“Sacred Heart of Jesus,
Immaculate Heart of Mary
give us holy religious”
Enlightened and encouraged by your Word, we pray to you, Lord, for all those who have already followed and now live your call. For your bishops, priests and deacons; and also for your consecrated religious, brothers and sisters; and also for your missionaries and for the generous lay people who work in ministries instituted or recognized by the Holy Church. Support them in difficulties, comfort them in sufferings, assist them in loneliness, protect them in persecution, and trust them in fidelity! We pray to you, Lord, for those who are opening their souls to your call or are already preparing to follow it. May your Word enlighten them, may your example win them over, may your grace guide them to the attainment of holy orders, of religious vows, of the missionary mandate. May your Word, Lord, be for all of them a guide and support so that they may know how to direct, counsel and support their brothers and sisters with that strength of conviction and love which you possess and which you alone can communicate.
St. Paul VI, February 1, 1978
Maria Concepcion Cabrera de Armida, “Conchita”, wife and mother of many children, is one of the modern saints who for years Jesus prepared for a spiritual motherhood for priests. In the future, she will be of great importance for the universal Church.
Once Jesus explained to Conchita: “There are souls who have received anointing through priestly ordination. But there are... also priestly souls who have a vocation without having priestly dignity or ordination. They offer themselves in union with me... These souls help the Church spiritually in a powerful way. You will be the mother of a great number of spiritual sons, but they will cost your heart as a thousand martyrdoms. Offer yourself as a holocaust for the priests, unite yourself to my sacrifice in order to obtain graces for them” ... “I would like to return to this world... in my priests. I would like to renew the world, revealing myself in them and give a strong impulse to my Church, pouring the Holy Spirit on my priests as in a new Pentecost.” “The Church and the world need a new Pentecost, a priestly, interior Pentecost.”
When she was young, Conchita often prayed before the Blessed Sacrament: “Lord, I feel incapable of loving you, so I would like to be married. Give me many children so that they may love you more than I am capable of”. From her very happy marriage, nine children were born, two daughters and seven sons. She consecrated them all to Our Lady: “I give them to you completely as your children. You know that I do not know how to educate them, I know too little what it means to be a mother, but You, You know”. Conchita witnessed the death of four of her children, who all died a holy death.
Conchita was concretely a spiritual mother for the priesthood of one of her sons; of him she wrote: “Manuel was born at the same hour that Father José Camacho died. When I heard the news, I prayed to God that my son could replace this priest at the altar... From the moment little Manuel began to speak, we have prayed together for the great grace of a vocation to the priesthood..... On the day of his First Communion and on all the principal feasts I renewed the supplication.... At the age of seventeen he entered the Society of Jesus”.
In 1906, from Spain, where he was living, Manuel (born in 1889, her third son) told her of his decision to be ordained a priest and she wrote to him: “Give yourself to the Lord with all your heart without ever denying yourself! Forget the creatures and above all forget yourself! I cannot imagine a consecrated person who is not a saint. It is not possible to give yourself to God half-heartedly. Try to be generous with Him!”.
In 1914 Conchita met Manuel in Spain for the last time, because he never returned to Mexico. At that time her son wrote to her: “My dear, little mother, you have shown me the way. I had the good fortune, since I was a child, to hear from your lips the salutary and demanding doctrine of the cross. Now I would like to put it into practice. Her mother also tasted the pain of renunciation: “I brought your letter before the tabernacle and told the Lord that I accept this sacrifice with all my soul. The next day I placed the letter on my breast while I received Holy Communion, to renew the total sacrifice”.
Mama, teach me how to become a priest
On July 23, 1922, a week before his ordination to the priesthood, Manuel, then thirty years old, wrote to his mother: “Mama, teach me to be a priest! Tell me about the immense joy of being able to celebrate Holy Mass. I give everything into your hands as you have guarded me on your breast when I was a child and taught me to pronounce the beautiful names of Jesus and Mary, to introduce me to this mystery. I truly feel like a child asking you for prayers and sacrifices..... As soon as I am ordained a priest, I will send you my blessing and then I will receive yours on my knees”.
When Manuel was ordained priest on July 31, 1922 in Barcelona, Conchita got up to participate spiritually in the ordination; because of the time difference in Mexico, it was nighttime. She was deeply moved: “I am the mother of a priest... I can only cry and give thanks! I invite all of heaven to give thanks in my place, because I feel incapable because of my misery”. Ten years later she wrote to her son: “I cannot imagine a priest who is not Jesus and even less when he is part of the Society of Jesus. I pray for you that your transformation into Christ, from the moment of the celebration, will be realized in such a way that you will be Jesus’ day and night” (May 17, 1932). “What would we do without the cross? Life without pains that unite, sanctify, purify and obtain graces, would be unbearable” (June 10, 1932). Father Emmanuel died at the age of 66 in the odor of sanctity.
The Lord made Conchita understand in terms of her apostolate: “I entrust to you yet another martyrdom: you will suffer what the priests do against me. You will live and offer yourself for their infidelity and misery”. This spiritual motherhood for the sanctification of priests and the Church consumed her completely. Conchita died in 1937 at the age of 75. She was beatified on May 4, 2019.
To make our fervor grow:
In the Autobiography, Servant of God Marcellus Van, tells how his mother gave him this advice, on July 15, 1944:
“After lunch, I got ready to get underway. My mother took charge of accompanying me to the wharf…. After we had passed through the village gate, as we no longer had anything to say to each other, my mother began to say the rosary….
Then she gave me her final advice in a trembling voice that betrayed her deep emotion. Above all, she advised me to remain firm in my vocation to the end, in spite of all the difficulties and trials I might encounter. Here is what he told me: “Vocation is a grace that God gives us only once. And if we deny it, no matter how hard we try, it will be impossible for us to get it again. It is as if a king were to ask for the hand of a poor little country girl. If this young lady knew that it was a very precious favor coming from the king’s kindness to her, how could she not accept it? But if she were to refuse it, later on, no matter how much she wanted to get it, it would not be possible for her. The king, having suffered such a refusal, would have already chosen another to establish her as queen. It is the same for the religious vocation. When the Lord’s call has been denied, he gives this precious favor to another soul, then he who has lost it can never get it again, for anything in the world.”
Little by little, my mother came to speak about the matter of observance, respect and application of the Rule and gave me this recommendation: “Never go against the will of God. This will will be manifested to you by the Rule, the customs of the community and the superiors. Therefore, you must resign yourself to repressing your own will in order to follow God’s will. Nothing would cause me greater dishonor than to see you one day return to the world for not having known how to obey your superiors.
When you were in Quang Uyên, I heard it said that you had been guilty of such a fault. But when you returned home, I did not believe that you would have acted like that. I hope you are very determined, for the rest of your life, never to follow your own will, but only the will of God.
Remember that God gives peace only to souls who seek His will and conform to it. I have experienced this myself several times. In the village, everyone knows that I have had great difficulties, but no one can know how I can always be joyful and able to live in peace.
Always remember my advice: never stray from the path that has been indicated to you by God’s holy will. If you want to reach the end in peace and happiness, follow that path where the Lord is always to be found, and you will enjoy his protection.”
Already outside the village of Thi Mâo, my mother stopped, and then, putting her hand on my shoulder, she fixed her tear-filled eyes on me, and with an even more trembling voice, she said to me: “My son, we are already arriving at the pier. I stop here and wish you a good trip… Remember the advice I have just given you… Pray a lot for me… I accept everything willingly, since it is a gift from God…. I count a lot on your prayers. Ask God to give me more courage…. I let you go in the hope that you will be for the family and for me in particular a life-giving force. My son! I suffer much at having to part from you! From now on, I will no longer hope to see you again!… But, since God wills it, it is with good will that I let you depart in peace…”