Prayer for Priests: Catholic Prayers for Your Parish Priest

Priests give their lives to bring us Christ in the sacraments, and they need our prayers more than we often realize. St. Thérèse of Lisieux, who prayed for priests all her life, told her superiors that she had entered Carmel “to save souls, and especially to pray for Priests.” Below are traditional Catholic prayers for the clergy, prayers for your parish priest, for vocations to the priesthood, for a priest who is sick or struggling and for priests who have died, with the Scripture behind them.

A traditional prayer for the whole Church and its ministers

This prayer for “all degrees and orders” in the Church, from bishops and priests to every member of the faithful, is from Blessed Be God (1925):

Almighty and everlasting God, by Whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is sanctified and governed; mercifully hear our humble supplications for all degrees and orders therein; that, by the gift of Thy grace, all in their several stations may faithfully serve Thee. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

A prayer for the Pope, bishops and pastors

From Father Lasance’s With God (1911):

Jesus, invisible and divine head of Thy spouse the Church, Who, with Thy blood, hast purified and sanctified her, have mercy upon her visible head, N. (our Pope), upon all bishops and pastors, especially N., our bishop, and shed upon them Thy Holy Spirit, wherewith Thy apostles and disciples were filled, that they may maintain Thy holy faith pure and untouched, and may spread over the whole world the light of Thy gospel and of Thy Catholic truth.

A prayer for my parish priest

Written for this page:

Lord Jesus, Good Shepherd, bless Father (name), the priest you have given to our parish.
Keep him close to your Heart and faithful to his promises.
Give him joy in celebrating the Mass, patience in the confessional
and wisdom in guiding your people.
Strengthen him when he is tired, console him when he is lonely,
and protect him from every temptation and danger.
Mary, Mother of priests, keep him under your mantle. Amen.

A prayer for vocations to the priesthood

Jesus himself told us to pray for vocations:

And seeing the multitudes, he had compassion on them: because they were distressed, and lying like sheep that have no shepherd.
Then he saith to his disciples, The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers are few.
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send forth labourers into his harvest.

Lord of the harvest, send laborers into your harvest.
Call young men from our families and our parish to serve you as priests,
and give them generous hearts to answer your call.
Bless our seminarians and those who form them. Amen.

This prayer was written for this page. See also our Prayers of the Faithful for vocations.

A prayer for a sick or struggling priest

Lord, you know the burdens Father (name) carries.
Heal him in body and soul, lift his discouragement,
and surround him with good friends and brother priests.
Renew in him the joy of the day of his ordination. Amen.

This prayer was written for this page.

A prayer for a priest who has died

The Church’s traditional prayer for a deceased bishop or priest, from Archbishop Moran’s Catholic Prayer Book (1883):

O God, who amongst thy apostolic priests hast raised up thy servant N. to the dignity of a Bishop (or a priest) grant we beseech thee, that he may also be admitted in heaven to their everlasting fellowship: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen.

What Scripture says about priests

For every high priest taken from among men, is ordained for men in the things that appertain to God, that he may offer up gifts and sacrifices for sins:
Who can have compassion on them that are ignorant and that err: because he himself also is compassed with infirmity.
And therefore he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.
Neither doth any man take the honour to himself, but he that is called by God, as Aaron was.

Every priest shares in the one priesthood of Christ, “a means by which Christ unceasingly builds up and leads his Church” (CCC 1547).

Ways to support your priests

Pray for them by name every day, especially on Thursdays, the day Jesus instituted the Eucharist and the priesthood at the Last Supper.
Offer a Mass, a Rosary or a Holy Hour for your priests. Some Catholics “spiritually adopt” a priest and pray for him for life.
Pray on the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests, kept on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Friday, June 4, 2027).
Ask the intercession of St. John Vianney (August 4), the Curé of Ars, named patron of parish priests by Pope Pius XI in 1929.
Thank them and remember their ordination anniversaries; see Prayers of the Faithful for an ordination anniversary.

Frequently asked questions

Who is the patron saint of priests?

St. John Vianney is the patron of parish priests. Priests also look to St. Joseph, Mary as Mother of priests, and St. Peter.

Why should Catholics pray for priests?

Because they are weak men entrusted with a great task, and the devil attacks the shepherds to scatter the flock. Our prayer for them returns to us in grace, through the sacraments they celebrate.

Is there a day to pray for priests?

Every Thursday is traditionally a day of prayer for priests. Worldwide, the Church prays for their holiness on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart.

More prayers

Texts and sources

Prayer for all degrees of men in the Church: Charles J. Callan and John A. McHugh, Blessed Be God (1925), Prayers for the Living, public domain (Wikisource).
Prayer for the Pope, bishops and pastors: F. X. Lasance, With God (1911), Devotions to Our Divine Lord, public domain (Wikisource).
Prayer for a deceased bishop or priest: Patrick F. Moran, The Catholic Prayer Book and Manual of Meditations (1883), Prayers for the Dead, public domain (Wikisource).
St. Thérèse of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul, trans. T. N. Taylor, chapter VII (Project Gutenberg #16772).
Scripture: Matthew 9:36–38; Hebrews 5:1–4, Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner), public domain. Catechism of the Catholic Church 1547.
The other prayers were written for this page.