Priests give special tribute to mothers in pastoral reflections

Happy Mother’s Day!

This weekend, priests across the Archdiocese of Newark have been paying special tribute to mothers in homilies and in bulletin announcements. The following is a selection of pastoral reflections about mothers and mother figures.

Mothers keep the world’s heart beating

“Mothers keep the world’s heart beating. Technology is everywhere but a Mom has a heart that feels love, teaches love, and expresses love. No computer, no smartphone can do that.

By embracing the most sacred gift of all, the life of a child, a mother is God’s special agent. She loves, protects, and nourishes that baby, and the physical and moral formation the child receives can be a permanent trait of his or her personality.

Blessed is the child who is safe at his or her home, has laughter and adventures with a good mother and father, and is educated in the faith to love and worship God every day of the year, every day of life!

Mothers are smart and they are also wise. There are not many secrets that they don’t know. And, just like the Lord, they look on their children and choose to see the goodness, to emphasize it, and to deal with shortcomings mercifully.”

– Msgr. Robert Fuhrman, pastor of St. Philomena in Livingston

Mothers faced new challenges this year

“Happy Mother’s Day! Today, we cherish our mothers and those mother figures in our lives and shower them with our prayers, love, and thanks for the sacrifices they have endured on our behalf and for the love they have given us and in which we were formed. 

The role of a mother is both simple and complex. A mother is a nurturer, peacemaker, comfort-giver, strength-bearer, role-model, and teacher, among so many other things.

This past year, mothers of school-age children were presented with new challenges that tested their patience and resolve to journey with their children in their virtual learning world while keeping family life and work life intact. And they met the challenge.

For others, the responsibility of ‘mothering’ elderly parents was thrust upon them and became a primary concern and devotion. And they met the challenge. 

The mothers and mother figures who nurture us and give us life are vital. We honor the important relationship we have with them.

May we especially remember and honor our mothers who have returned home to God because their love and generosity has long ago been woven into the core of our being and remains with us.

We include a special prayer, too, for mothers-to-be and for Godmothers and all who play a maternal role in our lives. 

I reflect on all the blessings that have been bestowed upon me by my own mother. She has supported me with her love, prayers, guidance, and care my entire life. And she continues to do so even though neither of us is young anymore.

We are fortunate that, ‘God, creator and lord of the universe, chose to put himself — tiny, needy and helpless — into the nurturing and watchful hands of a human mother. Since then, every act of mothering — both physical and spiritual — in every time and every corner of the world recollects Mary’s.’ (From Honoring Mothers is a Catholic Tradition. Diocese of Little Rock, May 11, 2018).” 

– Father Benny Prado, pastor of St. Teresa of Calcutta Parish in Montclair

Take up the work that I do

I have a vivid memory of Saturday mornings in our home. My sister, my brother and I were camped out in the living room, perhaps watching cartoons, or enjoying a bowl of cheerios and there in the kitchen stood our mother at her ironing board. Saturday morning after Saturday morning ironing our school clothes for the following week and using a Pepsi bottle with water and a sprinkler top to aid in getting the wrinkles out. I didn’t know it then, but that ironing board was an altar where she sacrificed her life for us.

Or that day each Spring when she and my dad would go through the house taking down all the venetian blinds from the windows and putting them in our bathtub filled with soapy water where she would kneel and wash them and then spend the rest of the day putting them back up on the windows. I didn’t realize it then, but that bathtub was an altar too. 

And then there was scrubbing the pan in which Sunday’s pot roast was roasted, getting us to and from school, doctor’s appointments, rehearsals, practices, managing the family finances. Hardly inspiring, exhilarating experiences. But they are holy acts.

The details of being a parent – cleaning, teaching, driving to and picking up, paying tuition, guiding, counseling, feeding, clothing – take on a spiritual character when they are part of the work of transforming a child into a sacred and thoughtful and engaged adult.

Our love for our families makes the most ordinary and unremarkable holy; the spiritual transcends the present to envision the future – and who contributes more to the future than a parent raising a child into a responsible, centered, loving adult?

The simple, mundane tasks of being a parent, being a member of a family, being a friend, being a part of a parish is the very ‘work’ of God. On the night before he died, Jesus asks his disciples to take up ‘the work that I do’ — the work of humble servanthood that places the hurts and pain of others before our own, the work of charity that does not measure the cost, the work of love that transcends limits and conditions.

The ‘work’ of God is not measured in effectiveness or efficiency; the hallmark of God’s work is the compassion, justice, and desire to heal that inspire and compel that work.

The simplest work of compassion and charity, done in God’s spirit of love, is to do the very work of Christ; the most hidden and unseen acts of kindness will be exalted by Christ as great in the Kingdom of his Father. 

-Father Mike Sheehan, pastor of Saint Peter the Apostle in River Edge

The amazing mothers in my family

“My own mother, Rita Murphy Shugrue (1918-2010), told me that when each of her children (my sister and brother and I) was presented to her after our births, she took our hands and made the sign of the Cross. What a wonderful way for a Christian mother to start her children off in life!

I am also constantly impressed by my own sister, Mary Ryan, of Holy Trinity Parish, in Westfield. She raised four sons (one is deceased, and one is adopted), and now has 9 grandchildren, and she is the rock of her family’s life.

The remarkable reality is that for almost 40 years, Mary has been totally blind, as a consequence of juvenile diabetes. That has left her, in her own words, not handicapped, but ‘differently abled.’

With her late husband, John, Mary has served in Pre-Cana ministry, and over the years they hosted over 30 foster babies for Catholic Charities. Mary has been a team member for Cornerstone retreats, and prior to COVID restrictions, she served as an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion at Holy Trinity.

And until COVID appeared, Mary took part almost weekly in a Centering Prayer Group with inmates at East Jersey State Prison in Rahway. She has also participated in numerous RENEW groups and was honored several years ago by RENEW International.

Her optimism, grounded in a healthy realism, is contagious, and I am always moved by her strength, which has been a ‘glue’ in the human communities of her family and parish. She has a simple, but deeply insightful faith that always seeks to express itself in practical action. She also has a Marian devotion that was influenced by that of our own mother.

Mary is a wonderful example of Catholic motherhood, and I am proud to call her my sister.

I am sure there are many great stories out there about the extraordinary – though very ‘ordinary’ – lives of so many of those who have taught us the meaning and nature of love. And, as St. John says, ‘God is Love.’”

– Msgr. Timothy Shugrue, pastor of St. Michael Church in Cranford

The inspiration of my family

“My mother passed away in December of 2002. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about her. She was a remarkable woman who balanced her job as a teacher with being a mother and homemaker. My mom was always there for us with unconditional love. She was truly an inspiration for me and my family.”

– Msgr. Frank Del Prete, pastor of Saint Gabriel’s in Saddle River