The Diocese of Portland created an informational booklet regarding Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest. The booklet will help you understand the current situation of the Church in Maine and how all of us can work together to continue worshiping God as he calls us to his Word and to sharing in Communion. Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest are one pastoral response available to Catholics.
Click here to read a digital version of the informational booklet. Print copies are available at our churches.
Questions addressed in the booklet:
A Prayer for Vocations to the Priesthood (p. 11)
Loving Father, you sent your Son so that all might come to know the truth and be saved.
With the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, you continue his work through the Church.
Your Son reminded his disciples that the harvest was indeed plentiful but the laborers few.
Following his instructions, we beg you to call many to ordained priesthood.
Grant them the grace to hear you and to respond wholeheartedly.
May Mary Immaculate, the mother of your Son and the patroness of our diocese, intercede for us.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Adapted from a prayer composed by Most Rev. Joseph John Gerry, O.S.B., 10th Bishop of Portland