Spiritual Motherhood

Many women are dedicating themselves to the spiritual motherhood of priests, a beautiful and powerful devotion and commitment. It is very much in line with the dedication of Carmelites to pray for priests. According to Father Mark Kirby:

The nun, and indeed every woman living united to Christ, is called to spiritual motherhood, to a supernatural generativity that knows none of the limitations of biological fecundity, for it continues into old age and, indeed, into eternity. It is an historical fact that the widespread rejection of the title “Mother” among women religious coincided with the rejection of Pope Paul VI’s Encyclical, Humanae Vitae, in 1968. From that time on vocations to the consecrated life among women began to plummet except in those communities where there was a conscious decision to reject the mentality of spiritual contraception and affirm the call to motherhood.

To quote from WDTPRS:

The vocation of a spiritual mother, Father Kirby said, is to sustain and support the Church’s priests in the same way Our Lady loved and supported her divine Son and her adopted sons like St. John. Spiritual motherhood “has nothing to do with doting on or mothering a priest,” Father Kirby said. Rather, a priest’s spiritual mother would offer herself to God, praying in intercession and reparation for him, spending time in Eucharistic Adoration and becoming “a point though which an abundance of God’s graces might flow to bless the priest and sanctify his work.

There is a new blog for the Spiritual Mothers of Priests.