The ordination rite does not specifically address the Blessed Virgin Mary nor her role in the life and ministry of the priest. During the Litany of Saints, she is invoked, and as the mother of believers she prays for her priest son(s) ordained to the ministry of Jesus Christ. Because the priest participates in the ministry of Christ the High Priest and Mary is the mother of the High Priest, she has a special regard for the ministry of priests for she is mother of priests.

At the foot of the cross, the beloved disciple St. John was instructed by Christ himself to behold his mother. Writing of his own relationship to Mary in the next verse, he informs the Church throughout the ages that from that hour he took Mary into his home. In the years following Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension into heaven, Mary witnessed the apostolic and priestly ministry of St. John. The words of Jesus to St. John now are spoken to every priest throughout history, as they are spoken also to all believers: “Behold, your mother.” Like John, it is necessary for each priest to make Mary his mother — talking to her and relying on her maternal solicitude.

While the ordination rite may not contain an exhortation to behold Mary as the mother and intercessor of one’s priestly ministry, the Directory on the Ministry and Life of Priests exhorts the clergy, “Priestly spirituality could not be considered complete if it were to fail to include the message of Christ’s words on the cross” (No. 68). The spirituality of a priest would be incomplete if he did not incorporate Mary into his life. While a priest can minister without invoking Mary, his ministry risks being less effective without the grace and support she provides as our heavenly mother. Just as Christ the High Priest was formed and molded by his mother, she wishes to do the same for the priest today; she wishes to be a mother to us, because as Blessed Columba Marmion affirmed, “Our Lady sees Jesus in each one of [us].” As a son of Mary, let us reflectively behold her as our mother, so that she can enrich our priestly life and ministry.

Model of Faith

During the Annunciation, the archangel Gabriel informs Mary that she is full of grace and explains how the Almighty wishes to use her in the unfolding of the divine plan. After listening, she offers her fiat and cooperates in the work of the redemption. Afterward, she visits her cousin Elizabeth, not because she lacked faith in what had happened to her and to Elizabeth, but as a woman of charity to serve her aged cousin. Upon meeting her, Elizabeth proclaims Mary blessed because she believed. Later in the Gospels, a woman from the crowd would call Mary blessed because her womb carried Christ and her breast fed him (Lk 11:27). Jesus corrected the acclamation, saying, “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it” (Lk 11:28). The faith of Mary was affirmed throughout the Gospels, and, steadfast in that faith, she stood at the foot of the cross, holding to the words and teachings of Jesus, believing and knowing that something good could come out of something so awful as the Crucifixion.

Luke’s account of the Annunciation events ends with the statement that the angel departed from Mary (Lk 1:38). Cardinal Christoph Schonborn describes this “a very weighty statement,” offering the astute observation that “from then on it would be a regiment of faith and nothing but faith” for Mary. Her life was completely changed from the Annunciation onward. The rest of Mary’s life would be spent living with a deep faith in God.

Mary’s priest sons must behold her faith in their own priestly life and ministry. As the years of ministry go by, it is easy to lose our wonder and awe at the mysteries of faith to which we minister. After the metaphorical angel in our life departs, doubt creeps in. We are invited to behold Mary’s faith, which never wavered even as she stood beneath the cross. We are invited to behold her faith that when something unfortunate happens — such as running low on wine at a marriage feast — Jesus could and would do something about it. Her faith invites us to examine where we lack faith and need an increase of faith.

Do we believe that God is operative in our world, that he hears our prayers, and that he has not abandoned us? Allow Mary to deepen and mold your faith by becoming mesmerized at the stories of her apparitions. Behold her miraculous image on the tilma at Guadalupe or the innumerous stories of graces received by Mary’s intercession throughout the years. When the faith of a priest wavers, he should behold his mother, and believe with her that nothing is impossible for God.

With Us at the Altar

The Mass is central to the life of a priest’s ministry. The priest celebrates Mass daily, sometimes twice if a funeral arises, and multiple times during a weekend. Jesus mandated the apostles to celebrate the Eucharist, telling them to “do this in memory of me” (Lk 22:19) As Mary lived with John, she would have been present for the celebration of the Mass in the early Church. She received her son in holy Communion, being united to him once again as she was throughout her life. Until she would be united with him in heaven after her Assumption, holy Communion was how she drew close to her son after his Ascension.

The Mass is the sacrifice of Calvary, and Mary stood at the foot of the cross at Calvary; thus she stands by the priest at every Mass that is celebrated. In a Prayer to the Blessed Virigin Mary in the Roman Missal (p. 1326), which may serve as a priest’s preparatory prayer before Mass, the priest can pray, “O most blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of tenderness and mercy, I, a miserable and unworthy sinner, fly to you with all the affection of my heart and I beseech your motherly love, that, as you stood by your most dear Son, while he hung on the Cross, so, in your kindness, you may be pleased to stand by me, a poor sinner, and all Priests who today are offering the Sacrifice.” Mary’s presence in the Mass, affirmed by this prayer, has also been reiterated by saints, including St. Pio of Pietrelcina and Pope St. John Paul II.

When you celebrate Mass, do you call to mind Mary’s maternal presence? How would this meditative thought enhance your celebration of the sacred liturgy? As you prepare to celebrate Mass next, open to the appendix of the missal, find the above quoted prayer, and pay attention to your spiritual sense and awareness of Our Lady with you at the altar and how she wishes for you to fix your attention on Christ and his sacrifice. The grace of Calvary was first received by Mary through the Immaculate Conception, and now is received by the people of God through the Mass, at which Mary is present.

Mother Most Pure

The Blessed Virgin knew what it meant to be paradoxical. She was a virgin and yet a mother by God’s grace. The priest in the world today also is a paradox, for he is celibate and yet a father. Mary chose the virginal life. Priests choose to embrace God’s call to celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom.

The celibate life is not the ordinary standard of life; it is an extraordinary call from God and is countercultural. Not surprisingly, the Directory on the Ministry and Life of Priests holds up Mary as an example for the priest: “To lovingly safeguard the gift received amidst today’s climate of irritating sexual permissiveness, they will find in their communion with Christ and with the Church, in their devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and in considering the example of holy priests of all times, the strength necessary to overcome difficulties they may find along their way and act according to that maturity which gives them credence before the world” (No. 60). Mary, in her purity, becomes an antidote to the temptations against chastity that a priest might face.

At times, though, her purity can be seen as an obstacle, because she is without sin. Yet her example inspires the celibate priest, and her prayers aid and sustain him. She obtains for the priest the graces he needs to live out his priesthood, and one such grace is that of purity and chaste living.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen, in two separate books, “The Priest Is Not His Own” and “Those Mysterious Priests,” insists on the necessity of a priest’s love for Mary. He says, “A priest cannot live without love.” The woman that the priest loves must be the Blessed Mother. He also writes, “Whenever there is a decline in celibacy, monogamy, purity and love of the Church, there is also a falling off in devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.”

As celibate priests, we must examine our commitment to the celibate lifestyle and admit any struggles with sexual sin. In this personal examination, look at your devotion to Our Lady. Does a particular struggle correspond to a lack of Marian devotion? Marianist Father Emile Neubert, a 20th-century theologian, reflects, “God desires to bestow on us the grace of purity through the intercession of the Immaculate Mother, and that it is thanks to her that individuals are safeguarded even in their weakest moments — some resisting hell’s fiercest attacks, others regaining their purity in spite of past failures.” Mary obtained grace for the couple at Cana. How much more she wants to obtain that grace for her priest sons who stand most in need.

Marian devotion is tested and true in the history of Christian living. People have invoked her intercession and have received the requested graces. If Marian devotion has been a part of your priestly devotional life, continue. If it has not, incorporate it, and see what difference it might make in all aspects of your ministry, but especially surrounding any struggles with chastity.

Father Neubert offers a final exhortation for priestly Marian devotion: “The priest who has no special devotion to Mary lacks something in his nature. He is less complete, less a man, than someone who enjoys the gentle influence of the Virgin Mary.” The priest is invited to behold his virgin mother. In that beholding, the priest is strengthened in living out his promise of celibacy, because Mary is an advocate for sinners. Mary, as mother and intercessor, forms the priest and makes him a better priest, as he becomes more like Christ the High Priest, whom he is called to imitate in his ministry, and who dearly loved Mary, his mother.

Through Mary to Jesus

Besides having an image of Mary that serves as a reminder of her maternal presence, the most popularly proposed form of Marian devotion for both priest and laity is the Rosary.

The Rosary has been prayed for centuries, and its mysteries provide a mechanism by which a person meditates on the entire life of Jesus and Mary. Blessed Columba Marmion offers a beautiful reflection about the priest and the Rosary in his book “Christ, the Ideal of the Priest,” when he likens the beads of the Rosary to the stone of David against Goliath, affirming that the stones of the Ave Marias help us counter the influence of and temptation posed by the devil. Second, the Rosary places before the eyes of our mind the mysteries of Jesus’ life and proposes different virtues for which to pray during one’s meditation.

The Rosary has been recommended for our daily recitation by the Blessed Virgin herself in her apparition at Fatima. To the priest who might struggle with the Rosary, Marmion says, “When someone cannot appreciate the Rosary, it is often a sign that he has never made a determined effort to recite it with devotion.” Have you persevered through the struggle of praying the Rosary? Do you say it with love and devotion? In his treatises to priests, Trappist Dom Eugene Boylan concluded that the Rosary “should, of course, be recited daily by every priest.” He does admit that there are “many men who find the Rosary hard to say” because of “distractions, routine, [and] repetition,” and therefore “tend to make it a mere mechanical lip-offering.” Dom Boylan’s recommendation is for a priest to ensure he prays 15 (now 20) decades a week by praying a few decades a day, and in time praying the Rosary in its entirety over the span of several days.

Another saint, St. Louis de Montfort, recommended that clergy pray the Rosary as a form of homily preparation and to receive inspiration for their preaching. They can also pray a Rosary as a form of intercessory prayer for the people entrusted to their care, or pray a Rosary in petition or in gratitude for graces received. Entrusting one’s ministry to Mary’s intercession and protection through the Rosary is not only helpful for a priest’s personal piety; it’s advantageous and efficacious for his ministry, too.

From the cross, Jesus invited John to behold his mother, and the Church has taken this exhortation as its own, beholding Mary as mother. Priests, as another Christ, uniquely behold Mary as the mother of priests. Her scriptural example inspires us, and centuries of reflection deepen our appreciation for her role. Mary’s presence and prayers strengthen our ministry, enhancing its fruitfulness. She notices our needs, as at Cana, and intercedes with her son before we are aware.

Grateful for her maternal care, we entrust ourselves to her, confident that by her prayers our work will be fruitful and we will be made worthy of the promises of Christ we proclaim and serve. 

FATHER EDWARD LOONEY serves as a pastor in the Diocese of Green Bay, is a past president of the Mariological Society of America and author of numerous devotional books, including “How They Love Mary: 28 Life-Changing Stories of Devotion to Our Lady.”