High on the list of supplementary prayer material that I offer to retreatants who are preparing for service such as the diaconate or priesthood is a piece by Michael Buckley, S.J. “Because Beset by Weakness.”
Buckley’s article from the 1970s is his elaboration of the question: “Are you weak enough to be a priest?”
The article is quite helpful to ordination candidates, but it also applies to all of us. It’s Buckley’s reading of the high priest language that we find in the Letter to the Hebrews. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.”