Saint Bernadette Soubirous would pray
before this image of Our Lady in her parish church in Lourdes,
so compellingly that Our Lady came to her in person.
What is there that a mom cannot do?
As a professional observer of moms, I would say that there is almost nothing a mom cannot do. That is, there is hardly any need real or imagined of her child which a mom cannot address, respond to, and ameliorate. We have all seen it in action: sickness, danger, injury, and annoyance can all be eliminated with the wave of the mighty maternal hand. There is no distance a mother will not cover to reach her child, or to convey her child, to obtain what is necessary. Vehicle optional.
Before they become mothers, when they are merely women, I think the range of their future powers is hidden even from them. Some things are too yucky, some things are too boring, some things are too hard or too heavy for them to consider themselves capable of doing. Such reticence disappears almost instantly upon the manifestation of the child, and the child’s need, and the power of mom is revealed.
Tact, connivance, and persuasion all come within a mom’s portfolio, even if never before was eloquence one of her gifts; her very words are as strong as her mighty deeds, and her child knows it and shows it. But not only the voice is so energized.
Eyes in the back of her head are commonly recognized as a mother’s gift, which sounds like exaggeration until you have seen it happen. Alert to disaster, mockery, and mischief, those eyes cannot be spotted by any observer, but the one whom they have spotted has no doubt as to how he was nabbed.
These maternal powers never really go away. Their use, and therefore their manifestation, dwindles as the real or perceived need for them diminishes over time. Whether the child grows in strength, wisdom, and ability, or merely thinks she has, that child flees the mighty power of mom in search of freedom and self-determination. It is the way of things.
What then of mom and her helpful and protective impulses? There is one power she has that never diminishes, but rather grows even as the material control of child’s well-being eludes her.
That power is prayer. There are few things so powerful as a mother’s prayer.
Earnest, devout prayer of a mother is so powerful that it has a special place in the arsenal of the universal Church: the Hail Mary, in which we ask the Mother of our Lord, who is the mother of the Church and thus our Mother, to pray for us. From the moment the angel of the Lord appeared to her at Nazareth, through the wedding feast at Cana where she made discreet mention, They have no wine, the intercession of our mother Mary has been shown to be efficacious.
In this time of cynical scientific materialism and how-to books on everything, do not forget how powerful is prayer. The mercy and providence of God are ordered to our good; how can His work on our behalf be anything other? To participate in that, to ask for that, to plead for that is possible for anyone who shares even partly in that benevolent desire. Who is more benevolent on earth than mom? Who, then, is more attuned to the Father’s loving care for us than the mother whose love expresses itself in care?
Moms, your powers are astonishing to all who see them, not least yourselves. Please do not wait until they have been rejected by your little ones to resort to prayer, your best power. Start while they are tiny. Pursue prayer while they are growing. Enlarge your prayer as their abilities expand, and their interests extend. Pray now, let them see you pray, let them know the source of your power, and its limits. Let them see whose side you are on. Who else loves them, wants them to be happy, and wants them to live forever – even more than you do? Who has more power to make it happen, more even than mom? Pray to Him.
Because there are things, however few, that a mom cannot do.
Monsignor Smith
