She is an MBA healed through the Motherhood and intercession of the Blessed Virgin while in Medjugorje. Her name is Hilary Jones Rojo. And together with her husband Mac, they have an on-going ministry of loving support to our Catholic Faith and to the Church established by Jesus Christ. Their ministry includes a weekly radio show entitled THE CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVE, and you can find it on the worldwide web — listening there or by subscribing to their publication of CD’s from their shows.
Our faith vitamin for this show is M for Motherhood. And while we have deep love and respect for physical mothering — the topic of this show is Spiritual Motherhood. That is the lifting up of our clergy in prayer. To help us look at this area, our guests on this show share their faith journeys and about Hilary’s book CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE HEAVENLY KIND. If you love reading short stories evidencing God’s hand in our daily lives – you’ll enjoy reading this book. It’s available on her website: www.hilaryjonesrojo.com and from other locations and booksellers. Hilary’s book is published by WinePressPublishing.
There is a wonderful website which comes out of a monastery in Ireland — the web address is http://vultus.stblogs.org/2009/02/little-catechism-on-spiritual.html
During the show, I quoted from a blog column written by the abbot at this monastery. I hope that Father Mark won’t mind that I borrowed from his writings about the gift – the vocation of SPIRITUAL MOTHERHOOD FOR PRIESTS.
Any mature Catholic woman, already fully engaged in the sacramental life of the Church, can discern a call to the spiritual motherhood of priests. This spiritual motherhood can be lived in any state of life; it is open to single women, married women, mothers of families, widows, grandmothers, and religious in both the active and enclosed forms of consecrated life. None of its obligations bind under pain of sin. The vocation to the spiritual motherhood of priests is also compatible with the spirituality and obligations of Benedictine Oblates and of those who belong to one or another of the Third Orders: Franciscan, Dominican, Carmelite, Servite, etc.
2. What is spiritual maternity?
Spiritual maternity is a particular grace of the Holy Spirit by which a woman surrenders herself, body and soul, to the fruitful love of Christ, for the sake of His Bride the Church and for the glory of the Father, so that, through her offering, the particular priest entrusted to her, and all priests, may be purified, healed, and sanctified.
3. How does a woman express the grace of spiritual maternity.
A woman expresses the grace of spiritual maternity by imitating the hidden life of the Blessed Virgin Mary who, in the mystery of the Annunciation, consented to the enfleshment of the Word in her womb, and was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, so that through her, Christ, Priest and Victim, might enter the world, save it by His Sacrifice, and offer it back to the Father.
4. How does a woman live out this imitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary?
A woman lives out this imitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary by embracing the Will of God in joy and in sorrow, health and infirmity, prosperity and want, companionship and solitude, light and obscurity. In a word, she sees in every event of life an opportunity to enter, with the Blessed Virgin Mary, into the sacrifice of Christ the Priest.
In this way, a woman can participate in the spiritual fecundity of the Mother of the Redeemer who, by her constant intercession, cares for the gift of life that ever flows from the open Heart of her Son, and cooperates with a mother’s love in the birth and upbringing of Christ’s faithful, her children.
5. How is spiritual maternity related to the Priesthood?
Spiritual maternity in favor of priests derives from the special relationship of the Blessed Virgin Mary with Saint John, that Jesus Himself established when, from the altar of the Cross, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, thy son!” (Jn 19:26). “Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold, thy mother!'” (Jn 19:27).
While John — representing all priests past, present, and to come — had the power to change bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ in the unbloody renewal of His Sacrifice, Our Lady was charged with supporting all her priest-sons down through the ages by standing at their side, even as she stood by the Cross of her Son on Calvary. There, with her Immaculate Heart pierced by a sword of sorrow, she co-offered in silence the Sacrifice of her Son, Priest and Victim, and through Him, with Him, and in Him, offered herself to the Father.
6. What does this imply for a woman called to spiritual maternity
in favor of priests?
For a woman called to spiritual maternity in favor of priests, this implies a readiness to stand by all priests and, in particular, for the priest entrusted to her, in a ceaseless offering of adoration, thanksgiving, reparation, and supplication. The Diocese of Tulsa is preparing a prayer book to help the spiritual mothers of priests fulfill this role.
MUSIC ON THIS SHOW
We thank our very special friend, and a recent guest on Catholic Vitamins – Brian Flynn for the use of his music. On this podcast, we featured YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER from Brian’s album BEYOND THE VEIL. You can find lots of great music composed and written by Brian at www.brianflynnmusic.com
We also played a song from another guest on Catholic Vitamins – she’s a Phoenix area attorney at law and a delight to listen to… she’s Billie Tarascio. The song we played was HAIL MARY from her album SEND ME.