congregatio
pro clericis
EUCHARISTIC Adoration for THE SANCTIFICATION
OF priests AND SPIRITUAL MATERNITY
2007
Responsible for the publication:
The Most Reverend Mauro Piacenza
Titular Archbishop of Vittoriana,
Secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy
Congregation for the Clergy
Piazza Pio XII, 3
00193 Roma
Italy
Tele. +39
06 698 84151
+39
06 698 84178
Fax +39
06 698 84845
www.clerus.org
www.bibliaclerus.org
Cover: Stained glass window
from the Cathedral of Denver, Colorado (USA)
Letter sent by the
Congregation to promote Eucharistic adoration
for the
sanctification of priests and spiritual maternity.
Your Excellency,
In
today’s world a great many things are necessary for the good of the Clergy and
the fruitfulness of pastoral ministry. With a firm determination to face such
challenges without disregarding the difficulties and struggles, and with an
awareness that action follows being and that the soul of every apostolate is
Divine intimacy, it is our intention for the departure point to be a spiritual
endeavor. In order to continually maintain a greater awareness of the
ontological link between the Eucharist and the Priesthood, and in order to
recognize the special maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary for each Priest, it
is our intention to bring about a connection between perpetual Eucharistic
adoration for the sanctification of
priests and the initiation of a commitment on the part of consecrated
feminine souls —following the typology
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Eternal High Priest, and Helper in
his work of Redemption—who might
wish to spiritually adopt priests in order to help them with their
self-offering, prayer, and penance. Adoration always involves an act of reparation
for sins. With that in mind, we suggest a particular intention in this regard.
According to the constant
content of Sacred Tradition, the mystery and reality of the Church cannot be
reduced to the hierarchical structure, the liturgy, the sacraments, and
juridical ordinances.
In fact, the intimate nature of the Church and the origin of its sanctifying
efficacy must be found first in a mystical union with Christ.
According to the doctrine and the very
structure of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, such a union cannot be conceived separately
from the Mother of the Word Incarnate—the one whom Jesus desired to be
intimately united with Himself for the salvation of all humanity.
Therefore, it is no accident that on the same
day in which the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church was promulgated—21
November 1964—Pope Paul VI also
proclaimed the Blessed Virgin Mary as “Mother of the Church,” i.e., mother of
the faithful and the pastors.
With reference to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Second Vatican Council
expresses itself in these words: “She conceived, brought forth and nourished
Christ. She presented Him to the Father in the temple, and was united with Him
by compassion as He died on the Cross. In this singular way she cooperated by
her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the work of the Savior in
giving back supernatural life to souls. Wherefore she is our mother in the
order of grace.” (LG 61)
Without adding or detracting from the
singular mediation of Christ Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary is acknowledged and
invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and
Mediatrix. She is the model of maternal love who must inspire all those who
cooperate—through the apostolic mission of the Church—in the regeneration of
all humanity (cfr. LG 65).
In light of these teachings, which belong to the
ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council, the
faithful are called to turn their eyes to Mary—shining example of every virtue —and
imitate her as the first disciple. It is she to whom every other disciple was
entrusted by Christ as she stood at the foot of the cross (cfr. Jn
19:25-27). By becoming her children, we learn the true
meaning of life in Christ.
Thereby—and precisely because of the
place occupied and the role served by the Most Blessed Virgin in salvation history—we intend in a very particular way to entrust all
priests to Mary, the Mother of the High and Eternal Priest, bringing
about in the Church a movement of prayer, placing 24 hour continuous
Eucharistic adoration at the centre, so that a prayer of adoration,
thanksgiving, praise, petition, and reparation, will be raised to God,
incessantly and from every corner of the earth,
with the primary intention of awakening a sufficient number of holy vocations to the priestly state and, at
the same time, spiritually uniting with a certain spiritual maternity—at the level of the Mystical Body—all those who have already been called to the ministerial
priesthood and are ontologically conformed to the one High and Eternal Priest. This
movement will offer better service to Christ and his brothers —those who are at once “inside” the Church and also
“at the forefront” of the Church, standing in Christ’s stead and representing
Him, as head, shepherd and spouse of the Church (cfr. Pastores Dabo
Vobis 16).
We are asking, therefore, all diocesan
Ordinaries who apprehend in a particular way the specificity and
irreplaceability of the ordained ministry in the life of the Church, together
with the urgency of a common action in support of the ministerial priesthood, to take an active role and promote—in the different portions of the People of God entrusted to them—true
and proper cenacles in which clerics, religious and lay people—united among themselves in the spirit of true
communion—may devote themselves to prayer, in the form of continuous Eucharistic adoration in a spirit of
genuine and authentic reparation and purification. It is our hope that the
enclosed brochure outlining the specifics of the initiative will imbue this project
with a spirit of faith.
May Mary, Mother of the One, Eternal
High Priest, bless this initiative, and may she intercede before God, pleading
for an authentic renewal of priestly life, taking as a model the only possible
model: Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd!
I greet you cordially in the bond of ecclesial communion, with sentiments
of profound collegial affection.
Cláudio Card. Hummes
Prefect
X Mauro Piacenza
Secretary
From the
Vatican, 8 December 2007
Solemnity of
the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
“Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers!”
“Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out
labourers.” This means that the harvest is ready, but God wishes to enlist
helpers to bring it into the storehouse. God needs them. He needs people to
say: Yes, I am ready to become your harvest labourer; I am ready to offer help
so that this harvest which is ripening in people’s hearts may truly be brought
into the storehouses of eternity and become an enduring, divine communion of
joy and love.
“Pray the Lord of the harvest” also means that we cannot simply
“produce” vocations; they must come from God. Unlike other professions, we
cannot simply recruit people by using the right kind of publicity or the
correct type of strategy. The call which comes from the heart of God must
always find its way into the heart of man. And yet, precisely so that it may
reach into hearts, our cooperation is needed.
To pray the Lord of the harvest means above all to ask him for this, to
stir his heart and say: “Please do this! Rouse labourers! Enkindle in them
enthusiasm and joy for the Gospel! Make them understand that this is a treasure
greater than any other, and that whoever has discovered it, must hand it on!”
We stir the heart of God. But our
prayer to God does not consist of words alone; the words must lead to action so
that from our praying heart a spark of our joy in God and in the Gospel may
arise, enkindling in the hearts of others a readiness to say “yes.”
As people of prayer, filled with his light, we
reach out to others and bring them into our prayer and into the presence of
God, who will not fail to do his part. In this sense we must continue to pray
the Lord of the harvest, to stir his heart, and together with God touch the
hearts of others through our prayer. And he, according to his purpose, will
bring to maturity their “yes,” their readiness to respond: the constancy, in
other words, through all this world’s perplexity, through the heat of the day
and the darkness of the night, to persevere faithfully in his service.
Hence they will
know that their efforts, however arduous, are noble and worthwhile because they
lead to what is essential, they ensure that people receive what they hope for:
God’s light and God’s love.
Benedict XVI
Meeting with the priests and deacons in Freising,
Germany, 14 September 2006
Spiritual Motherhood for Priests
The vocation to
be a spiritual mother for priests is largely unknown,
scarcely
understood and, consequently, rarely lived, notwithstanding
its fundamental
importance. It is a vocation that is frequently hidden,
invisible to the naked eye, but meant to
transmit spiritual life.
Pope John Paul
II, was so convinced of its importance
that he established
a cloistered convent in the Vatican
where nuns would pray for the intentions of the
Supreme Pontiff.
“I have my mother to thank for what I have become
and the way that I got there!”
St. Augustine
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.”
After his conversion,
Augustine said thankfully, “My holy mother never abandoned me. She brought
me forth in her flesh, that I might be born to this temporal light, and in her
heart, that I might be born to life eternal.”
St.
Augustine always desired to have his mother present at his philosophical
discussions. She listened attentively and sometimes intervened with such fine
intuition that the scholars who had gathered were astounded by her inspired
responses to intricate questions. It should come as no surprise then that Augustine described himself as her
“disciple of philosophy”!
A Cardinal’s Dream
Nicholas Cardinal
of Cusa (1401-1464), Bishop of Brixen, was not only a great
Church politician,
reputable Papal legate and reformer of spiritual life for the clergy
and the faithful of
the 15th century, but also a man of silence and contemplation.
He was deeply moved
by a dream in which he was shown that spiritual reality
which still has
meaning for priests and laity to this very day:
the power of
self-offering, prayer and the sacrifice
of spiritual mothers hidden in convents.
The offering of hands and hearts
Nicholas and his guide
entered a small, ancient church decorated with mosaics and frescoes from the
early centuries, and there the Cardinal saw an amazing sight. More than a
thousand nuns were praying in the little church. Despite the limited space,
they all fit due to their slender and composed nature. The sisters were
praying, but in a way that the Cardinal had never seen. They were not kneeling
but standing; their gaze was not cast off into the distance but rather fixed on
something nearby which he could not see. They stood with open arms, palms
facing upwards in a gesture of offering.
Surprisingly, in their
poor, thin hands they carried men and women, emperors and kings, cities and
countries. Sometimes there were several pairs of hands joined together holding
a city. A country, recognizable by its national flag, was supported by a whole
wall of arms, and yet even then there was an air of silence and isolation
around each one of them in prayer. Most of nuns, however, carried one
individual in their hands.
In the hands of a
thin, young, almost child-like nun, Nicholas saw the Pope. You could see how
heavy this load was for her, but her face was radiating a joyful gleam.
Standing in the hands of one of the older sisters he saw himself, Nicholas of
Cusa, Bishop of Brixen, and Cardinal of the Roman Church. He saw the wrinkles
of his age; he saw the blemishes of his soul and his life in all their clarity.
He looked with stunned and surprised eyes, but his fright was soon mixed with
an unspeakable bliss.
His guide whispered, “Now
you see how sinners are sustained and carried and, in spite of their sins, have
not given up loving God.”
“What about those
who do not love anymore?” the Cardinal asked. Suddenly, he was in the crypt of the church with his
guide, where once again, more than a thousand nuns were praying. Whereas the
former ones were carried in the nuns’ hands, here in the crypt, they were
carried in their hearts. They were exceptionally serious because the fate of
eternal souls was at hand. “So you see, Your Eminence,” said
the guide, “that also those who have given up loving are still carried. It
happens occasionally that they become warm again through the ardent hearts
which are being consumed for them—occasionally, but not always. Sometimes, in
the hour of their death, they are taken from these saving hands into the hands
of the Divine Judge, and they must also answer for the sacrifice that has been
made for them. Every sacrifice bears fruit. However, when the fruit offered to
somebody is not picked, the fruit of corruption ripens.”
The Cardinal was
captivated by the women who had made an offering of their lives. He always knew
they existed, but he saw now, clearer than ever, their importance for the
Church, for the world, for nations and for every individual. Only now was it so
surprisingly clear. He bowed deeply before these martyrs of love.
Foto: For more than half a millennium, Saben was the
Bishop’s Seat for the diocese of Brixen beginning in the year 550. The bishop’s
castle was later converted into a convent for Benedictine nuns in 1685. To this
day, they live their spiritual motherhood by praying and consecrating
themselves to God just as Nicholas of Cusa saw in his dream.
Eliza Vaughan
It is a fact that vocations to the priesthood must be prayed for;
Jesus speaks about it himself in the Gospel:
“The harvest is abundant, but the labourers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest to send out labourers for his harvest!”
(Mt.
9:37-38)
The Englishwoman Eliza Vaughan is a particularly encouraging example
of a mother imbued with a
priestly spirit who frequently prayed for vocations.
Let us give our children to God
Eliza came from a strong Protestant family; in
fact, it was one of the founders of the Rolls-Royce car company. Yet even
during her childhood education in France, she was deeply impressed by the
exemplary efforts of the Catholic Church toward the care of the poor.
After she married
Colonel John Francis Vaughan in the summer of 1830, Eliza converted to the
Catholic Faith, despite the objection of her relatives. During of the Catholic
persecution in England under Queen Elisabeth I (1558-1603), the Vaughan’s ancestors preferred
imprisonment and expropriation to being unfaithful to their beliefs.
Courtfield, the
ancestral family home, became a place of refuge for priests during the decades
of terror in England, a place where the Holy Mass was often celebrated
secretly. Nearly three centuries had now passed, but the Catholic beliefs of
the family had not changed.
So profound and
zealous was Eliza’s religious conversion that she proposed to her husband to
offer all of their children back to God.
Foto: Convinced of the power of silent, faithful
prayer, Eliza spent an hour in adoration every day praying for vocations in her
family. The mother of six priests and four religious sisters, her prayer was
bountifully heard. Mother Vaughan died in 1853 and was buried in the grounds of
her beloved family property, Courtfield.
Today, Courtfield is a
retreat center for different groups in the Welsh diocese of Cardiff. In
consideration of Eliza’s holy life, the family chapel was consecrated as the
shrine of “Our Lady of Vocations” by the bishop in 1954 and confirmed as such
in the year 2000.
This remarkable woman made a habit of praying for an hour each day before
the Blessed Sacrament in the house chapel at Courtfield. She prayed to God for
a large family and for many religious vocations among her children. And her
prayers were answered! She bore 14 children, and died shortly after the birth
of the last child, John, in 1853.
Of the 13 children
that lived, six of her eight boys became priests: two priests in religious
orders, one diocesan priest, a bishop, an archbishop and a cardinal. From the
five daughters, four became nuns in religious orders. What a blessing for the
family, and what an impact on all of England!
The Vaughan children
enjoyed a pleasant childhood because their virtuous mother knew how to educate
them in a very natural way by uniting spiritual and religious obligations with
amusement and cheerfulness. Thanks to their mother, prayer and daily Mass in
the house chapel were just as much a part of everyday life as music, athletics,
amateur theatre, horse riding and playing. It was never boring for the children
when their mother told them stories from the lives of the saints, who little by
little became their dearest friends.
Eliza happily let her
children accompany her on visits to the sick and needy of the area. On such
occasions, they learned how to be generous, to make sacrifices and to give away
their savings or their toys.
Shortly after the birth of her 14th child, Eliza died.
Two months after her death, Colonel Vaughan wrote in a letter that he was
convinced divine providence brought Eliza to him. “I thanked the Lord in
adoration today that I could give back to him my dearly beloved wife. I poured
out my heart to him, full of thankfulness that, as an example and a guide, he
gave me Eliza with whom I am still now bound by an inseparable, spiritual bond.
What wonderful consolation and grace she brought me! I still see her as I
always saw her before the Blessed Sacrament: her inner purity and extraordinary
human kindness which her beautiful face reflected during prayer.”
Labourers in the vineyard of the Lord
The many vocations from the Vaughan family are a
unique legacy in British history and a blessing which came especially through their
mother, Eliza.
At
the age of 16, Herbert, the oldest son, shared his priestly vocation with his
parents. Their reactions were very different. His mother, who had prayed a
great deal for it, smiled and said, “Child, I have known it for a long
time.” His father, however, needed a little time to come to terms with the
decision, since the inheritance goes to the oldest, and he had hoped Herbert
would have a prestigious military career. How could he have known that his son
would one day be the Archbishop of Westminster, founder of the Millhill
Missionaries and then a Cardinal? Yet the father also bowed to his wishes
writing once to his friend, “If God wants Herbert for himself, he can have
all the others as well.”
Although Reginald married, as did Francis, who
inherited the family estate, the Lord did call nine other Vaughan children.
Roger, the second oldest, became a Benedictine prior and later the beloved
Archbishop of Sydney, Australia, where he built the Cathedral. Kenelm was a
Cistercian and later a diocesan priest; Joseph, the fourth son, became a
Benedictine like his brother and founded a new abbey.
Bernard, the most
lively of them all, loved dancing, sports and anything fun; he became a Jesuit.
On the day before he entered the order, he went to a ball where he told his
dance partner, “This dance with you is my last, because I am joining the
Jesuits.”
Shocked, the girl
replied, “Really? You want to become a Jesuit!? But you who love the world
so much and are such an excellent dancer!?”
His equivocal, but
beautiful answer was, “That is why I am consecrating myself to God.”
John, the youngest, was ordained a priest by
his oldest brother, Herbert, and later became the Auxiliary Bishop of Salford,
England.
Four of the five
daughters in the family entered convents. Gladis entered the Order of the
Visitation, Teresa joined the Sisters of Mercy, Claire became a Poor Clare, and
Mary an Augustinian prioress. Margaret, the fifth Vaughan daughter, wanted to
be a religious sister, but could not do so because of her poor health.
Consecrated to God, she lived at home, but spent the last years of her life in
a convent.
Foto: During a personal summer retreat at the age of
16, Herbert Vaughan decided to become a priest. He was ordained in Rome at the
age of 22 and later became the Bishop of Salford, England and founder of the
Millhill Missionaries who today work all over the world. He was eventually made
a cardinal and the third Archbishop of Westminster. His motto on his coat of
arms reads: “Amare et servire!” “Love and serve!” Cardinal Vaughan said, “These
two words express my agenda: Love must be the root from which all my service
blossoms.”
Blessed Maria Deluil Martiny (1841-1884)
Approximately 120 years ago, Jesus began to reveal his plan for the
renewal of the priesthood to consecrated women living in and out of convents.
He entrusted this so-called “Priest Work” to spiritual mothers.
Blessed Maria
Deluil Martiny is a precursor of this work for priests. Regarding this
great intention of her heart, Mother Maria Deluil Martiny said, “To offer
yourself for souls is beautiful and great… but to offer yourself for the souls
of priests is so beautiful, so great, that you would have to have a thousand
lives and offer your heart a thousand times… I would gladly give my life if
only Christ could find in priests what he is expecting from them. I would
gladly give it even if just one of them could perfectly realize God’s divine
plan for him!”
She did, in fact, seal her priestly motherhood with the blood of
martyrdom at age 43. Her last words were, “This is for the work, for the
Priest Work!”
Venerable
Louise Margaret Claret de la Touche
(1868-1915)
Over the course of many years, Jesus prepared the Venerable Louise
Margaret Claret de la Touche for her apostolate for the renewal of the
priesthood. The Lord appeared to her on 5 June 1902, while she was in adoration:
“Praying to him for our little novitiate, I asked him to give me some souls
I might form for him. He replied: ‘I will give you the souls of men.’ Being
profoundly astonished by these words, the sense of which I did not understand,
I remained silent…until Jesus said: ‘I will give you the souls of priests.’
Still more astonished I asked him: ‘My Jesus how will you do that?’ …Then he
showed me that he has a special work to do, which is to enkindle the fire of
love again in the world, and that he wishes to make use of his priests to
accomplish it.” “He said to me: ‘Nineteen centuries ago, twelve men changed the
world; they were not merely men, but they were priests. Now, once more twelve
priests could change the world…but they must be holy.’” Subsequently, the
Lord let Louise Margaret see the outcome of the Work. “It is a special union of
priests, a Work, which encompasses the whole world. ... Priests who will
form part of this work will undertake, among other
things, to preach Infinite Love and mercy, but first his heart must be penetrated by Jesus and enlightened by his
spirit of love. They must be united among
themselves, having but one heart and one soul, and never impeding one another
in their activities.”
Louise Margaret wrote so impressively
about the priesthood in her book “The Sacred Heart and the Priesthood”, that
priests believed the anonymous writer to be a fellow priest. A Jesuit even
exclaimed, “I do not know who wrote this book, but one thing I do know, it
is not the work of a woman!”
Lu Monferrato
The little village of Lu, in northern Italy, is located in a rural area
90 kilometres east of Turin. It would still be unknown to this day if some of
the mothers of Lu had not made a decision that had important consequences in
1881.
The deepest desire of many of these mothers was
for one of their sons to become a priest or for a daughter to place her life
completely in God’s service. Under the direction of their parish priest, Msgr.
Alessandro Canora, they gathered every Tuesday for adoration of the Blessed
Sacrament, asking the Lord for vocations. They received Holy Communion on the
first Sunday of every month with the same intention. After Mass, all the mothers
prayed a particular prayer together
imploring for vocations to the priesthood.
Through the trusting prayer of these mothers and the openness of the
other parents, an atmosphere of deep joy and Christian piety developed in the
families, making it much easier for the children to recognize their vocations.
When the Lord said, “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Mt 22:14), we can understand that many are
called, but only a few respond to that call. No one expected that God would
hear the prayers of these mothers in such a dramatic way.
From the tiny village
of Lu came 323 vocations: 152 priests (diocesan and religious), and 171 nuns
belonging to 41 different congregations. As many as three or four vocations
came from some of the families. The most famous example is the Rinaldi family,
from whom God called seven children. Two daughters became Salesian sisters,
both of whom were sent to San Domingo as missionaries. Five sons became
priests, all joining the Salesians. The most well-known of the Rinaldi brothers
is Blessed Philip Rinaldi, who became the third successor of St. John Bosco as
Superior General of the Salesians. Pope John Paul II beatified him on 29 April
1990. In fact, many of the vocations from this small town became Salesians. It
is certainly not a coincidence, since St. John Bosco visited Lu four times
during his life. The saint attended the first Mass of his spiritual son, Fr.
Philip Rinaldi in this village where he was born. Philip always fondly recalled
the faith of the families of Lu: “A faith that made our fathers and mothers
say, ‘The Lord gave us our children, and so if He calls them, we can’t say
no.’”
Fr. Luigi Borghina and
Fr. Pietro Rota lived the spirituality of Don Bosco so faithfully that the
former was called the “Brazilian Don Bosco” and the latter the “Don Bosco of
Valtellina.” Pope John XXIII once said the following about another vocation
from Lu, His Excellency, Evasion Colli, Archbishop of Parma: “He should have
become pope, not me. He had everything it takes to become a great pope.”
Every ten years, the priests and
sisters born in Lu used to come together from all around the world. Fr. Mario
Meda, the long-serving parish priest of Lu, explained that this reunion is a
true celebration, a feast of thanksgiving to God who has done such great things
for Lu.
The prayer that the mothers of Lu prayed was
short, simple, and deep:
“O God,
grant that one of my sons may become a priest!
I
myself want to live as a good Christian
and
want to guide my children always to do what is right,
so that I may receive the grace, O God, to be
allowed to give you a holy priest! Amen.”
Foto: This picture is indeed unique in the annals of the Catholic Church. From
1 to 4 September 1946, the majority of the 323 priests and religious met in
their village of Lu for a reunion which attracted world-wide attention.
Blessed Alessandrina da Costa
(1904-1955)
A story from the life of Alexandrina da Costa beatified on 25
April 2004, reveals the transforming power and visible effects of the sacrifice
made by a sick and forgotten girl.
In 1941, Alexandrina
wrote to her spiritual director, Fr. Mariano Pinho, telling him that Jesus told
her, “My daughter, a priest living in Lisbon is close to being lost forever;
he offends me terribly. Call your spiritual director and ask his permission
that I may have you suffer in a special way for this soul.”
Once Alexandrina had
received permission from her spiritual director, she suffered greatly. She felt
the severity of the priest’s errors, how he wanted to know nothing about God
and was close to self-damnation. She even heard the priest’s full name. Poor
Alexandrina experienced the hellish state of this priest’s soul and prayed
urgently, “Not to hell, no! I offer myself as a sacrifice for him, as long
as you want.”
Fr. Pinho inquired of
the Cardinal of Lisbon whether one of the priests of his diocese was of
particular concern. The Cardinal openly confirmed that he was, in fact, very
worried about one of his priests, and when he mentioned the name of the priest,
it was the same one that Jesus had spoken to Alexandrina.
Some months
later, a friend of Fr. Pinho, Fr. David Novais, recounted to him an unusual
incident. Fr. David had just held a retreat in Fatima where attended a modest
gentleman whose exemplary behaviour made him pleasantly attractive to all the
participants. On the last night of the retreat, this man suddenly had a heart
attack. He asked to see a priest, to whom he confessed and received Holy
Communion. Shortly thereafter he died, fully reconciled with God. It turned out
that this man was actually a priest—the very priest for whom Alexandrina had
suffered so greatly.
Servant of God Consolata Betrone (1903-1946)
The sacrifices and prayers of a spiritual mother for priests benefit
especially those who have strayed or abandoned their vocations. Jesus has
called countless women in his Church to this vocation of prayer, such as Sister
Consolata Betrone, a Capuchin nun from Turin. Jesus said to her, “Your
life-long task is for your brothers. Consolata, you too, shall be a good
shepherdess and go in search of your brothers and bring them back to me.”
Consolata offered
everything for “her brother” priests and others consecrated to God who were in
spiritual need. While working in the kitchen, she prayed continuously in her
heart, “Jesus, Mary, I love you, save souls!” She consciously made every
little service and duty into a sacrifice. Jesus said in this regard, “Your
duties may be insignificant, but because you bring them to me with such love, I
give them immeasurable value and shower them on the discontented brothers as
grace for conversion.”
Very grave and difficult cases were often entrusted to the prayers of the
convent. Consolata would take the corresponding suffering upon herself. For
weeks or months on end she sometimes endured dryness of spirit, abandonment,
meaninglessness, inner darkness, loneliness, doubt, and the sinful state of the
priests.
She once wrote
to her spiritual director during these struggles, “How much the brothers
cost me!” Yet Jesus made her a magnificent promise, “Consolata, it is
not only one brother that you will lead back to God, but all of them. I promise
you, you will give me the brothers, one after another.” And so it was! She
brought back all of the priests entrusted to her to a fulfilling priesthood.
There are recorded testimonies of many of these cases.
Berthe Petit (1870-1943)
Berthe Petit, a
great mystic and expiatory soul from Belgium,
has remained
relatively unknown to this day. Jesus clearly indicated the priest
for whom she was
to give up her own plans, and providence even let them meet.
The “price” of a holy priest
As a 15-year-old girl, Berthe began praying at every Holy Mass for the
celebrant, “My Jesus, do not allow your priests to displease you!” When
she was 17 years old, her parents lost everything they had in a failed business
venture. On 8 December 1888, Berthe’s confessor explained to her that her
vocation was not to enter a convent but to stay at home and care for her
parents. Although she accepted this sacrifice with a heavy heart, Berthe asked
Our Lady to intercede that Jesus might call a zealous and holy priest in the
place of her religious vocation. “You will certainly be heard!” assured
her confessor.
She could not have
known what would take place just 16 days later: A 22-year-old lawyer, Dr. Louis
Decorsant, was praying before a statue of the Sorrowful Mother. Unexpectedly,
he had an inner certainty that it was not his vocation to take the girl he
loved to be his wife and to establish himself as a notary. He understood very
clearly that God was calling him to be a priest. The call was so clear and
urgent that he did not hesitate to give up everything. Upon finishing his
studies and his doctorate in Rome, he was ordained to the priesthood in Paris
in 1893. At the time, Berthe was 22 years old.
That same year, the
newly ordained, 27-year-old priest celebrated Christmas Midnight Mass in a
church outside Paris. At the exact moment Berthe was participating at Midnight
Mass in another church, and solemnly promised the Lord, “Jesus, I will be a
sacrifice for the priests, for all priests, but especially for the priest of my
life.”
During exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, the young woman suddenly saw
Jesus hanging on a large cross and Mary and John standing beneath it. Then she
heard the words, “Your offer has been accepted, your prayer heard. Behold
your priest… you will be able to meet him one day.” And Berthe saw that
John’s features resembled a priest, but one she did not know. This priest was none other than Fr. Decorsant whom
she would recognize at their first encounter—some 15 years later in 1908.
An encounter led by God
Berthe made a pilgrimage to Lourdes where the Blessed Virgin confirmed, “Now
you will see the priest whom you asked God for 20 years ago; you will meet him
soon.”
That same year, she
made another trip by train to Lourdes, this time with a friend of hers. A
priest got on at the station in Paris trying to find a place for a sick
woman. It was Fr. Decorsant. His
features were those which Berthe had seen on St. John’s face 15 years earlier.
She had prayed frequently and offered all of her physical suffering for him.
After a couple of friendly words, he left the compartment.
Exactly one month
later, Fr. Decorsant also made a pilgrimage to Lourdes because he wanted to
entrust the future of his priesthood to Our Lady. With suitcases in hand, he
met Berthe and her friend. Recognizing the two women, he invited them to Holy
Mass. When Fr. Decorsant elevated the Host, Jesus interiorly said to Berthe, “This
is the priest for whom I accepted your sacrifice.” After the Holy Mass,
Berthe was surprised to see that the “priest of her life,” as she called him
from then on, was staying in the same hotel as they were.
A shared task
Shortly thereafter, Berthe was able to speak to him about her interior
life and another mission that was entrusted to her—the promulgation of the
consecration to the Immaculate and Sorrowful Heart of Mary. Fr. Decorsant felt
that this precious soul had been entrusted to him by God.
He accepted a position
in Belgium and became a holy spiritual director for Berthe Petit as well as an
untiring support for the realization of her mission. Theologically sound, he
was the ideal person to maintain a correspondence between Berthe and the hierarchy
of the Church in Rome. For the 24 years until his death, he accompanied Berthe
Petit in her expiatory vocation; she was often very sick and suffered
especially for priests who had left the priesthood.
Venerable Conchita of Mexico (1862-1937)
Maria Conception Cabrera de Armida (“Conchita”) was a wife and mother
with children. Over the course of many years, Jesus prepared her to live a life
of spiritual motherhood for priests. In the future, she will be of great
importance for the universal Church.
Jesus once explained to Conchita, “There are souls, who through
ordination receive a priestly anointing. However, there are ... also priestly
souls who do not have the dignity or the ordination of a priest, yet have a
priestly mission. They offer themselves united to me… these souls help the
Church in a very powerful spiritual way. … You will be the mother of a great
number of spiritual children, yet they will cost your heart the death of a
thousand martyrs.
“Bring yourself as
an offering for the priests. Unite your offering with my offering, to obtain
graces for them.” … “I want to come again into this world. … in my priests. I
want to renew the world by revealing myself through the priests. I want to give
my Church a powerful impulse in which I will pour out the Holy Spirit over my
priests like a new Pentecost.
“The Church and the
world need a new Pentecost, a priestly Pentecost, an interior Pentecost.”
As a young girl,
Conchita once prayed before the Blessed Sacrament, “Lord, I feel so
incapable of loving you; therefore, I want to marry. Give me many children so
that they can love you more than I.” She had a very happy marriage, and
gave birth to nine children—two girls and seven boys, each of whom she
consecrated to Our Lady, “I give them entirely to you as your children. You
know that I am not capable of raising them. I understand too little of what it
means to be a mother. But you...you know it.” She endured the death of four
of her children, each dying a holy death.
Naturally, Conchita’s
spiritual motherhood was very apparent in one of her sons who became a priest.
She wrote about him, “Manuel was born in the same hour that Fr. José Camacho
died. Upon hearing the news, I prayed to God that my son could replace him at
the altar. … When little Manuel began to talk, we prayed together for the great
grace of a vocation to the priesthood. … On the day of his First Holy Communion
and on all the major solemnities, he renewed this prayer. … At the age of 17,
he joined the Society of Jesus.”
Her third child, Manuel
was born in 1889. While living in Spain, he wrote to his mother about his
decision to become a priest. She wrote back to him, “Give yourself to the
Lord with all your heart, and do not hold anything back! Forget about creatures
and forget especially about yourself! I cannot imagine someone consecrated to
God who is not a saint. One cannot give only half of oneself to God. Be
generous with him!”
In 1914, she met
Manuel in Spain for the last time, because he never returned to Mexico. He
wrote in a letter to her, “My dear little mother, you have shown me the way.
Fortunately, I have heard from your lips since my earliest years the
challenging and saving teaching of the Cross. Now I want to put it into
practice.” His mother felt the pain of separation, “I took your letter
to the tabernacle and told the Lord that I accept this sacrifice with my whole
soul. The next day I was carrying your letter close to my heart when I received
Holy Communion and, in this way, renewed my total offering to the Lord.”
“Mother, teach me how to be a priest!”
On 23 July 1922, one week before
his ordination to the priesthood, the 33-year-old Manuel asked Conchita in a
letter, “Mother, teach me how to be a priest! Tell me about the immeasurable
joy of being able to celebrate Holy Mass. I put everything back into your
hands, just as when you held me to your chest as a very small child, teaching
me the beautiful names of Jesus and Mary and introducing me to this mystery. I
really feel like an infant asking for your light, your prayer and your
sacrifice. ... As soon as I am a priest, I will send you my blessing, and then
I will receive yours on my knees.”
On 31 July 1922, as
Manuel was being ordained to the priesthood in Barcelona, Conchita woke up in
the middle of the night so that she could participate spiritually in his
ordination. She was overcome by the awareness, “I am the mother of a priest!
… I can only cry and give thanks! I invite all of heaven to give thanks in my
place because I am incapable of doing it, I who am so wretched.” Ten years
later, she wrote to her son, “I cannot imagine a priest who is not Jesus,
even less so in the Society of Jesus. I pray that your transformation into
Christ, through celebrating Holy Mass, may help you to become Jesus day and
night.” (17 May 1932) “What
would we do without the Cross? Life would be unbearable without pain; it
unites, sanctifies, purifies and attains grace.” (10 June 1932) Fr. Manuel died a holy death in 1955 at the
age of 66.
The Lord enlightened Conchita regarding her apostolate,