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!

As a sign of Serra’s commitment to affirm priestly vocations, each of the newly ordained priests for the archdiocese of Boston will receive a clerical shirt and collar from Serra Boston, along with assurance of prayer from club members.

Serra Boston is also planning to introduce an “Adopt-a-Priest” Apostolate, whereby every diocesan priest would be spiritually adopted by a layperson of the archdiocese.

Congratulations again to all our new priests!

Click here to view the ordination on Catholic TV.

You can read Cardinal Sean’s account of the ordination on Cardinal Sean’s blog.

The May 6 episode was devoted to “Vocations,” and Brian and Loretta discussed the ways in which Serra Boston promotes vocations in the Archdiocese of Boston. They also bought “Pray for our Priests” car magnets for hosts Jay Fadden and Fr. Robert Reed.

If you missed this episode of “This is the Day,” you can see it on the CatholicTV web site.

1. Click here to view the video.
2. Let the video load a little - notice that the bar at the bottom gets darker as more of the video loads.
3. Drag the white arrow below the long bar from left to right (about 1/2 of the way along the bar, after the cooking segment) to see the segment on Serra Boston.

Let us pray that this episode helps spread the word about Serra Boston, and provide more information on the ways people can support and encourage vocations to religious life.

Fr. Dan Hennessey shared his experiences during the weekend of the Papal visit, as well as his time at the Papal Mass in Yankee Stadium. Fr. Dan even got to kiss the pope’s ring, and told how powerful it was to kiss “the ring of the Fisherman.”

You can use the slideshow below to see video stills of Fr. Dan kissing the pope’s ring. The first photo was taken by a photographer at the event; all video stills are taken from EWTN’s video footage of the event.)

As a reminder, our next meeting is this Saturday, May 17. We will begin at 8:30am with Mass, followed by our monthly meeting at 9:30am.

We hope to see you there!

It is our hope that this web site will allow us to use the Internet as a communication tool to encourage, affirm, and promote vocations.

Keep checking www.serraboston.org for future enhancements!

Those who missed the conference (or at least the exhibit hall) can check out photos of our booth on our Flickr set.

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 !!!

CatholicTV recently devoted an episode of “This is the Day” to the Bicentennial Celebration of the Archdiocese of Boston. Loretta Gallagher and Fr. Dan Hennessey appeared on the episode, to discuss Serra’s mission to promote and encourage vocations. During the episode they showed the Pray for Priests car magnets, as well as the Monthly Prayer Request for Priests apostolate.

Here’s a photo of Cardinal Sean and Loretta Gallagher at the taping:

Fr. Robert Reed (co-host of This is the Day) helps promote the Pray for Priests car magnets:

Photos taken by George Martell, Manager of Digital Communications & New Media, Archdiocese of Boston.

If you missed this episode of “This is the Day,” you can see it on the CatholicTV web site:

1. Go to www.catholictv.org.
2. Under “This is the Day” on the right, there’s “Info” and “Episodes” - click “episodes”
3. Click on “From April 8, 2008 - Bicentennial Episode”
4. Let the video load a little - notice that the bar at the bottom gets darker as more of the video loads.
5. Drag the white arrow below the long bar from left to right (about 3/5 of the way along the bar) to see the segment on Serra Boston.

Let us pray that this episode helps spread the word about Serra Boston, and provide more information on the ways people can Pray for our Priests.