JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!
There is many a day that I wish that time would stand still in order that I could accomplish the multiple things on the 'to do' list. And so here I am the day following the Feast Day of St. John Vianney, Patron Saint of Parish Priests, wanting to share just a few brief thoughts about this beautiful vocation. Better late than never, right? As Carmelites, each day is a day to think of and pray for priests. We embrace the call of St. Teresa of Avila to pray fervently for priests, that they may grow in sanctity and grace in order that their flock may follow in their footsteps. Indeed, the priesthood is so very sublime, as it calls an ordinary man to become a spiritual father to those entrusted to his care; to act 'in persona Christi' when offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, as well as the other sacraments, and when preaching the Word of God.
For this, we can have no doubt of the need for a generous outpouring of prayer and sacrifices for our beloved priests who have accepted this call from God. The numerous challeges of the present-day need not be listed here, as we are all aware that the priesthood is under attack on many levels. Like St. Therese, we recognize that there are both good priests, as well as those who have much work to do. We humbly plead for their souls that they who are called to lay down their lives may imitate the way of the Eternal High Priest, Jesus Christ, and snuggle up close to the Virgin Mary under Her mantle and within Her Immaculate Heart.
A beautiful means of praying for our priests is to become a spritual mother for priests. This is certainly not to exclude men who may feel a calling to pray for a particular priest. There is no doubt of the enormous impact that holy lay men and fathers have had and continue to have upon priests. Spiritual motherhood is a very maternal, loving means of holding either one particular priest or a few up in prayer for one's lifetime. The Holy Spirit should be listened to for this call.
A wonderful paper that reveals this beautiful apostolate is known as Congregatio pro Clerics. It describes the importance of this in the following way, "Spiritual maternity is a particular grace of the Holy Spirit by which a woman surrenders herself, body and soul, to the fruitful love of Christ, for the sake of His Bride the Church and for the glory of the Father, so that, through her offering, the particular priest entrusted to her, and all priests, may be purified, healed, and sanctified." It also adds that "This spiritual motherhood can be lived in any state of life; it is open to single women, married women, mothers of families, widows, grandmothers, and religious in both the active and enclosed forms of consecrated life. None of its obligations bind under pain of sin. The vocation to the spiritual motherhood of priests is also compatible with the spirituality and obligations of Benedictine Oblates and of those who belong to one or aother of the Third Orders: Franciscan, Dominican, Carmelite, Servite, etc." (See http://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2008-01/25-13/Adoration.pdf and http://vultus.stblogs.org/2009/02/little-catechism-on-spiritual.html)
Let us pray about what Our Lord's Divine Will might be in this regard, and humbly ask Blessed Mother to show us how to become a spiritual mother filled with humility, love, compassion, and mercy for all, especially our priests. Amen.
