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Prayer for a Parish Without a Priest - Stone - 02-27-2024
Taken from The Recusant #61 - Lent 2024 [slightly adapted]:
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Taken from “Gebetbuch fur Gemeinde ohne Seelsorger” (A Prayerbook for Parishes Without a Priest)
Imprimatur: Mgr. Konrad Martin, Bishop of Paderborn, Germany, 1876
Prayer for a Parish Without a Priest
Prayer for a Parish Without a Priest
Leader: Let us pray: Almighty Father, eternal God, look down graciously upon your poor orphaned parish/faithful gathered here before you. We deserve your righteous wrath, since we were formerly so ungrateful to you in the abundance of graces. “We have sinned, we have committed wickedness, we have acted in a godless way, and we have departed from the Lord.” But now we return to you in repentance, and out of the abyss of our misery we cry to the abyss of your mercy, that you may have mercy on us. Father! your children ask you for bread. We ask for the bread of the soul, for your grace!
All: Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us.
Leader: Holy God, holy strong God, holy immortal God!
All: Have mercy on us.
Leader: The altar is in mourning, the tabernacle is empty. We no longer have a priest to offer the sacrifice of atonement for us; we no longer have the Blessed Sacrament in our midst. Oh Jesus, dearest Jesus, why have you forsaken us? Forgive us the wrongs we have done to you in this sacrifice and sacrament, return to your penitent children and dwell with us again! But since we cannot yet enjoy your presence, bless us at least from the distance from those altars on which you sacrifice yourself today, for you have also healed the son of the centurion from afar. Let us receive some crumbs of the rich table of grace which you have prepared in the Catholic Church, for “for the whelps also eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters.” (Mat. 15:27), whereas we are your children!
All: Have mercy on us, o Lord, have mercy on us!
Leader: Holy God; holy, strong God; holy, immortal God!
All: Have mercy on us.
Leader: The confessional and pulpit are deserted. God, Holy Ghost, giver of grace, teacher of truth, whom we have so often despised, whose graces we have so shamefully embezzled, incline again to us who supplicate to you and take away from us our iniquities. Be our comforter, be our teacher, instruct us in your holy law, and give us strength to fulfil it.
All: Have mercy on us, o Lord, have mercy on us!
Leader: Holy God; holy, strong God; holy, immortal God!
All: Have mercy on us.