54-Day Rosary Novena for Our Priests

This year there are exactly 54 days between the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Memorial of St. John Vianney. With everything that has been facing the priesthood and the need for renewal, now is the time to pray a 54-Day Rosary Novena for our priests. My area will be doing a spiritual adoption of each priest in our diocese and the novena. If your parish is interested in using the prayer card my parochial vicar created, please contact me at constance.t.hull81@gmail.com. The spiritual adoption of your parish priest or the priests of the diocese can be done at any point during the novena or at a later time. Fr. Anthony has graciously agreed for his artwork to be used freely wherever it is needed with attribution. All you need to do is format the prayer card document and send the prayer card to your local printer or print it in your parish. I also have a tri-fold brochure in PDF that I can email to folks to print as well that you are welcome to use. All of it is free of charge. We just want people to pray for priests! God bless you. I hope you will join us in this novena. Here is the novena information in a web format:

54-Day Rosary Novena for Our Priests

“The priest is not a priest for himself; he does not give himself absolution; he does not administer the Sacraments to himself; He is a priest for you.”

St. John Vianney

NOVENA SCHEDULE
27 Days of Petition
June 12-July 9
27 Days of Thanksgiving
July 10-August 4

The 54-Day Rosary Novena is six novenas prayed in a row for the same prayer intentions. The first half of the novena focuses on three novenas in petition to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The second half of the novena is an offering of three novenas in thanksgiving for God hearing our prayers. The novena follows a set schedule of praying the Joyful Mysteries, Sorrowful Mysteries, and Glorious Mysteries. The Luminous Mysteries are not prayed for a 54-day novena, so this novena does not follow the usual days of the Rosary. We will begin with the Joyful Mysteries on June 12th, the next day Sorrowful, next day Glorious, then repeat.

Fr. Anthony Ferguson, Parochial Vicar, St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Roanoke, VA in the Diocese of Richmond custom designed this image for the spiritual adoption of our priests and for our novena. The four crosses in each corner are a reference to the altar where Our Lord is offered by the priest in His Eucharistic Sacrifice. The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is pierced for love of us, pouring out His blood for our salvation into the chalice of the New Covenant. The fire of His love burns and illuminates the entire image and inflames the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Pure Heart of St. Joseph. The Immaculate Heart of Mary points to Her as the Mother and Queen of priests who is pierced in union with Her Son and for her priest-sons. St. Joseph’s Chaste Heart in this Year of St. Joseph represents his spiritual fatherhood in the life of the priest and the priest’s call to defend Holy Mother Church. The Latin on the chalice is taken from Revelation 21:5 “Behold, I make all things new.” The Latin on the bottom is from Psalm 110:4, which is used at ordination Masses: “You are a priest forever.” The sword piercing Our Lady and St. Joseph’s lily are pointing in the same direction as Our Lord’s Most Precious Blood flowing into the chalice. Our salvation is through Him alone.

Novena Intentions

For our bishop, priests, seminarians, and an increase in holy vocations to the priesthood in our diocese.

• To be completely Eucharistic. Seeking their identity in Him alone.
• To be men of deep prayer and intimate union with the Most Holy Trinity.
• To seek the Father for themselves and for others.
• To be filled with a zeal for the evangelization of souls.To be alone with Mary, close to her heart, with her in prayer, and to live as her beloved sons. 
• To celebrate the Mass with great love, devotion, and reverence, and to live the Mass in their daily ministry
• To consecrate every moment of the day to Our Lady through the Liturgy of the Hours. 
• To enter the conversation of the Rosary daily.
• To become true spiritual fathers through the intercession of Mary and St. Joseph.
• To be men who are crucified with Christ for the salvation of souls.
• To walk the Way of the Cross in their daily lives in union with Christ and Our Sorrowful Mother.
• To seek the path to holiness no matter the cost.
• To be bold and clear preachers of God’s Word and authentic doctrine.
• To be men of close fraternal communion with one another.
• To build up, defend, and protect families and the Mystical Body of Christ.

Spiritual Communion

*To be said after the completion of the Rosary each day.

My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You in my soul. Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You. Amen.

**You do not have to pray two Rosaries per day to complete this novena, although you may. You can unite all of your other daily Rosary intentions to this novena.

Thank you for praying for our priests! Please pray for them daily.