First Thursday's of the month offer a plenary indulgence during the Year for Priests:
Pope Benedict XVI announced a special Year for Priests to begin June 19, 2009, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart and ending June 19, 2010. In order to promote prayers for priests, he has announced that a plenary indulgence may be gained on the first and last day of the Year for Priests (6/19), and on the first Thursday of each month. To obtain the indulgence, the faithful must attend Mass and offer prayers to "Jesus christ, supreme and eternal Priest, for the priests of the Church, or perform any good work to sanctify them and mold them to His Heart". These must be accompanied by sacramental confession within 21 days before or after, and prayers for the Pope.
The elderly, the sick, or the home bound may gain the plenary indulgence if, with the intention of observing the usual three conditions (Mass and Communion, Confession, detachment from sin) as soon as they can, "on the days concerned, they pray for the sanctification of priests and offer their sickness and suffering to God through Mary, Queen of the Apostles:. A partial indulgence is offered to the faithful when they pray five times the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be, or any other duly approved prayer "in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to ask that priests maintain purity an sanctity of life".
(Indulgenced prayers and devotions are a gift from the Church to aid us in our spiritual journey. A plenary indulgence is a full pardon for punishments owing for sin, sacramentally confessed, and makes possible immediate entrance into heaven after death. The requirements for gaining a plenary indulgence are sacramental confession, Communion, and prayers for the Pope's intentions such as an Our Father and a Hail Mary. We must also have an attitude of love and penitence, with no attachment to any sin. If this disposition is in any way less than complete, or if the three prescribed conditions are not fulfilled, the indulgence is only partial. A partial indulgence is a partial pardon for penance owing. The faithful should at least have a contrite heart to gain the partial indulgence.)
Below is an approved Daily Prayer for Priests to gain the plenary indulgence under the usual conditions on the specified days.
Daily Prayer for Priests
O Almighty, Eternal God, look upon the Face of Your Son and for love of Him, who is the Eternal High Priest, have pity on Your 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 You, 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 for Your faithful and fervent priests; for Your unfaithful and tepid priests; for Your priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields; for Your tempted priests; for the lonely and desolate priests; for Your young priests; for Your dying priests; for the souls of Your priests in purgatory.
But above all, I comment to you N. and all the priests dearest to me, the priest who baptized me, the priests who have absolved me from my sins, the priests at whose Masses I have assisted and who have offered me Your Body and Blood in Holy Communion, the priests who have taught me or helped and encouraged me, and the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way.
O Jesus, keep them all close to Your Heart, and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity. Amen.
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