I was reading
Fr. Z's post today and I thought I would post about the Diocese of Honolulu's Spiritual Moms Apostolate.
It was back in December of last year that I first read the
Zenit article
Vatican Seeking Spiritual Moms for Priests. After reading that article, I felt the calling to have Catholic women in the Diocese of Honolulu spiritually adopt a priest or seminarian. The first person I considered to help coordinate this task was my friend
Easter of a Tribute to Our Priests. Easter also has a deep love for Catholic priests. With her outgoing and friendly personality we would have no trouble convincing women to spiritually adopt a priest.
Like any loyal Catholic, we first sought the permission and approval of our bishop Clarence (Larry) Silva. It is only in Hawaii that a Catholic layperson can literally "bump" into our bishop on the street and talk to him. Well, that is what happened on a few occasions. I remember the first time Easter and I approached our dear Bishop was at the March for Life in January.
Bishop Silva, a very humble man of God, willing heard all about our proposed idea for what we mistakenly referred to as a ministry; but what is more correctly an apostolate. There were certain issues Bishop Silva was concerned with and we set out to set his mind at ease.
With the immeasurable help of friends on the island such as Steve Odo, Fr. Peter Dumag (Director of Vocations)., Fr. Pascual Abaya and Fr. Marc Alexander (the vicar general), and many women at different parishes, we were able to get the word out to the women in the Diocese of Honolulu, including the neighbor islands.
I am happy to report that nine months later, all of our priests and seminarians (including our bishop) have been spiritually adopted. There is also a small list of spiritual moms on the waiting list for a spiritual son to adopt.
Easter and I were only instruments in God's hands. In fact, as Easter stated on many occasions to many people "
Ours is a quiet apostolate".
The "
Moms" and I feel very privileged to be able to spiritually adopt a priest. Each of us has committed ourselves to praying for our own spiritual son daily. We especially remember our him during Holy Hour of Adoration, attendance at Holy Mass. We offer our Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet for their intentions.
We hope with our efforts, we will protect our beloved priests from attacks by the Devil and instead all our priests and seminarians will grow in holiness. We know our blessed Mother will keep her priests close to her heart.
We also pray for more vocations to the priesthood.
If you would like to consider starting a Spiritual Moms Apostolate in your diocese, please check out the resources at the side bar. There is a very good article about the women discerning to become spiritual moms in the Tulsa Diocese.
