A terrible thing happened recently. A young priest, almost certainly reacting badly to medication, committed suicide. Fr. Evan Harkins, of the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph, had been on medication for an ailment. It seems to have affected him in a profoundly negative way.
I know I can count on you readers to pray for him and for his family and friends.
There is a lesson that comes from this. Medications can do really strange things to your mind.
In the wake of Fr. Harkins’ death, the Abbess of Gower – you will remember the great consecration of the Abbey and Abbess – sent out a letter which described the bad experience of some of the sisters who had some medication. HERE She writes about how medications for other things induced in her sisters suicidal thoughts.
Also, I recommend that you read the sermon given by the Bishop of Kansas City, Most. Rev. James Johnston, at the funeral Mass for Fr. Harkins. It is exceptional. HERE The bishop spoke, with permission of the family, about how medication for stomach problems worked negatively on Fr. Harkins.
Will you please pray for your priests? Some of your priests are having a hard time. Stress, medication, the deteriorating state of the Church, other factors can weigh heavily on them. May I recommend, please, a prayer for priests daily? I posted a link to such a prayer on the sidebar of this blog. Also, ladies, please consider the Seven Sisters Apostolate.
Daily Prayer for Priests
O Almighty Eternal God, look upon the face of Thy Christ, and for the love of Him who is the Eternal High Priest, have pity on Thy priests. Remember, O most compassionate God, that they are but weak and frail human beings. Stir up in them the grace of their vocation which is in them by the imposition of the bishop’s hands. Keep them close to Thee, lest the Enemy prevail against them, so that they may never do anything in the slightest degree unworthy of their sublime vocation.
O Jesus, I pray Thee for Thy faithful and fervent priests; for Thy unfaithful and tepid priests; for Thy priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields; for Thy tempted priests; for Thy lonely and desolate priests; for Thy young priests; for Thy aged priests; for Thy sick priests, for Thy dying priests; for the souls of Thy priests in Purgatory.
But above all I commend to Thee the priests dearest to me; the priest who baptized me; the priests who absolved me from my sins; the priests at whose Masses I assisted, and who gave me Thy Body and Blood in Holy Communion; the priests who taught and instructed me, or helped and encouraged me; all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way, particularly N. O Jesus, keep them all close to Thy Heart, and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity. Amen.
IMPRIMATUR
+Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison, 6 September 2018
