(an excerpt from an article by Mary Kaufmann)

…the vocation of spiritual motherhood for priests – spiritually mature women willing to offer their lives and pray at the Cross for priests and the priesthood.

This is not a call to “maternalism” towards priests, to show up at the rectory with food, offer advice or to hover around priests. It’s not necessarily a call to close friendship with the priest, but more a connection experienced on the supernatural level, for their mutual growth in holiness. Spiritual motherhood demands and develops the spiritual and interpersonal maturity of the woman involved by presenting her with a regular opportunity to offer her spiritual resources for the benefit of priests with detachment or without meeting her own personal needs in doing so.

Spiritual mothers are virtuous women, women centered in God, women tempered by suffering, sometimes even suffering from interaction with priests, but women able to offer “a widow’s mite” in a way that makes a powerful spiritual difference for the Church.

Some spiritual mothers offer their joys and sorrows for all priests and the priesthood in general; while others feel called to pray and sacrifice for one specific priest or seminarian.

Some spiritual moms know not even the priest that they pray for, while others live a holy, spiritual friendship with the priest. While the interpersonal dynamic of spiritual motherhood may vary, certain fundamental characteristics remain: to spiritually accompany the priest by offering their lives as living sacrifice for them.

Some dioceses that have implemented programs of spiritual motherhood of priests, have organized them as double-blind arrangements, where the spiritual mother and the priest himself do not know each other’s names. The women know only that they are praying for the priest assigned to them, and the priest, that they have a generous personal intercessor.

When Jesus Christ was crucified and was about to die, He gave His Blessed Mother Mary to His beloved apostle John.

• Did John need a MOTHER now?
• All along why hadn’t Jesus Christ given His Blessed Mother to the Apostles?
• Did Mother Mary really need to be given to the Apostles?

From my simple thinking, Jesus Christ was aware of what was coming to Him(His passion and death). Yes, He knew how it would affect His apostles and quickly they would be disoriented and disband. I am highly thinking that He needed someone like us in body but with an unwavering faith in God as that of His Mother. In this simple introduction, Jesus Christ is showing us the significance of His Mother in the life of the Apostle.

Definitely, Jesus Christ’s Apostles already knew Mary as His Mother. When the times are extremely hard, mothers have been known to keep hope and order in our families. Somehow, they tend to keep the family’s spirit and hope alive. How they do this is a mystery of motherhood that every woman ought to be happy about. This is why Pope Benedict XVI encouraged formation of spiritual mothers Apostolate, who dedicate their life through prayer, penance, self sacrifice and offering of their sufferings for the Sanctification of Priests. This is the way of uniting the motherhood of Mary which Jesus introduced to His Apostles.

Finally, Jesus Christ offering of His Mother to the Apostle John, is important to our spiritual life and the spiritual lives of priests who are actually the Apostles – How many people did Jesus Christ offer to His Apostles? If Jesus Christ offered His Blessed Mother to the Apostles, He can still offer you, Yes…, you and me, to His Beloved Mother for a deeper spiritual growth in our life. I can guarantee you that this spiritual growth does not come alone – It brings peace, success, security, friends, wisdom, joy, good health, breakthrough, hard work, right decisions and new inspirations ( the rest will be your testimony).

Reflecting on the above, let every mother who is offering herself to be a spiritual mother for praying for Priests imitate the Blessed Virgin Mary’s virtues especially: Her profound humility, Her lively faith, Her blind obedience, Her continual mental prayer, Her mortification in all things, Her surpassing purity, Her ardent charity, Her heroic patience, Her angelic sweetness and Her divine wisdom: “these being”, as St. Louis-Marie De Montfort says, “the Ten Principal Virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary.“

Let us say this Short Prayer

O God, we thank You for the Gift of Your Son, Jesus Christ, we thank You for His wisdom and generosity of offering us His Blessed Mother Mary. Thank You dear Jesus for this Great Gift of Your Blessed Mother. Grant us the grace to understand the relevance of offering us Your Blessed Mother at the time You were dying on the Cross. AMEN.

By Mr. Dennis Mukwaya