Fr. Gordon MacRae on the Year for Priests
Fr. Gordon MacRae on the Year for Priests
Several hours ago or this evening, depending upon where in the world you are, the Holy Father will commence the Year of the Priest following First Vespers of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart in the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome.
We priests are all encouraged to join ourselves spiritually to our Holy Father and to the Sacred Heart of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose image we are ordained and in whose Heart we serve. The faithful are also encouraged to join our Holy Father as we begin this new year in the life of the Church, a year dedicated to the wounded and suffering Priesthood of Christ.
As we begin this year I want to thank the readers of Priests in Crisis, and those who read numerous other sites and have posted messages directed to me, a priest in prison. After 15 years in prison your messages may be saving my faith. Two weeks ago I was aware that the Year of the Priest was beginning on this date.
I read the news of our Holy Father’s announcement as though I was seeing it through a very dense cloud. It is inevitable that prisoners feel separated from the world. In the life of our Church I very often feel a deeply felt separation. In just a few short weeks since Pentecost, your messages and prayers have built for me a bridge to Rome upon which I can partake of the life of the Church again in a spirit of unity with all of you who are, in fact, the Church.
Your faithfulness to the teachings of the Church, to the Corporal Works of Mercy, and to the alienated among us have been an inspiration for me and I feel deeply touched by your prayers. On this Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus I will also pray for you.
With love and blessings,
Fr. Gordon MacRae
See Fr. John Zuhlsdorf’s commentary on:
Leave Year for Priests greetings for Father Gordon MacRae in the comments section below!
Leave Year for Priests greetings for Father Gordon Macrae in the comments section below!
Father,
I will remember you in my prayers this Year for Priests. I will also pray to St. John Marie Vianney, the Cure D’Ars, to intercede on your behalf.
David
Dear Fr. MacRae,
My heart goes out to you as you suffer your imprisonment and isolation, but I’m so happy to hear that our words to you were/are helpful! You are probably MORE in union with the Church through your own suffering than you may ever realize. I’m glad you’re writing and speaking up, I’m glad you refuse to give in. In our current climate, we need to know firstly the injustices being done to our priests, and we need to know what to do to support you. I’ve begun to see your story pop up in many places…word is spreading! Know that you are in my prayers and will continue to be so. May this year for Priests bring you greater sanctity, mercy, and the justice for which you and we all are praying!
God bless you!
Comment to me from retired priest “Keep up the good fight for Gordon.”
This priest does not know you, Gordon, except through me but he understands and his heart goes out to you.
As you know, you are an inspiration to so many of us. Your faith is amazing and will not go unrewarded.
Love & Peace on this year of the priests.
Dear Father
I feel sure this Year of the Priest will bring you many blessings and your patient endurance will save many souls. I will not forget you in my prayers
Dear Father,
May this year of the Priest bring you many graces and blessings. I will continue to remember you in my prayers.Thank you for your priesthood. It may not seem like it from where you sit, but your witness is edifying; you have shown us how to suffer well.
May God Bless you and Mary keep you.
Dear Father MacRae,
Your suffering has touched my heart today. It is so difficult to embrace the human side of Christ’s church in these times. We are wise to retreat, to develop our interior life of prayer, in order to effectively combat the injustices all around us. I will pray for peace for you, and for justice, and that you will be released from prison. Please pray for me, too. God bless you.
Beth
Dear Gordon,
Thank you for your perseverence. You are an example to be imitated.
Oremus pro invicem
Wyoming
Dear Father Gordon
You are a priest forever. Nothing can change that. You are not alone. You are in that Sacred Heart. I was inspired again in our recent visits by your magnificent spirit and courage. Only someone as great as you can endure your life. It is so important that we live in the only moment we have–the now. The past is gone, and we have no promise of another moment. I am still in Missouri, and will offer the Misery summer humidity for you.
Dear. Father Gordan, This year of the Priest can be a unique time of renewal for the priesthood, thanks to those, like yourself, who are contributing not only to an insightful discussion about Priesthood, but also are living in a quiet and hidden way the core of Priesthood by staying close to Christ in good times and in diffcult times. Fr. Pete Lechner, s.P.
Dear Father Gordon, My heart aches for you. God has given me the privilege of sharing with you the same pain, I have been accused falsely by a 33 years old man, whom I have baptized as a 5 years old child in 1981.
Considering your current ordeal, my sufferings pale beside yours. That is the reason why I feel more respect for you, whom I consider a confessor of Christ. To alleviate your suffering, I shall tell you a story. There was an innocent man considered a highly dangerous rebel by his judge, and guilty of blasphemy by his coreligionists. He was scourged NUDE, bore his cross along a quarter of a mile NUDE, and laid on a cross for around three hours NUDE,.
He was exposed in his manhood to the view of his Mother, her two sisters and his most dedicated female disciple Mary of Magdala.. Why I am telling you that? Because after my personal experience, in which the accuser has mentioned graphically my genitals, I feel more acutely than ever the shame Our Lord Jesus Christ has to bear. I cry when I compare Our Lord in his transfiguration to the same Son of God in his NUDITYy on the Cross. Indeed the dishonor is the heaviest cross for falsely accused priests to bear. May God and the Blessed Virgin give you strength. I will pray until you be exonerated.