Molon labe.

This post originally appeared on Instagram on March 24, 2021.

Lord, all knowing and all powerful, You hold me in the palm of Your hand. Everything You allow is for the good of my salvation, and I take none of it for granted. Please, I beg You, grant me the grace to accept all my sufferings as gifts from You.

If it be Your Holy Will, grant me, Your sinful and undeserving servant, the blessing of HOLY and COURAGEOUS SHEPHERDS.

Please, dear Lord, give me shepherds who:

•lead me to salvation, not temporal safety.

•reject the ways of the world and embrace true piety and repentance.

•venerate Christ in the Eucharist with a reverence that comes from deep and abiding LOVE.

•preach the gospel, not the news, salvation, not safety, liberty, not enslavement.

•do not hesitate to tear down false idols.

•eschew platitudes and pretty words and speak eternal truth with clarity.

•won’t manipulate or coerce their sheep into obeisance to Caesar, but who instead always, always, always lead me directly to You.

Give us, O Lord, holy and courageous shepherds who will stand, united in their love for Christ and rejection of the devil.

...who will stand before me and the rest of their flock, staffs held aloft in protection, fending off the wolves at the gate.

Give us shepherds who, when those wolves try to take our Sacraments again, as we know they will, will shout in one voice,

MOLON LABE.

COME AND TAKE THEM.

Grant us this petition through Christ Our Lord, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph her most chaste spouse.