Happy Mother's Day!
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May 10, 2026
Motherhood, be it biological, spiritual or symbolic, is a vocation and a gift. Mother’s Day celebrates the enduring, creative love of a woman. Motherhood is both fulfilling and tiresome, inspiring and challenging, joyful and sad, but, more important than all of these is the fact that motherhood is a blessing, or at least it should be.
The Blessed Mother and Child are not just reserved for a Christmas card. On a deeper level, it is a sign that our Lord will never leave us. It recalls for us the image of the prophet Isaiah when he said, “Can a mother forget her infant. . even should she forget, I will not abandon you.” (Is. 49:15). The Blessed Mother never forgot her Infant, and, therefore, we cannot fail to recall the fidelity of the Lord to His mother and through her, to us. From the Cross, the dying words of the Lord, “Behold your Mother” and from that moment on we will always have a mother here on earth, no matter our age.
In 1988, Pope St. John Paul II wrote a magnificent Apostolic Letter on motherhood Mulieris Dignitatem (On the Dignity and Vocation of Women). Halfway through that letter, the Pope wrote that motherhood gives women a new attitude that profoundly marks their personalities. Not just the bond of love between mother and child, but how a mother relates to all people. There is an increased sensitivity, the pope suggests, that a mother has toward those around her once she has conceived and is with child. (cf. MD, 18) At the end of the letter, the pope calls this increased sensitivity “a manifestation of the ‘genius’ which belongs to women.” (MD, 30)
Sadly, we are living in an era when motherhood is denigrated. Sadly, some women don’t see the value of being a wife and mother. Yet, the most important person on earth is a mother. She becomes a dwelling place for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of a baby’s body. Not even angels have been blessed with such a gift. To know that the love of husband and wife is so strong and powerful as to co-create with God another human person, with an immortal soul destined for Heaven. Only a human mother can know. Mothers are closer to God the Creator than any other creature. God joins forces with mothers in performing this act of creation. What a joy it must be to be a mother!
The women who are spiritual mothers, whether you have your own children or not, you give life to the love of God in the hearts of those you encounter. Use all those motherly instincts to bring love to a world that desperately needs it.
For all women and spiritual mothers in your life; those who have loved you, loved your children, loved the elderly, loved anyone with the heart of a mother, this day belongs to you as well.
June 7th is the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). Noon Mass will be a Solemn Mass with choir. Following the 12:00 PM Mass, the Blessed Sacrament will be exposed for Eucharistic Adoration all afternoon concluding with Solemn Vespers and Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Starting at 3:30 PM, Choral Eucharistic hymns and motets will be sung in Honor of the Blessed Sacrament concluding with Solemn Vespers at 4:00PM
Following Vespers in Toner Hall, all are invited to a reception of cheeses, wines, and desserts.
Please join us for this solemn and beautiful celebration of Corpus Christi and spend time in prayer before Our Eucharistic Lord.