor (9/22)
Saint John Marie Baptist Vianney because of your love of God you showed great charity towards your neighbor. You could not preach on the Love of God without shedding tears of love. During your last years, it seemed as though you could not talk about anything else or live for anything else. Thus, you sacrificed yourself to your neighbor by consoling, absolving and sanctifying them to the limits of your strength. Your charity inspires me to greater love of God, a love which is shown more by acts then by words. Help me to love our neighbor generously as Christ loves them. Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession. Pray also for all our priests during this novena that their hearts will be set on fire with God’s love, and their whole lives be a witness and a radiance of God’s love to the whole world. (Pray one Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be)
4th Day - Horror of Sin (9/23)
Saint John Mary Baptist Vianney, you were so adamant against sin, yet so sympathetic and so ready to welcome the sinner. We come to you today as if you were still alive, as if we were kneeling at your feet and you could hear us. Bend towards us, listen to the repentant confidence for the weaknesses and miserable deeds of ours. Priest of the Lord, inexhaustible confessor, obtain for us the horror for sin. You wanted us first to avoid the occasion of sin. We want to take your advice and make the resolution to break bad habits and to avoid the dangerous occasions of sin. Help us today to examine our conscience. Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession. Pray also for all our priests during this novena that they will have a deep contrition of their sins and the grace to expiate and make amends for their offences against God. (Pray one Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be)
5th Day - Confessor of Souls (9/24)
O Holy Priest of Ars, you knew how important a good confession is for the Christian life. It was to procure the happy fruits of millions of souls that you agreed to be in an uncomfortable confessional, which was like a prison, up to 15 to 16 hours on certain days. I will try to develop the habit of frequent confession, to prepare properly each time and to always have repentance for my sins, so that the grace of final perseverance but also the sanctification of my soul will be assured. Ask this grace for me. Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession. Pray also for all our priests during this novena that they will come to understand the importance of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and be a sign and instrument of God's merciful love for the sinners. Help them to also have the humility to approach a brother priest to ask for the absolution that they so often give to the faithful so that the Lord may constantly purify their hearts and make them less unworthy of the mysteries they celebrate. (Pray one Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be)
6th Day - Real Presence (9/25)
O Holy Priest of Ars, whose only comfort in this world was the real Presence of Jesus in the tabernacle, was it not your great joy to distribute the Eucharist to the pilgrims who visited you? You refused Communion to the souls who refused to reform but to souls of goodwill you opened wide the doors of the Eucharistic Feast. You, who each day at Holy Mass received Holy Communion with great love, give me some of your fervor. With freedom from mortal sin, obtain for me a sincere desire to profit from receiving Holy Communion. Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession. Pray also for all our priests during this novena that they will have a deep love of the Holy Mass and Eucharist and have the grace to spend some time in daily prayer before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament (Pray one Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be)
7th Day - Dispeller of Satan (9/26)
O Holy Priest of Ars, the infamous attacks of the devil which you had to suffer and the trials which disheartened you by fatigue would not make you give up the sublime task of converting souls. The devil came to you for many years to disturb your short rest, but you won because of mortification and prayers. Powerful protector, you know the tempter’s desire to harm my baptized and believing soul. He would have me sin, by rejecting the Holy Sacraments and the life of virtue. But good Saint of Ars, dispel from me the traces of the enemy. Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession. Pray also for all our priests during this novena that they will bear any suffering or trials patiently for Christ and look to Him for strength and hope. (Pray one Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be)
8th Day - Exquisite Purity (9/27)
O Holy Priest of Ars, a witness of your life made this magnificent praise of you. “We would have taken him for an angel in a mortal body." You so edified others: the modesty and the exquisite purity radiated from your body. With such charm and with such enthusiasm you preached to others about these beautiful virtues which you said resembled the perfume of a vineyard in bloom. Please I beg you to join your entreaties to those of Mary Immaculate and Saint Philomena in order that I guard always, as God asks me, the purity of my heart. You, who have directed so many souls towards the heights of virtue, defend me in temptations and obtain for me the strength to conquer them. Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession. Pray also for all ourpriests during this novena that you will help fill their lives with the grace of holiness and purity and protect their vocations. (Pray one Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be)
9th Day - Desire For Heaven (9/28)
O Holy Priest of Ars, your precious remains are contained in a magnificent reliquary, the donation from the priests of France. But this earthly glory is only a very pale image of the unspeakable glory which you are enjoying with God. During the time you were on earth, you used to repeat in your dejected hours, “one will rest in the other life." It is done, you are in eternal peace, and eternal happiness. I desire to follow you one day. Until then, I hear you saying to me: "You should work and fight as long as you are in the world." Teach me then to work for the salvation of my soul, to spread the good news and good example and to do good towards those around me in order that I will receive the happiness of the Elect with you. Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession. Pray also for all our priests during this novena that they may see the vanity of all the transitory goods of this world, that they will only use them for God’s greater glory and the salvation of souls. (Pray one Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be)
O St. John Vianney, Patron of Priests, pray for us and for all priests!
