By Jay Sorgi
for the Register
Every day, someone is praying a Holy Hour for the majority of priests of the Diocese of Lincoln. It happens because of women like Lora Unger and their teammates in prayer in the Seven Sisters apostolate.
“The priest that I pray for is Father Benjamin Holdren, a longtime dear friend of my husband and I,” Unger said. “He was at the University of Nebraska Newman Center when we were there, and he was a big part of my husband’s journey coming into the Church.”
Unger and her family kept up their friendship with Father Holdren, but his appointment changed. He is currently director of the Propaedeutic Year at St. Gregory the Great Seminary in Seward.
His former parish included a Seven Sisters ministry, something started by Jeanette Howe of the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis in 2010. A team of women rotate every day to pray before the Blessed Sacrament for one hour and specifically lift up a specific priest.
“When he left his parish, I asked, ‘Are you being prayed for? Would you be interested in forming a group of Seven Sisters to pray for you?’ He was very gracious and honored by that, and finding people to pray for him was very easy.”
Unger became the anchoress of a Seven Sisters team, organizing a group of at least 10 women who continue the daily adoration rotation. Diocese of Lincoln Seven Sisters Coordinator Rhonda Litt said groups of women offer daily adoration for about 62 percent of the diocese’s priests, something which began in Lincoln after Howe visited the diocese in 2016.
“Jeanette Howe gave a full explanation about the Seven Sisters Apostolate, and it really touched my heart,” said Litt, who took a pilgrimage to Fatima, leading to a deep calling about praying for priests.
“The Holy Spirit touched my heart to follow up on this apostolate, and that’s kind of where it all started for the Lincoln Diocese,” she said.
Litt said women across the world are praying about 2 million Holy Hours for priests, with approximately 1,000 of those blessed hours prayed each week in southern Nebraska. Most often, they are specific to the parish, but others like Unger specify their priests due to a personal relationship they and their family have and the special calling he has.
“Father Holdren has a very unique call in that he is a pastor over our future pastors,” she said.
“Just the weightiness and gravity of the fact that he is preparing the future of our priests is something that I pray for, that their eyes, ears and hearts be open to what he’s saying and that in a particular way he’s able to move them in whatever direction that they need to be brought.”
Unger said that the ministry calls for women to particularly pray with intention that each priest grows in a deeper relationship with the Blessed Mother.
“I’d never thought of that before, just the closeness of Our Lady to each of her priests as they stand in the place of her son ‘in persona Christi.’ That makes sense to me a lot more that Mary really loves our priests, and that she really loves Father Holdren.”
The effect of the Seven Sisters prayer team’s efforts before the Blessed Sacrament is not lost on Father Holdren.
“It’s just very, very humbling to have these incredible women taking time out of their busy schedule and praying holy hours for my priesthood and for the intentions that I have each day that come up,” Father Holdren said. He has continued a friendship with Lora and her husband Chance Unger through the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit in the Family, and maintains monthly contact with them.
“It has been one of the things that I’m most grateful for in my 19 years as a priest.”
Father Holdren said Lora and her team of women find a way to minister to him despite the ever-increasing to-do list of modern life.
“Oftentimes with a busy family life and busy careers,” he said. “That’s one of the things that as I reflect on it, I’m just most grateful for that in the midst of a very, very busy schedule, they set aside time to do this.”
He makes it a point to meet up with them each year at an informal get-together with their families.
“They come to the seminary and they bring their families, and we have Mass,” he said. “I’m able to offer that Mass for them and for their families, and then we have a potluck dinner and, yeah, just catch up and talk. That’s really the time that we really connect.”
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Litt said that connection mirrors the kind Mary had with her son Jesus in the times of His ministry, the kind of grace that an active prayer life for a parish priest can bring.
“To be in this apostolate gives you an entirely different sense of the priesthood. Joining with the priest as support, just as the Blessed Mother Mary was always there with Jesus,” said Litt.
“We’re praying for our priests, persona Christi, as she did, following them in prayer and just lifting them up, just as Mary was always with Jesus in the good times and bad times.”
Reach out to Litt at 402-525-6396 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to start a Seven Sisters apostolate for a priest in the Diocese of Lincoln.
