Mamie and
the Priests
 By Father Rafael
Alonso
Mamie received the mission to pray and offer sacrifices
for priests. Our Blessed Mother gave her spiritual
sons. Little by little, throughout her life, the priests
for whom she should pray and offer sacrifices providentially
appeared. Priest by priest, one after another, including
three bishops. She was faithful to her mission,
which she never abandoned. She knew what the Lord wanted
from her and she fulfilled it day by day.
She knew that she would have ninety-nine priests
as sons. Her first son appeared in Lourdes. He
was a Son of Mary Immaculate named Fr. Enzo Bianchi. She
received her last son, Fr. Felix Lopez,
Servant of the Home of the Mother, on the very day that
he was ordained a deacon, July 13,1993, a year before Mamie’s
death. Fr. Rafael Alonso was number forty-three and
her spiritual mission began with him even before he entered
the seminary.
She had the list of her spiritual sons in a notebook that
was also her personal diary. In Milan this diary was stolen
and she lost about seventy different addresses of her spiritual
sons. It was a very sad day for her. It wasn’t the
material value of the notebook that upset her, but rather
the fact that she had lost her most precious treasure: the
memories of each son for whom she should pray and to whom
she would write in order to encourage him in his often difficult
ministerial duties. Each one of them was a son for her to
sustain, console and help with sacrifice and prayer.
In March of 2007, a curious thing occurred. We received
an e-mail from a man we had met in Mexico during a summer
camp held there in 2001. This is what he wrote:
“…I have been trying to come in contact with
you again for some time now. Looking for more information
about Mamie, I searched the internet for the Home of the
Mother and I found your website. There I located some articles
in the magazine section, but not the information that I needed. I
was looking for an explanation of how God entrusted 100 priest
to Mamie’s prayers and sacrifices. If you permit me,
I will explain why I needed this information...
Ever since I read Mamie’s story, I have been thinking
about this aspect of her life. It is curious that since then,
whenever I have spoken with a priest or listened to a homily,
it is as if he were asking me to pray for him and the image
of Mamie popped into my head… In 2002, while I was
speaking to a woman who has a website dedicated to providing
psychological and humanitarian aid for religious and priests,
she invited to learn more about her work and asked me: “What
else can we do for them?” That is when all the pieces
of the puzzle fell into place: We can pray for them just
like Mamie did!
We designed an internet service in which lay people would
be able to offer prayers for a specific priest, “adopting” him… Anyway,
I spoke about my idea with a few priests and some time later
and after a few providential moves played by Our Lord, we
launched the website in July of 2003.
As you can see, priests are benefiting from Mamie’s example
on a worldwide level.
There are currently 6,262 priests inscribed and 22,732 people
praying for them.
An article appeared in “La Razon”, a Spanish
newspaper, on April 2, 2004, explaining this initiative.
Here is a short quote: “…Their model is the
apostolic work of a Belgian woman, known as Mamie, who lived
in Spain. Her mission was to pray and offer sacrifices for
more than 100 priests…”
TESTIMONIES OF SOME
OF HER SPIRITUAL SONS
Fr. Enzo Bianchi
(Pavoniano. Italy)
Her exterior appearance, the lively nature
that she possessed, and her inseparable cigarette took the
attention off of her reserved, interior life.
However, the bait that drew me to open my heart and begin a solid
friendship which later led me to be one of her spiritual sons, was precisely
her amusing cigarette.
I met her for the first time in 1971,in a town near Fatima…A
numerous group of priests had converged in that town for different reasons,
looking to participate in a prayer encounter that was to be held in Fatima.
During the meals, Mamie zealously served the priests… but while we were
having a cup of coffee afterwards, the peculiar Mrs. Elisabeth left. Where
did she go? Out of curiosity, one evening I decided not to lose sight of her
and I left the house looking for her. Lo and behold, I found a shadow that
moved a red dot. Hidden between two cars, silently, thoughtfully, with her
gaze fixed on the bright moon, I found her. It was Mamie… I made a noise
to startle her. I finally caught you!, I exclaimed, smiling. She got out of
the fix explaining to me that smoking was a “sin” that she had
obtained during her youth for different reasons. That was how she began to
tell me her life’s story… Since we didn’t have too much
time there, we decided to meet each other on another occasion. We agreed to
meet again on October 15, in Lourdes.
On the established date, I went to the hospital in Lourdes
looking for Mamie… After feeding the sick, she accompanied me to the
Grotto where we knelt down in front of our Lady. The scene was indescribable.
Mamie spoke with the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Mother of God entrusted her with
the particular mission of dedicating her life to the priests that were commended
to her and I was the first of those spiritual sons… she would have to
offer herself from then on as a victim for the souls, especially for the consecrated,
her favored children. It was an immense joy for Mamie and an indescribable
emotion for me. Throughout twenty-three years she never broke her promise.
Fr. Angel Maria Rojas S.J.
Spain
The attention, concentration and devotion
with which she prayed impressed me from the start. As I was
able to enter deeper into her inner life, I found that this
was only the external facet of her total surrender to the
Lord. She didn’t like things half done and even less
in the spiritual life...
She was an exquisite person, which revealed her maternal heart.
Her smile captivated everyone that knew her, especially the young people… This
smile, so common in Mamie, halfway hid another side of her personality: her
enormous capacity to suffer, which hardly ever manifested itself exteriorly.
Fr. Ramon Rodriguez Alcalde
Diocesan priest. Mamie’s confessor.
Maybe her greatest virtue
was always bearing pain with joy and simplicity. She never
thought about herself, otherwise she would not have lived
like she did. She was a dedicated soul… The day before
her death she said, “I can’t wait to be with
the Lord…” She said this quite often. At the
end of her life she lived even more intensely in the presence
of God. She said, “Let God ask me for whatever He wants,
I will give Him what He asks.”
Fr. Joaquin Ferrer Arellano
Diocesan Priest. Spain
The quiet offering of her victim soul,
chosen by the Lord, has done so much good to so many priests,
among which I include myself! But the hidden fruit of her
generous immolation will not be fully known until we reach
heaven, it is God’s secret. Those encounters with her
helped me so much… Everything that she advised me
to do brought me peace and a fulfillment of God’s will.
Fr. Felix Lopez Lozano
Servant Brother of the Home of the Mother
A lot of things impressed me about Mamie
during all those years (1982-1994) that I luckily was able
to live close to her. I especially like to remember the last
years of her life. Her physical weakness increased, but she
was filled with interior security, with optimism, with a
smile on her lips.
Her capacity to suffer also impressed me, along with her generosity
in the midst of pain. She knew how to discover the supernatural sense of the
cross. More than once, seeing her sick and in pain, I said to her, “You’re
a little bit worse today, aren’t you?” -“Yes, my son. My
whole body aches. But I offer it all up to the Lord. When you suffer, don’t
think about yourself, don’t play the victim. Look at the Lord on the
cross and offer everything up to Him with love.”
Another aspect that impressed me was her gratitude. She always
thanked everyone for everything. Above all, she thanked the Lord and our Lady.
She knew how to be thankful for the joys and the crosses...
It was impressive to see Mamie pray. It wasn’t
a prayer full of pompous words. She spoke humbly to God, with supreme respect,
putting her whole heart and soul into it. She lived her prayer.
Lastly, I will say that Mamie taught me how to love
heaven. Nothing lasts forever, only God. Illness, physical pain, criticism,
incomprehension, everything passes.
Mamie always said: The Lord is
so good! And that divine Goodness knew how to live and die.
©HM Magazine No. 143 July/August 2008 |
