With the events that we as a country have endured in the past year with our police officers being targeted by morons, and now being asked to leave restaurants because they are carrying their service pistols, I personally want to thank the men and women who serve our communities and protect us from people intending to do harm. I have three cousins that are Phoenix Police Officers, one who is a retired police officer, and my parish serves countless police officers from Gilbert, Chandler, Mesa, and other local municipals. We also have quite a few retired cops as well. There isn’t a day that doesn’t go by where I don’t think about the safety of our officers, especially when I see patrol cars.
Although this Tweet is a couple of years old, I still think it is fitting and should be followed – “Anywhere. And if anybody sees Police, EMT, or Fire personnel they better drink for free tonight.” When I am out at a restaurant, I will often go up to police officers and thank them for their service to the community. Recently, I did this very thing when I saw six Maricopa County Deputies having dinner together.
How often do you say thank you to the men and women in uniform?
We need to give thanks for the work these brave men and women do on our streets everyday. We also need to pray for those individuals who have lost their lives in the line of duty and offer up prayers for their families as they grieve. To assist you in your prayers, here are some prayers for police officers. The Patron Saint for police officers in general is St. Michael the Archangel and local/municipal police offers it is St. Sebastian.
Dear Lord Jesus Christ, we give you praise and thanksgiving for all the police officers in our communities and around the world who bravely serve to protect us from harm. Be with them tonight and protect them always as they continue their diligence on the streets. We ask Our Blessed Mother to always be their Mother ready to protect them. For those who have given their lives, we ask that their families are healed and protected from more harm. Amen.
Update: This blog post is now dedicated to my cousin, Ronald Warner, Sr., who died on Thursday, October 15, 2015 due to an unexpected heart attack. Please pray for the repose of his soul. Pray that his family and our extended family will have the grace and strength to endure these sufferings.
Categories: Catholic Prayers
TOM PERNA 
Thanks tom I appreciate this.
Sir,
As a Catholic police officer, I thank you for your kind comment. As it happens I carry holy cards for both St. Michael and St. Sebastian in my badge case.
Here’s a question for you. I know St. Michael covers law enforcement generally, while St. Sebastian covers the municipal beat. Who’s looking after deputy sheriffs, state troopers, and federal investigators?
Rephrasing the question with less levity, why is there a specific saint for city cops, to the exclusion of county, state, and federal cops?
St. Michael and St. Sebastian are the patron saints for all people in law enforcement. I would think that at the time the Church declared them as Patrons, there were only city cops, and not county, state, and federal cops. To answer you question, both Michael and Sebastian watch all in law enforcement.
sir,
I’m a 8th grade student at a catholic school in Minnesota, and I have to do this end of the year project. And I decided to do mine on giving thanks to our local police officers, we have to write a paper and do an action that is about the topic we choose. My action that i will be doing with my friend, is to go to our police station ( ask for permission first) and Just give the police officers that are on duty Lemonade and cupcakes, we are naming this project of ours lemoncake! Just simply giving thanks! I would like to ask you if I could use some of this information in my paper. Thank you so much for putting this online!
~ a sacs 8th graded
Hi Paige – Yes, you can use the information from my post in your paper. I would just ask that you reference where you attained the information. As a former high school theology teacher, I would tell you that plagiarism is never a good thing. If you need to know how to reference a website in your paper, there are plenty of websites that can show you how to do this. I hope your paper turns out well. God Bless!
Thank you so much, and will do!