{"id":24832,"date":"2009-07-30T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-30T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/07\/spiritual-motherhood-for-pries\/"},"modified":"2009-07-30T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-30T13:00:00","slug":"spiritual-motherhood-for-pries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/07\/spiritual-motherhood-for-pries\/","title":{"rendered":"Spiritual Motherhood for Priests takes off"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"OL<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Since last year I’ve been thinking of the role spiritual
\nmothers, in the example of Our Lady, play in the lives of Catholic priests. I am thinking in particular of Our Lady of Sorrows for this type of spiritual maternity. In the past I mentioned this idea here<\/a> and here<\/a> at the beginning of 2009 (perhaps I should do it more). The
\ncall to be a priest’s spiritual mother includes a woman’s offering herself to
\nGod, praying in intercession and reparation for the priest, spending time in
\nEucharistic Adoration and becoming a point for God’s grace to work in the life
\nof a priest. A woman of any age can do this work of intercession; she can be single, married, or widowed. This spiritual work is hidden and contemplative, sacrificial and
\nsilent. It is in this special work that the reparation for the sins of priests
\nmight happen for as the Holy Father said, “nothing makes the Church, the Body
\nof Christ, suffer more than the sins of her pastors.”<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

My interest has been sparked by two people, Franciscan
\nCardinal Claudio Hummes and Benedictine Father Mark Kirby<\/a>, the latter drawing
\non <\/p>\n

Adoration & Spiritual Maternity.pdf<\/a><\/span> to ask the Divine Majesty to renew priesthood
\nthrough a special devotion to the Eucharist. But there’s been other work done by
\npeople such as Catherine Dougherty, Mother Marie des Douleurs and Maria Sieler as well as the countless laity and consecrated men and women of the Church.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In October 2008 Tulsa, OK, Bishop Edward Slattery started a
\nprocess of formation for women<\/a> to dedicate their prayer for the needs of the
\npriesthood. I am told that there are some women in the Bridgeport Diocese that there
\nare women who dedicate their lives as a spiritual mother for priests but they
\nare so hidden no one knows them. Something has to be done in the manner in
\nwhich Bishop Slattery is doing this holy work! <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

More recently Jane, living in France, has begun some work
\nand prayer on spiritual maternity for priests. Her blog, Spiritual Mothers of
\nPriests<\/a><\/b>, is a good personal initiative to assist priests (and I presume
\nseminarians) with prayer and sacrifice during this Year of the Priest. Ladies,
\nvisit and follow the work of Jane and join other women to this special work for
\npriests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since last year I’ve been thinking of the role spiritual mothers, in the example of Our Lady, play in the lives of Catholic priests. I am thinking in particular of Our Lady of Sorrows for this type of spiritual maternity. In the past I mentioned this idea here and here at the beginning of 2009 … Continue reading Spiritual Motherhood for Priests takes off<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1959,2156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24832\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}