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What is it?
Families are asked to spiritually adopt a priest in the archdiocese.
What do I have to do?
Pray one family Rosary each week for a priest of the archdiocese.
Why?
The goal is to have at least one family Rosary offered each day for all
170 priests working in the archdiocese.
How do I take part?
Fill out the form and send it to A
Family A Day For Priests, 150 Robson St., Vancouver, B.C. V6B 2A7. Participating families
will receive a card as a reminder of their commitment. Priests will receive a list of
families praying for them each day of the week.
Say a family rosary once a week for a priest of
the Vancouver Archdiocese.
"The Christian faithful... sharing the cares (of their priests), should help them
by prayer... so that their priests can more readily overcome difficulties and be able to
fulfill their duties more fruitfully." (Vatican II on Priests, n.9)
WHY PRAY FOR PRIESTS?
By Rev. Joseph Hattie, OMI
 Why pray for priests? The simple answer is so that they can better pray
for you.
Pope John Paul II has expressed it eloquently "The shepherd's prayer supports the
flock. This is certain. However it is also true that the people's prayers support whoever
has the task of leading them." From the beginning the faithful supported their
pastors with prayer, and especially when one was on his way to martyrdom, as for example
St. Ignatius of Antioch.
The priest needs the prayer support of his people for his own benefit and for their
benefit. The two benefits are intertwined. Each man ordained to the priesthood becomes
both another Christ and a gift, from the Father, to the Church, and then to the world for
its salvation.
The prayer of the people supports the priest in making the on-going and ever fuller
gift of self to the Father, for the salvation of souls. As the priest grows in this way,
he grows in holiness and his prayer for the flock becomes more powerful.
In turn he grows in his ability to make a more total gift of self in the service of his
people, even to the point of laying down his life for them.
Growth in his ability is tremendously important to his priestly apostolate because it
touches the destiny of many souls. So important, in fact, is it, that the devil gives a
great deal of attention to derailing and destroying it. Unfortunately the history of the
Church has many examples of his success. The priest therefore relies on the prayers of the
community to help him not only to grow in holiness but also in his ability to resist the
subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle temptations of the devil.
 Rosary powerful
The priest will be tempted in many ways. There will be temptations to do
too much or to do too little, temptations to discouragement and to criticism, temptations
to impatience with God's timetable and to procrastination, to mention a few.
He must also resist the temptation to think that the Sacrament of Holy Orders
automatically makes a man a holy priest. The prayers of the faithful will help him to live
his daily life in a way that will intensify his union with Christ and Christ's gift of
self to the Father and to his Mystical Bride, the Church.
This is the path that will enable the grace of his Sacrament to produce in him the
fruits of personal holiness and the fruits of a rich harvest of souls.
He needs prayers to help him resist the temptation to seek his own worldly and material
advantage through the priesthood. St. Paul warned us about this when he said that he was
committed to "Not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be
saved" (1 Cor. 1032). He was very much aware of the fact that we priests have been
anointed for the benefit of others, not for ourselves. Priests need the prayers of the
faithful to live a humble life and to conduct ourselves like Jesus, "Who came, not to
be served, but to serve" (Mt. 2028).
The priest also needs the prayers of the faithful so that at the end of his life he can
say with St. Paul "I am what I am by the grace of God, and His grace toward me was
not in vain" (1 Cor. 1510).
The Rosary, especially prayed as a family, a domestic Church, is a powerful help to a
priest, for growth in holiness and for help in resisting Satan's temptations. The Virgin
Mary has a special love for priests, who are, sacramentally, other Christs. She will do
great wonders of grace with a Rosary offered to her for a priest.
I sincerely think that she would also provide graces that would water the seeds of
vocations in the family that prayed such a Rosary. What a wonderful way to prepare to
better take the faith into the next millennium.
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