Pope Benedict XVI has declared this year, beginning on the recently celebrated Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a Year for Priests. He is encouraging priests to renew their life of prayer and service and encouraging the lay faithful tp pray for and support their priests. In a family with six boys to date, we do our best to encourage and pray for vocations to the priesthood. We also make an effort to befriend our local priests and give our boys the chance to know the good and holy men that serve them beyond their presiding at Sunday Mass. We are enthusiastic about the opportunity to pray for our priests this year.
In order to make sure our enthusiasm doesn't wane and to send a message of support to our priests, we are going to spend the year making spiritual bouquets for our priests. I have set up the area next to our mantle as the space dedicated to the Year for Priests.
Our statue of Our Lady of Fatima and the reminder to pray stand next to our old Liturgical Tree which we have repurposed for this special time to pray for priests. It is our spiritual bouquet. The plaque in front contains the name of the priest we began praying for on the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We will add a new name each month as we assemble our spiritual bouquets.
Under the cake dome are four small glass cups containing different colored hearts and leaves. Each represents something for our spiritual bouquet. We'll add leaves to the tree each time we offer a special prayer for our priests. Blue flowers are for rosaries or chaplets prayed. Yellow flowers are for fasts and sacrifices offered for our priests. And pink flowers are for Masses and holy hours.
I had ordered a lovely little statue of the Cure of Ars, patron of the Year for Priests, which stood in front of the dome. But the first time a toddler climbed up proudly to get a leaf to add to the tree, our poor little statue suffered a devastating accident. I am in the process of Mod-Podging a much more toddler friendly plaque with an image of the Cure.
At the end of each month of prayer, we'll photograph the tree (which will hopefully be much more full than it is here just a few days after the year's inception), print it out on card stock and send a note to the priest we have prayed for over the month. If he is a local priest, we will invite him to our home for dinner as well.
The boys are so excited and have begged to pray rosaries or go to the Adoration Chapel so that they could add flowers to the tree. I hope the fact that we will see it full every month and then empty again will motivate us to continue to pray fervently throguhout this year for the holy men who lay down their lives to serve us.
