Mothers, grandmothers, religious and clergy gathered in Melbourne for the first Mothers Who Pray for Their Children conference in Australia. Source: Melbourne Catholic.
What began in Brazil as a ministry for mothers to pray and intercede for their children has now spread across the globe, with groups in Australia, France, Germany, the US, Portugal, South Africa, Angola and parts of Latin America, and more than 70,000 members in Brazil, where it all began.
The April 27 conference was the first to be held in the English-speaking world and explored the five stages of the movement’s spirituality: reconciliation, prayer, the Eucharist, penance and mission.
Guest speaker Sharon Duiker, a wife, health mentor and mother to 11 children, spoke of the call to be “Eucharistic mothers”.
“We need to be Eucharistic mothers to receive Christ, to be with Christ, to commune with Christ,” she said. “We need to be Eucharistic mothers to have Eucharistic families.”
Ms Duiker encouraged the mothers present to persevere and introduce their children to Christ from a young age, sharing “who he is and how he provides for what they need to stay strong in faith”.
The mission of the Mothers Who Pray for Their Children movement is to establish networks of mothers who come together in the Church to pray and be formed in their faith.
The movement’s patroness is Our Lady of La Salette, with St Monica as co-patroness. St Monica famously spent years praying for her son, St Augustine, to find God and be baptised in the faith, which he eventually did after years of resistance.
Faithfulness and persistence in prayer is what the movement is all about, said Fr Vic Ignacio, the movement’s chaplain in Australia.
“Your prayers are so powerful,” Fr Ignacio said to the mothers gathered on Saturday.
“That’s the reason why one of our movement’s pillars is prayer. But it’s not only praying … it is committing yourself to your promises.
“Faithfulness will bring you blessings. Faithfulness will let you understand the wisdom of being patient with God, for God always provides, just like our Blessed Mother.”
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A mother’s love: generations gather for inaugural conference (Melbourne Catholic)
