Pray for our next bishop
I live in the Diocese of Wheeling/Charleston, which covers the whole state of West Virginia. Currently, we do not have a bishop. Our last Bishop, Fr. Michael Brandsfield, resigned at the age of 75, as per canon law. His resignation was immediately accepted and an investigation was opened to possible sexual misconduct.
Honestly, this was not surprising, yet we will leave that for a future discussion. What I want to ask everyone right now, who may read this, is to pray for our next bishop, whoever that may be. Long before any of this took place, about six months I think, I was praying at Adoration and I received an overwhelming impulse to pray for our next bishop. At that time this was puzzling. I was not aware Bishop Bransfield was about to retire or that there were any allegations confronting him. Never-the-less, I have learned to follow and not question these promptings during Adoration, so I prayed for our next bishop, and I began to do this regularly. I failed, however, to ask others to pray for the next bishop which was also part of the prompting. Now, let me impress upon you that this prompting was incredibly strong. It is really not even possible to describe how strong the impulse was to pray for the spiritual well being of the man who will be our next Bishop. And yes this prompting continues, as does a significant spiritual attack. It is quite clear to me that we really need to continue praying for this intention.
In late August I shared my experiences with someone who I greatly respect spiritually. Just after that, another member of the Light of Life prayer group expressed the same prompting and requested that we all pray for our next bishop. About two weeks after this Bishop Brandsfield resigned. That was mid-September.
We still do not have a bishop. Arch Bishop Willian Lori, from the Arch Diocese of Baltimore, has been appointed as our temporary Apostolic administrator. In November a very vague prayer appeared in our Parish bulletin for our next bishop and asking God to send us a bishop. I have several problems with this prayer, not the least of which is that it asks for a bishop to be sent to us, which is not what we should be praying for at all. God is not going to leave us without a shepherd. What we should do is assume a new bishop is on the way, and that he should be anointed by the Holy Spirit and be a bishop who will set our Diocese on fire with Divine Love.
Therefore I have composed a prayer, which is now being broadcast on Light of Life radio, for the next Bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling/Charleston. It appears below. I ask everyone who reads this to read it, pray and repost, as often as possible.
Heavenly Father; we humbly ask that You bless our next Bishop, stretch Your hand over him and protect him from all harm. Anoint him with the Holy Spirit so that he will be a holy man after Your own Heart, fervent and zealous for the Truth, who will live the Gospel of Jesus Christ and set the example that we may do the same. Let him enkindle our hearts and every parish of this Diocese with the Fire of Divine Love. In this and all things we humbly submit ourselves to Your Divine Will.
We ask this in The Most Holy Name of Jesus, through the intercession of Mary, ever virgin, St. Joseph her most chased spouse, and all the angels and saints, Amen.
The Radical Catholic 