Make special intentions in your daily prayers

As we approach the month of May, I always recall with not just a bit of nostalgia but with a great deal of gratitude to my parents, how special they made this month for me and for my brothers and sister. The specialness of this month had nothing much to do with material things but everything to do with a special custom and devotion of Our Blessed Mother.
 
From May 1 to May 31, we had a beautiful “May altar” in the living room of our home. It was not large, but it was truly beautiful. A statute of Our Blessed Mother was surrounded by fresh flowers every day and candles were placed on either side of her statue and lit when we said our family rosary there each day. Of course, we prayed the family rosary every day of the year, but in May the “altar” gave it a specialness that I shall not forget.
 
As we know, May has been dedicated to Our Blessed Mother in our Catholic life for many, many years. Having just celebrated the great mysteries of our redemption during Holy Week, the Paschal Triduum and now the Easter Season, the place of Our Blessed Mother in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is so prominent and so important for us to know and imitate. The Mysteries of the Holy Rosary are one of the best ways for us to do just that. I encourage you to pray the rosary each day in May. Look to Our Blessed Mother for the best example as to how to follow Jesus in good times and in bad times. Ask her to guide you to Him as she does countless others. Make this month of May a time of real devotion to Our Blessed Mother and work to make your daily faith in God a Marian faith.
 
With so much happening in this month, I ask you to make a special intention in your daily prayers for the two men, Jordan Dosch and Gregory Luger, to be ordained to the Sacred Priesthood on May 31, the Feast of the Visitation. Please pray for them and with them that they will be good and faithful priests of Jesus Christ for the rest of their lives. Also, please do continue to pray for all of our priests. We celebrated the Chrism Mass on Monday of Holy Week and I cannot tell you how moved I am when I see them with me in the sanctuary, renewing their promises of ordination and concelebrating Holy Mass. We have such good priests and I am most grateful to Almighty God for them.
 
Finally, please pay for all of our current seminarians and for the men who will join them in August by entering priestly formation. I know you agree with me when I say that these good men are the future of the Church and the Diocese of Bismarck. Without our future priests, we will not have the Mass, the sacrament of penance and in our times of need, the sacrament of the anointing of the sick. Pray for them and encourage other young men to listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit to discern the call of Christ to be priests.