Archbishop Patrick Kelly of Liverpool has appealed to Catholics venerating the heart of St John Vianney to pray for priests and priestly vocations.
During Archbishop Kelly’s homily at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King in Liverpool this afternoon, where worshippers gathered to venerate the heart of the Curé of Ars, the archbishop reminded those present that the “Lord commands us to pray for his labourers”.
He said: “Jesus was stirred to the depth of his being in the face of every disease and every infirmity and he sends the twelve to heal every disease and every infirmity. This diocese was massively blessed by Fr Jimmy Collins, 70 years a priest, and as the healing Mass celebrated here, when for the first time he was not with us with his healing touch and powerful words, the crowds recognise a shepherd and seek for shepherds who are moved to the depths of their being in the face of every disease and infirmity.
“And it is precisely in the atmosphere of painful compassion that the Lord commands us to pray for labourers.”
The relic arrived at Manchester Airport on July 5 and was then taken to Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, on the first stage of its first tour on British soil, where it was venerated by more than 2,000 people.
It is due to arrive at St Michael and All Angels church on the Wirral this evening for compline.
Visit schedule
Day Two: Friday July 6
Location: St Michael’s and All Angels, Woodchurch, Wirral CH43 5LE
6pm-9pm: Veneration of the relic, Confessions concluding with Compline 8.45pm
Day Three: Saturday July 7
Location: St Wilfrid’s, Witton Street, Northwich Cheshire CW9 5NP
9am-11am Morning Prayer, Veneration of the relic and Confessions
Location: Shrewsbury Cathedral, Town Walls, Shrewsbury SY1 1TE
12:30pm-5:30pm Mass and Veneration of the relic and Confessions
Location: Oscott College, Chester Road, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands B73 5AA
Evening Invocation National Vocations Festival (This event is closed to the general public.)
Day Four: Sunday July 8
Morning: Invocation National Vocations Festival, Oscott (closed event)
2:00-6:00pm Veneration of the relic and Vespers for people of Birmingham at Oscott (open to the public)
Monday July 9
The relic of the heart of the Curé́ d’Ars returns to Ars
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