Alicia, Treasure of the Church: Mother of Three Priests and Three Nuns
At times it can seem as though the Lord has stopped calling workers to His harvest (cf. Mt 9, 38); and then, suddenly, we hear of a married couple with seven sons—seven priests! Or we see how vocations blossom in the most unexpected places, and how so many families are blessed with several sons who are priests and several daughters who are nuns. Such has been the case with Alicia’s family: mother of three priests and three nuns, one of whom has already departed for the Father’s House.
From her own experience, she knows the scarcity of resources faced by priests and religious sisters. And so, from her limited income, she seeks to contribute. She has kept nothing for her final days. She distributed her belongings before entering her current residence. ‘Here I only need to prepare myself, in the best way, to go and meet the Lord,’ she says with serenity and full conviction.
Her sons who are priests and her daughters who are religious sisters, belonging to different congregations and dioceses, are in various parts of the world. Not long ago, one of them—permanently in a wheelchair—concelebrated with me. And one of her daughters, assigned in Argentina, visits her periodically. She clearly enjoys her presence, but she always tells them not to worry: she is very well cared for, and more united than ever with them through prayer.
A beautiful tradition holds that, after the hands of the new priest are anointed at his Ordination, the purificator cloth with which he dries them is untied by his mother, who keeps it until her death. And at the hour of her departure, it is placed in her own hands as a sign of her spiritual motherhood. According to this pious gesture, when the mother comes before the Lord for her particular judgment and He asks her, ‘I gave you life; what have you given Me in return?’, she presents the cloth and replies humbly, ‘Lord, I gave You my son as a priest.’ In Alicia’s case, the answer will, of course, be a moving plural—together with the added gift of her three daughters who are religious sisters, who, in their espousal to the High and Eternal Priest, cared for the Beloved in the prayerful and mortified battle of the monastery, or in the most difficult missions of their charism.
Undoubtedly, Alicia’s faith has been key to the fruitfulness of the vocations that arose from her home. The same is true of many other mothers in large families. This is not the case, of course, for mothers who do not believe or who are far from religious practice. Each vocation is a mystery, born in the Heart of the divine Mystery. And for that reason, each one is fascinating, unrepeatable, inspiring, and always surprising. In my case it was different. My mother, not practicing, did not understand for many years the reason for my priestly vocation. All her doubts were finally cleared up in her final days, when—seven months after my Ordination, after telling everyone who would listen that she had never seen me so happy—I was able to anoint her and prepare her for Heaven.
Thank You, Lord, for the mothers of Your priests! You, who are the only Way that leads to the Father (cf. Jn 14, 6), bring to us through them—by different paths—those who, every day, make You come down to us, the Living Bread come down from Heaven (Jn 6, 51). We ask You, please, to multiply the Alicias among us, and that we may never lack concrete gestures of fervent and active gratitude toward them.