Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers. Most mothers frequently fret and worry about their children and grandchildren. The mother who wrote the following piece worried herself sick fretting about her children. Then a wonderful thing happened. This is a little piece of the story.
The life of a mother is one great adventure. Not a day goes by without surprises. One such adventure that changed my own life and that of our family considerably I want to share with you. I am a mother of five children who are now twenty-one, twenty, nineteen, fifteen, and nine years old. I am a very happy mother now, but that was not always so. There was a time—not so long ago—that I was very unhappy. I realized that I was no longer able to help my children in their problems. We did not understand each other any more. The children withdrew from my husband and me. The situation reached the point that psychological stress affected my health. I experienced heart failure; during the night I could hardly sleep. The atmosphere in our family was extremely tense.
I prayed much. One day I prayed to the Lord, “Lord, you alone can help. Tell me what I have to do!” And I received the answer, “Give me back your children. I have entrusted them to you for a while so that you can accompany them. But now, give them back into my hand. Don’t you think that I can guide them better than you?” And that is what I have done—with much pain and deep joy. Each child individually I gave back to the Lord, with his or her weaknesses and faults, charm and love, hopes and dreams.
How much has changed since then! I am no longer afraid, no matter what happens to my children. If they go along paths which I do not understand, I still am sure: they are held in God’s hands. All shall be well.
Something else has changed as well: our family life! Parents and children have found each other anew. Now, during the weekends, our children come home from college not just to get their laundry done, but they look forward with joy to our being together, to our sharing with each other, our experiences and conversations. It seems to me that the Lord has given me back my children in a new way. Thanks be to God!
A good mother’s life is like a chalice.
It is a precious vessel dedicated in the deepest
sense to the service of God.
Sometimes, as with the chalice,
its depths are glowing with the wine of joy.
And sometimes it feels the tiny splash of a few drops
of water that fall into it like tears.
Like a chalice, too, sometimes it is lifted up and
sometimes brought low.
But always it is sanctified by the Presence, undoubted, though unseen, of Our Blessed Savior.
Because a good Mother’s Sacrifice can be repaid only by the Sacrifice of the Mass, I send this Mass to you