Letter from the Pastor
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May 9, 2021Happy Mother’s Day!
In the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, it states:
The Christian Family is called to be a community of faith, hope, and love in an environment of prayer.
Aided by a number of other virtues, such as prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, the family that practices them begins to actualize its spiritual calling as a domestic church… It is then an icon of the Trinity
The family is holy because God’s grace is forever at work in all the family members. The core or heart of the family is the mother. A mother’s job is first and foremost to love her husband, which will then flow down to her children. Then to teach the children about the God of love and to make them disciples of Christ, by modeling the faith, teaching virtues, how to pray, how to make good decisions and choices in life. A mother’s job is never done, even in eternity: I think a mother always watches over her family.
Mother's Day has been celebrated as a national holiday in the United States on the second Sunday of May since 1914. Catholics, however, have been celebrating a sort of mother's day since the first few centuries of the Church. The fourth Sunday of Lent, or Laetare Sunday, traditionally was a time to return to your “mother church”, which was the parish of your baptism and leave an offering. It was the Church of your baptism that gave you “spiritual birth”.
Also known as Mothering Sunday, it naturally evolved into honoring your mother as well. Devotion to Mary, the Mother of God and our spiritual mother, in the month of May gives this holiday a greater depth for Catholics that goes far beyond giving flowers or candy.
“The woman’s soul is fashioned as a shelter in which other souls may unfold,” wrote St. Edith Stein.
The capacity of a woman to connect with others, to see them as they are, to provide a nurturing place where the other can feel uniquely known and loved, to be sensitive to their needs and respond to them in a personal way is a woman’s greatest gift.
Quite tragically, somewhere along the line, girls and women have been taught that mothering is somehow beneath them or secondary to business careers. Even worse, in order to be successful, they are told, a woman must hide her heart from love and nurturing.
As a result of this false notion, the number of babies born in America last year was the lowest in more than 40 years, a continuing fertility slump seen throughout the Western world.
U.S. women had about 3.61 million babies in 2020, down 4% from 2019. The total fertility rate, the average number of babies a woman would have over her lifetime—fell to 1.64. That was the lowest rate on record started during the 1930s.Total births were the lowest since 1979.
To be a mother means to nurture relationships, the very things that give meaning to our lives. If you have been loved by any kind of mother in this world—if a woman has seen you, nurtured you, known you and loved you, you know its significance. It is no small thing to be seen and known and loved; it is everything. Thank you Moms for all you do to make us who we are.
A Prayer in Gratitude for Our MothersGood and Gentle God,
we pray in gratitude for our mothers
and for all the women who have joined with you in the wonder of bringing forth new life.
You who became human through a woman,
grant to all mothers the courage they need to face the uncertain future that life with children always brings.
Give them the strength to live and to be loved in return, not perfectly, but humanly.
Give them the faithful support of husband, family and friends
as they care for the physical and spiritual growth of their children.
Give them joy and delight in their children to sustain them through the trials of motherhood.
Most of all, give them the wisdom to turn to you for help when they need it most.
- Author Unknown
