From the Friars: Mary in the Upper Room

The mystery of motherhood is a marvelous gift! Mary is Mother of Christ and Mother of the Church. After my own mother’s visit to the Shrine to celebrate my one-year anniversary to the Priesthood, I have a renewed understanding of how this marvelous gift—motherhood—is something for us all!

I cannot help but call to mind Mary’s motherly presence with the Apostles in the Upper Room before Pentecost. It must have been a special joy for Mary to have seen the slow transformation of each Apostle during Jesus’ public ministry. Peter, James, John… etc. she knew them uniquely and personally; she saw them in fear after Jesus’ death and resurrection and now she awaits with them the coming of the Holy Spirit. And as Mother of the Church, she is about to give birth to the Church, when the pangs of fear that so crippling to the Apostles will be turned into the joy of boldly proclaiming Jesus Christ risen from the dead and Giver of New Life!

What moves me most about my mother’s visit here this past week is the peace she received in getting to meet so many of you. There is nothing that puts a mother’s heart at rest like knowing that her son is safe at home (I’m sure Mary felt this during Jesus’ Ascension back to the Father). I was able to show my mom the mission that God has entrusted to us, that is the mission of a new family and a new home here at Holy Rosary Shrine.

Home that is no way disregards nor diminishes that of where I came from. Jesus’ mission also entailed a physical separation from Mary, but through this sacrifice she received a renewed understanding of both her role as Mother of Christ and Mother of the Church.

I never knew that becoming a priest and sharing in Christ’s mission—along with being a Franciscan—would entail such a radical separation from family. Well, perhaps I “knew” it, intellectually, but I never knew it would be such a sacrifice. And so, my prayer for this coming up Sunday for Pentecost is that I receive the very Heart of Mary, Our Mother, who was able to see Christ in her new children, the Twelve Apostles and be uniquely united to Christ in heaven through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I thank you for all the ways that y’all showed love and hospitality to my mother. She now prays for each one of you personally and in a unique way as she herself has grown in the peace of joyfully partaking in the mission here at Holy Rosary Shrine, as a spiritual mother to you all!

–Fr. Francis