The weathermen have now upped the snow accumulation totals for Friday and are saying we could get up to a foot. The storm is supposed to wind down “early in the morning” on Saturday, but that means a lot of shoveling to get out of those driveways!

So let’s all stay safe and warm in our homes on Saturday morning and pray for one another. Hopefully we can gather on the 3rd Saturday of the New Year of grace: January 17th.

See you then, God-willing!  A Blessed Christmas to you all.

Also, please check your calendars and see if it would be possible for you to help Fr. Dan Hennessey and the Vocations Office with the Altar Server Appreciation Mass and ice cream social on Saturday, October 4th at the cathedral.  Volunteers are needed to man the tables and are asked to help out in any way possible!  For more information on this event, please visit the Vocations Boston page on the Altar Server Appreciation Mass, or register an altar server for the event at the online registration form.

See you this Saturday!

Michelle Dickson and Loretta Gallagher will report on their participation at the Serra National Conference held in South Bend, Indiana in June. One thing we can tell you: there is great excitement from Serrans all over the country about the future chartering of the Serra Club of Boston — and that joy is very contagious !! So please, everyone, try and bring a friend to the meeting so we can reach our quota of members for club chartering in the spring!

The sale of the “Pray for Our Priests” magnets is going really well. Thanks to the June 8th article in Our Sunday Visitor (a national publication), we have had many requests for them from all over the country. We now have lapel pins for sale also. They will be available at the meeting.

One of our members, Geraldine DiBenedetto has been invited to talk about Serra on radio and also represent Serra Boston at an upcoming Catholic festival in North Andover. The Adopt-a-Priest Apostolate is almost ready to roll and you can hear more about that on Saturday. So a lot is happening and all are invited to share in the excitement !!

See you Saturday, God-willing. If it is warm, we will have that much more to “offer up” on behalf of our seminarians, priests and religious (not to mention Fr. Dan and all those traveling to Australia for World Youth Day)

Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, explained the practice of spiritual motherhood:

“Regardless of age and marital status, all women can become spiritual mothers for a priest,” he explained. He said the commitment implies praying “for a specific priest and thus accompanying him for life,” usually anonymously.

Cardinal Hummes added, “This, as history tells us, produces great spiritual fruits for priests” who “spend their whole life, even with their limits, for God and for their neighbor […] preaching and cultivating the good, helping people.”

More of Cardinal Hummes’ remarks are available at Zenit.org: Priests need prayers.

In a document published in 2007, the Congregation for Clergy wrote of spiritual motherhood, giving some historical examples:

Independent of age or social status, any woman can become a mother for priests. This type of motherhood is not only for mothers of families, but is just as possible for an unmarried girl, a widow, or for someone who is ill. It is especially pertinent for missionaries and religious sisters who have given their lives entirely to God for the sanctification of others. John Paul II even thanked a child for her motherly help: “I also express my gratitude to Bl. Jacinta for the sacrifices and prayers offered for the Holy Father, whom she saw suffering greatly.”(13 May 2000)

Every priest has a birth mother, and often she is a spiritual mother for her children as well. For example, Giuseppe Sarto, the future Pope Pius X, visited his 70-year-old mother after being ordained a bishop. She kissed her son’s ring and, suddenly pensive, pointed out her own simple silver wedding band saying, “Yes, Giuseppe, you would not be wearing that ring if I had not first worn mine.” Pope St. Pius X rightfully confirms his experience that, “Every vocation to the priesthood comes from the heart of God, but it goes through the heart of a mother!”

One sees this particulary well in the life of St. Monica. Augustine, who lost his faith at the age of 19 while studying in Carthage, later wrote in his famous “Confessions” regarding his mother:“For love of me, she cried more tears than a mother would over the bodily death of her son. Nine years passed in which I wallowed in the slime of that deep pit and the darkness of falsehood. Yet that pious widow desisted not all the hours of her supplications, to bewail my case unto Thee where her prayers entered into Thy presence.”

The full document is available for download at the Congregation for Clergy web site, or at the link below:

Congregation for Clergy: Spiritual Motherhood for Priests (PDF)

At our last meeting of Serra Boston, Fr. Dan noted that there was a groundswell of support for vocations in the archdiocese of Boston. For example, the St. John Vianney Society, a women’s prayer group which meets every 3rd Saturday for Eucharistic Adoration and prayer for vocations at St. Mary’s in Waltham. The society was started spontaneously as a way to gather women to pray for vocations to the priesthood – about a month BEFORE Our Sunday Visitor published an article on spiritual motherhood in their May 25 issue!

Attendees at the meeting shared stories about supporting priests, praying for priestly ministry, and the practical nature of spiritual motherhood. No human being is meant to be alone, and all too often the “human” side of priests is overlooked as people view them as something other than men. It greatly helps when priests can interact with their community and socialize with others.

Here are links to several publications we talked about during the meeting:

• Our Sunday Visitor
• Our Sunday Visitor: Eucharist and Motherhood article (paid subscription required)
• Congregation for Clergy
• The Pilot

Our next meeting will be Saturday, July 19 at 8:30am at St. Mary’s Parish (133 School St, Waltham, MA). We hope to see you there!

Serra USA is looking into the possibility of getting involved with the distribution of the magnets on a national level. Two of our club members, Loretta Gallagher and Michelle Dickson, will be attending the national Serra conference in South Bend, Indiana from June 19-22, meeting Serrans from all over the country and attending various Serra workshops. We have been asked to present a short report on Serra Boston to the Vocations Committee; they are impressed with all we have done in so short a time.

Serra Boston was also in the news recently in the Vocations issue of the Pilot issued the weekend of the ordinations (May 23). We took out an ad congratulating the new ordinandi, and there was an accompanying article about Serra Boston. We have received several thank you notes from the seven newly ordained priests, thanking Serra Boston for the gift of a clerical shirt and collar. We are only too happy to have provided them, thanks to the donation of a generous benefactor!

Next meeting

At our next meeting on June 21, Fr. Dan Hennessey will give a talk on the recent Vatican document describing deep prayer and Eucharistic Adoration for an increase in vocations and the sanctification of the priesthood. There will be a day of Eucharistic Adoration in St. Mary’s chapel following the Serra meeting until 7:00 PM, sponsored by the St. John Vianney society. Why not invite some friends to join and spend some time in prayer in front of the Blessed Eucharist?

That’s all for now. Thanks for all your wonderful support and encouragement — we ARE making a difference in helping to create the culture of vocations that we all desire so deeply for our beloved archdiocese.

See you Saturday, God-willing!

The St. John Vianney Society is helping to organize an all day Adoration at St. Mary’s on June 21. Any Serrans able to cover some hours and spend time in front of the blessed Eucharist are invited to contact us at information@serraboston.org.

We hope to see you there!

During April’s meeting, Fr. Dan Hennessey will share with us his experiences of the Papal Visit and the blessing of being able to concelebrate Mass with the Holy Father at Yankee Stadium in New York. We will also discuss an annual gift from the Club to the newly ordained of the archdiocese, and a report on the initiative to get the ordination dates of all diocesan priests included in next year’s Catholic Directory so that people can remember priests in some manner.

We will have to start collecting dues on a regular basis so that we can head towards obtaining a Charter for the Club — hopefully by November !!! We will start small, with the hope that after chartering we will be able to collect the full amount of annual dues. For April, we would like to ask $5.00 from each attendee, if possible.

“Pray for Our Priests” car magnets will also be available for a $3.00 donation.

If you have any questions between now and then, don’t hesitate to contact us. Meanwhile, let us unite in fervent prayer for the safety and well-being of our Holy Father as he graces our country with his presence next week !!!

Here are two details about this meeting:

Vocations Monstrance

The Vocations Monstrance (blessed by Pope John Paul II, and shown at right) containing the Blessed Sacrament will be exposed during the day at St. Mary’s from 10:30 AM – 7:00 PM this Saturday. You can find more information at the USCCB page about the Vocations Monstrance.

We ask that you consider staying after the Serra Boston meeting, if at all possible, to come and spend some time with Our Lord in silent prayer specifically for an increase of vocations to ordained ministry and consecrated life.

Click here to download a PDF with information on the Vocations Monstrance event:
Vocations_Monstrance_080312.pdf

If you can, please e-mail this PDF to others and publicize this event – it is a well-known phenomenon that where Eucharistic Adoration is present, Our Lord seems to honor the practice and bless the area with vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

Regional Director for Serra

Marilyn Dumas, the Regional Director for Serra, is planning on joining us this Saturday. Marilyn lives in Connecticut and has been very helpful in offering advice and support to get the Boston Club started. Serrans all over the country have been contacting us via e-mail, praying for and congratulating us in bringing the Serran presence to Boston. Surely their prayers will bear much fruit!

Have a great week, and we look forward to seeing you Saturday!

We will begin with a Mass at 8:30 AM, followed by Prayer and discussion. For more information, call (617) 746-5949 or contact us today.

We hope to see you there!!!

We were blessed to have Serra representatives from the national, regional and local levels; already we have experienced firsthand the fraternal “Spirit of Serra” by their generosity in sharing their time, support and materials with their new brothers and sisters. Fr. Dan Hennessey celebrated a beautiful Mass for Vocations – it was a real joy to all present to be able to worship God together and beg Him “to send more laborers into the harvest.” (Mt. 9:38)

All agreed there is much work to be done in the archdiocese in order to build a Culture of Vocations and that Serra Boston can be an immense help in this regard. Everyone who attended the meeting is invited to bring a friend (or two) to the next meeting on February 16th (same time, same place).

Use the gallery below to view photos from our first meeting. You can also view these photos in our new Flickr account.