WORD of the Vine

I finished a new book titled, “Behold your Mother: Spiritual Motherhood of Priests for Today’s Church” and sent it in mid October to a publisher. At the time, I took little notice of the location of this publisher. I addressed the manuscript and dropped it in the mail. Yesterday my heart raced, for I received a letter from the publisher thanking me for my submission. It was a letter addressed just to me from the publisher and personally signed by Father Edmund Lane.S.S.P. It was addressed Oct. 29, 2012 from Staten Island, New York on Victory Blvd. Just then on the TV news, they were showing all the rubble on Victory Blvd. I no longer felt removed from the catastrophe. Fr. Lane had dropped this in the mail to me just before Hurricane Sandy blew through his office. I carried him in prayer, prayer from the heart that women and spiritual mothers of priests do so naturally. It was this orientation of the heart of women that in 2007, the Congregation for the Clergy and Claudio Cardinal Hummes desired to encourage as a movement to pray for priests. According to Cardinal Hummes, “It is a vocation that is largely unknown, scarcely understood and rarely lived. It is a vocation that is frequently hidden…but meant to transmit spiritual life.”  Think of your own life. Have you ever considered that the ups and downs of your day, the times when your heart is moved in compassion, are spiritual offerings for others, for priests that can engender graces for others, if you know how to work with them? In the next few posts, we will explore how to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit to facilitate spiritual growth in others, for priests, as well as for ourselves and our families.