Happy Mother's Day

by Fr. John Granato  |  05/12/2024  |  Words from Fr. John

My Dear Friends,

In my previous assignments I have offered a single rose to all the mothers of the parish at Mass. This year I am doing the same thing. In honor of our mothers and in celebration of your motherhood, all mothers will receive a rose on the way out of Mass. Motherhood is a special vocation. A mother’s love reflects the love of our Father in heaven. God is Father and Creator.

God is also love, as St. John reminds us. God has created men and women in his image and likeness. And God created by breathing his life essence (in Hebrew, ruah, which is translated spirit) into us, as he breathed into Adam in the Garden of Eden. Since Adam, God’s plan for creation requires a man and a woman to come together and unite as one flesh. This union results in new life being conceived in the mother’s womb, where for the next nine months she nourishes and protects this precious life. It is a creative process that requires the mother to be present to her child as she loves this child, even when she feels sick or overwhelmed. Cooperating with God, a mother creates (or I should say, procreates) with the help of her husband this fragile new life.

There are times when a pregnancy is challenging and things can and do go wrong, but we know that these things are not natural and they result in much heartache and heartbreak. But when everything goes according to nature, there is nothing more miraculous than a baby growing in the womb of its mother and coming into the world through the birth. Our Lord came into this world through the womb of our Blessed Mother and changed the world. Every newborn baby also has that same potential, albeit not a redeeming or salvific potential, but nevertheless a potential to change the world. In any event, a newborn baby does indeed change the world of the two people who are responsible for creating that new life.

On this Mother ’s Day, we pray for all our mothers, living and deceased, those mothers who lost children and those who desired to be mothers but for whatever reason could not become one in the physical, natural sense. God bless.