‘Spiritual mothers’ pray for priests

In 2007, recognizing the challenges facing Catholic priests, Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, prefect for the Vatican’s Congregation of the Clergy, wrote a letter to all bishops asking them to help revitalize the vocation of Spiritual Motherhood for Priests.

The Vatican in a 40-page document that accompanied the letter, said, “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.”

Responding to the letter, and in recognition of Pope Benedict XVI’s declaration of June 19, 2009, as the beginning of the “Year for Priests,” several women’s prayer groups or “cenacles,” which came to be named Maria Mater Sacerdotis (MMS) or Mary, Mother of the Priest, have formed in the Arlington Diocese to spiritually adopt and pray for priests.

MMS was the idea of a parishioner from St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church in Colonial Beach. Several years prior to reading Cardinal Hummes’ document and letter she had adopted a priest and prayed for him every day. When Cardinal Hummes’ letter came out she worked to form prayer groups to formally pray for priests. The first group met in February of 2008 in King George, VA.

Father Robert Lange, then a retired Arlington Diocesan priest but now deceased, loved the idea when he was asked to be its spiritual director. Father Lange said that praying for priests was done years ago by sisters in convents, but the decline in women religious vocations has affected that source of prayer. Father Lange wanted to see Maria Mater Sacerdotis spread.

“I would like to see it grow in the diocese and beyond,” he said.

In the beginning Father Lange was the spiritual director of the Stafford and Annandale, VA cenacles and Father Richard Carr directed the Colonial Beach, VA group.  After Fr. Lange’s death Fr. Richard Carr took over the spiritual leadership of all the MMS cenacles. Then in 2019 Fr. Eric Shafer was eager to become the new spiritual director. The cenacles are not confined to a particular parish and a single cenacle may contain women from several different parishes. Each cenacle was originally to be composed of seven women, one for each of the Seven Sorrows of Mary, but now may be composed of any number greater than three. Before becoming a member of the cenacle, Father Lange said that each woman must be consecrated to Mary through the St. Louis de Montfort 33 day formula, a total consecration to Jesus through Mary.  Members must be at least 18 years of age and may be single or married.

Each woman is assigned a priest son to pray for by the group’s spiritual director. The priests are never told that they are being prayed for by their spiritual mother or who their spiritual mother is. The regimen of prayer is demanding. There are daily morning and evening prayers from the Liturgy of the Hours, plus a daily rosary and a chaplet of the Divine Mercy. Daily Mass attendance is highly encouraged, unless it would interfere with the spiritual mother’s duties according to her state in life. Each Thursday members make a Holy Hour for their priests, in church if possible, or else privately at home. On a specified Thursday of the month (since Christ instituted the priesthood on Holy Thursday) the cenacle members gather, usually at a church or member’s home, for a meeting and prayer, their monthly cenacle.

There is also a dress code. When at Mass, praying for their priests in church, and at their monthly meetings, cenacle members must wear a modest skirt or dress, rather than pants, as a sign of femininity, “representing the Blessed Mother, who is femininity itself,” said Father Lange.

Maria Mater Sacerdotis currently has cenacles in Front Royal, Winchester, Annandale, Stafford and King George, VA. Their primary goal is to provide a spiritual mother for every priest in the Arlington, VA diocese. Then, if it is the Will of God, and with the help of Our Blessed Mother, to spread to other dioceses to spiritually mother priests there also.

History taken from article written by:
DAVE BOROWSKI
Catholic Herald Staff Writer