Fr. Stan Kolasa, ss.cc., Director of Development

As Mother’s Day approaches, it seems so fitting to focus on the beautiful, Immaculate Heart of Mary.  From the beginning, Mary said yes to God. She didn’t always understand, even asking, “How can this be?”  Yet believing and trusting in God, Mary said “Let it be done to me according to your word.”  And that word was Jesus, The Word of God made flesh in Mary.

 There is such tenderness to behold in the eyes of a mother watching her child.   I often see this same softness in the eyes of expectant mothers. It is something so special, so holy, so marvelous.  For many women, it must be physically difficult carrying a child and then bringing it into the world, yet the closeness and devotion a mother feels for her child leads her to endure it all.  I am not sure how, but I do think I know why.  It is simply love - giving birth, learning to be a mother, unafraid and nurturing; loving and caring for all the needs of the tiny helpless being who depends solely upon someone else—and doing it all with a heart that yearns to do even more.

 I have also seen the suffering in children who are sick -  especially in the poorest of missions where so many of us have served.  But the anguish in the children is also reflected and magnified on the faces of their mothers. Dads suffer too, but it seems to be different in a mother. How often would they take away their child’s pain and take it unto themselves - if only they could. That same feeling is often the experience of the missionary, who also wants to take away the pain from God’s children.  Mother’s cannot— we cannot.  But we can all do something to help - at least a little.

In these difficult times, though now I am not in the foreign missions, I still see agony in the faces of mothers, holding the bodies of their children—children whose lives have been ended much too soon by violence. That same vision, seeing Mary at the foot of the cross with her child, is such a real image in the world today, a world so filled with anger and aggression.  Sadly, we cannot do everything to stop it all, but we can all stop and do something to try and change it.. .a little at a time, one heart by one heart, and then all of our hearts together.

 To all Mothers, from all of us in the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a most Happy and Blessed Mother’s Day. And Oh, God, thank you for them… thank you, thank you!

Lent is a joyful season of re-forming the heart.  Let us join together as we re-form the Spirit, the face of the Earth.

God bless and love, Fr. Stan Kolasa, ss.cc.

A memory from Fr. Stan...