We are celebrating twenty-five years of a journey that has been long, yet full of consolations. On July 29, 1982, six young women began this great adventure. It is impossible to remember Ana Campo, Reme Rodríguez, Conchi Garcia del Pino, Esmeralda Pérez, Mavisa Gómez, and Mariví Corroto without remembering Mamie. She travelled with us on that pilgrimage to Rome, together with Don Pablo Concepción who accompanied us in those magnificent days.

Mamie rejoiced more than anyone else in this moment of the foundation, because she, more than anyone else, had made so many sacrifices to make it possible.

July 28th was the General Audience with His Holiness John Paul II in Saint Peter’s Square, just a little over three years into his pontificate. I perfectly remember that audience. Fifty-four girls from Toledo (Spain) were on the pilgrimage. Fourteen of them were members of the Groups of Prayer of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, others were from other movements, and the rest were a group of young people that had not yet defined themselves as anything.

I asked Mamie to pray during the audience because I wanted to write the commitment formula for the young people who had already decided at the beginning of the pilgrimage in Lourdes to start the Home of the Mother. There was also the reaffirmation in the Swiss city of Lugano before we started our touristic trip around the lake there. Mamie was praying. I was writing. And the Pope was speaking to us with that strength and vigor that moved us all. This formula would remain the commitment formula, in the future, for all those who would enter the Home.

The next day, our hearts beat with joy as we entered inside Saint Peter’s Basilica, because we had decided that the birth of HMY should take place there, as a symbol of our faith and fidelity to “the sweet Christ on earth” (St. Catherine of Siena). It was a splendid day and the typical July heat in Rome seemed to bear upon us, however upon entering the Basilica, our hearts were overcome by the sacred atmosphere in which we found ourselves. On the right was the chapel of the Pietá, on the left was the altar holding the remains of Saint Pius X. On the first pillars were the statues of Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint Peter of Alcantara, two of our three first protector saints. We continued on our way until we reached the Altar of the Confession and finally we went down to the Popes’ tombs. There, very close to where the remains of Saint Peter are laid to rest, before the iron gate that leads to the Clementine Chapel, with the tomb of Pius XII behind us, the first six members of HMY made their commitments. A new apostolic group had been born in the Church.

Mamie was present in every moment. Two other girls joined us for the historic event at the “last minute” as well. One of them was Elvira, now a Servant Sister of the Home of the Mother, and the other was a girl from Toledo (Spain) named Esther. Don Pablo, Mamie, and myself were also there. Everything was very simple, very poor.

Our joy was overwhelming. We walked outside and we sat on the ground close to where the Vatican bookstore is located. Don Pablo bought some photographs of His Holiness John Paul II, young, radiating spiritual force. On the back of these, we wrote a small sentence, signing them in remembrance of the day and we gave a copy to everyone. I still have that keepsake.

How did Mamie live that whole day? I certainly was not in her interior, but I saw her joy, happiness, and hope. I do not think I would be wrong in saying that Mamie had an interior conviction that something great had begun in the Church. As with all great things, it started small. The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. We were that seed, the smallest of all the plants.

By Fr. Rafael Alonso

©HM Magazine No. 136 - May/June 2007