Spiritual Motherhood Prayer

To be prayed by priests and seminarians

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Dearest Jesus, I love you with my whole heart! Springing from my love for You comes my love for all souls. Please teach me how to love them as You love them. By calling me to be a priest, You have called me to be close to Your Sacred Heart. To be so close has two reasons: to intercede for others and to console Your Heart. I unite myself as a victim with You on the cross, offering myself in intercession for those You have entrusted to me and making reparation for the sins we commit against You.

Thank you for giving me Spiritual Mothers. They are winning countless hidden graces for me. Help me not to squander these precious gifts as if pearls thrown to swine, but help me to accept all these graces with love in order to come before You at the end of my life well adorned with the proper wedding garments for Your Eternal Wedding Banquet. Help me to learn from my Mothers how to give myself totally and not expect anything in return. Help me to be like You.

Jesus, now it is my turn to pray for my Mothers. I am their son, but in some way they have also become the daughters of my priesthood. They are constantly giving birth to new graces in me, I would like to give the first fruits of my priesthood back to them. Please give them all the graces that they need for their union with You. Keep them strong in their faith, joyful in their hope, and tender in their love. As the priest prays for himself at Mass, I now pray for them, “Never let them be parted from You.” 

Mary, my dear Mother, please always accompany my Spiritual Mothers. I place them in your beautiful hands. Put your mantle over them to cover them with peace. May they always look to You as their example of how to be a mother.

Dearest Saint Joseph, my patron and most chaste spouse of Mother Mary, please provide for and protect my Spiritual Mothers just like you did for Mary. Shower upon them all the love and care that you showed Her. Teach me also how I can be a good father to them and be someone who always leads them closer to Christ.

Amen.