CAPG's Blog 

Painting with St. John Eudes with fathers and sisters of the congregations founded by himself.

Painted for the ceremony of beatification of Eudes, 1909

"(...) The bad or careless confessor, who is ignorant, imprudent, lazy, and negligent, is a plague in Christ's  Holy Church. He is not an emissary of God, but an agent of the devil. He is not a doctor of heaven but of hell, for as God has his patriarchs so the devil has heresiarchs. As God has His prophets, apostles and martyrs, so, too the devil has his prophets, apostles and martyrs.

The unworthy confessor is not a divine judge, but another Pilate, pronouncing sentence upon Christ and the souls that the Son of God died to redeem. He is not a mediator for God, but for the devil, not a dispenser of heavenly blessings but a profaner of divine mysteries and sacraments. In a word, instead of being another Christ, he is a very devil.

No tongue can tell the evil the bad confessor commits. He does great harm to the Church, persecuting it more cruelly than Nero, Diocletian, and the tyrants of history. Would to God that all priests who administer the Sacrament of Penance might meditate seriously on these truths! Would to God that they might consider the inestimable good that they would accomplish if they were animated with the same spirit and if they followed the same maxims! They would completely overthrow the devil's tyranny and snatch souls from perdition. Would they might open their ears to the words of the Holy Spirit: "Take heed what you do; for you exercise not the judgment of man, but of the Lord." (2 Par. 19,6) Take heed in very truth for what you do  is not temporary, but eternal. What you perform does not concern an earthly kingdom, but the kingdom of God. You handle the treasure of heaven; you are responsible for the salvation or the damnation of souls. Remember to bring to your task the care and application demanded; have the necessary qualifications. Otherwise, the absolution you give may become so many damnations for you. Never forget that when you say the words: Ego to Absolvo, the eternal judge may reply, if you are unworthy, Ego te condemno."

Source: The Priest his dignities and obligations, St. John Eudes

Prayer for Priest before Confession

In asking of Thee, O my God, the graces of which I am in need, can I, without ingratitude, forget before thee him whom thou hast chosen from among thy ministers to reconcile me to thee by the sacrament of penance, justly called the second plank after shipwreck?

Deign, I beseech thee, O my God, to adorn his soul with the virtues befitting the functions of the awful ministry with which you have invested him.

Grant him the faith of St. Peter, and the charity of St. Paul, the firmness of St. Chrysostom, the evangelic liberty of St. Ambrose, the lights of St. Augustine, the piety of St. Bernard, the zeal of St. Charles Borromeo, the mildness of St. Francis de Sales, and the humility of St. Vincent de Paul.

Guide him thyself, O Lord, in all his actions, that, after having been here below a prudent and faithful dispenser of thy mysteries, he may hereafter receive from thy bountiful hands the BRIGHT CROWN thou hast promised in a blessed eternity to the priests who shall have consecrated their lives to bring back their fellow-creatures from the ways of error, and conduct them in the paths of justice and peace. Amen

St. Joseph's Manual By Rev. James Fitton, (1877)

Prayer for Priest After Confession

A Prayer for a Priest after Confession

O Lord Jesus Christ, bless, I beseech Thee,Thy servant who has now ministered to me in Thy name. Help me to remember his good counsel and advice, and to perform duly what he has rightly laid upon me. And grant him the abundance of Thy grace and favor, that his own soul may be refreshed and strengthened for Thy perfect service, and that he may come at last to the joy of Thy heavenly kingdom. Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity 1896, p 293