Appreciation to the Priesthood.

This post has been edited due to my decision to move on. Click here for a read.
The earlier post was titled "Priest Threatens Ex-Seminarian" .

As I have said many times, i still respect and appreciate the priesthood. Thank God for the many holy and God-fearing priests who tirelessly minister their flock. I salute you, I pray for you. You are the hope of this trying times. You show us the face of God. Here a prayer for you and the rest who need to imitate you.

Prayer for Priests

by St. Therese of Lisieux

O Jesus, eternal Priest,
keep your priests within the shelter of Your Sacred Heart,
where none may touch them.

Keep unstained their anointed hands,
which daily touch Your Sacred Body.

Keep unsullied their lips,
daily purpled with your Precious Blood.

Keep pure and unearthly their hearts,
sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood.

Let Your holy love surround them and
shield them from the world's contagion.

Bless their labors with abundant fruit
and may the souls to whom they minister
be their joy and consolation here
and in heaven their beautiful and
everlasting crown.
Amen.

No Vocation??...My Foot!!

This post has been edited due to my decision to move on. Click here for a read.

Prayer for Priests
O, Jesus, I pray for Your faithful and fervent priests; for Your unfaithful and tepid priests; for Your priests labouring at home and abroad in distant mission fields; for your lonely and desolate priests; for Your young priests; for Your dying priests.

Above all I recommend to You the priests dearest to me: the priest who baptised me; the priests who absolve me; the priests at whose Masses I assist and who give me Your Body and Blood in Holy Communion; the priests who have taught and instructed me; all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way.

O, Jesus, keep them all close to Your heart, and bless them abundantly in time and eternity. Amen
(Source- Unknown)

Accidental touch makes girl unclean for prayers.

Hmmmm the above title would be a good headline for the newspapers!

This incident actually happened yesterday; a woman was having a 'break' in-between her prayer and while I was passing her, her tag our fingers slightly touched! For me it was nothing, so i just turned to continue my work but for this woman she was so uneasy that she quickly rose from her chair and told me "Adrian terkena jari kamu tadi, sembayang aku batal, aku kena basuh lagi" ("Adrian...touched your finger, now my prayer is canceled, i have to go and wash (purify) myself again.")

And i was like '@#$%' (no..its not a vulgar word! shame on you!!) I felt insulted of course! When she came back after some time (I guess after purifying herself -because, for the record, we had an accidental touch! and finishing her prayers) i asked her a question; Is it because the touched was with a man or because I'm not of her religion? And she answered that it was because i am a man.

I'm not sure of this religion but i guess they have a reason and some meanings for this sort of 'doings'. Hmmm I hope!
Thank God my religion or rather my relationship with God doesn't have any rigid rules that even an accidental touch can disrupt or even canceled the prayer.

Anyway i find the idea of purifying oneself before prayer is not after all a bad idea, Yes we have to be at right disposition when we're praying. I would like to quote St. John Mary Vianney whose feast day we celebrate today; "Prayer is nothing else than union with God. When the heart is pure and united with God it is consoled and filled with sweetness; it is dazzled by a marvelous light."

In honour of the 150th anniversary of the Death of St. John M. Vianney, Pope Benedict XVI declared that a Year of the Priests be celebrated starting June 19, 2009 until June 11, 2010. The faithful are especially called to pray for priests. I remember the pass weeks during the prayer for priests i was really scandalised. In the prayer especially in the 1st part there we're a lot of 'bodek-ing' ('buttering') on the priests and bishops. Some priests and bishop don't fit in that prayer!! I just felt like amending the prayer and if i did, it would just be a 1 sentence simple prayer. 'Lord Jesus, we thank you for the many faithful priests we have encountered, please bless them and we pray that the bishops and priests will be a faithful servant just as how You were faithful to Your Father.'