Confraternity of Christian Mothers

Dear parishioners,

This week our Confraternity of Christian Mothers will be having their annual induction for new members this Sunday.  

The Confraternity of Christian Mothers is a pious association intended for mothers, which has for its special object the promotion of the good Christian and Catholic education of their children. The members join their hearts in love with the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of Sorrows, and unite under her patronage in mutual prayer and solicitude for the welfare of their children and families.

Formally established in 1886 under Pope Leo XIII, the confraternity of Christian Mothers began as a desire of French Catholic mothers and widows to unite their prayers together for their sons who were leaving the Faith due to the secularization of France after the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.  These lay women and mothers began meeting near Paris and in Lille, France, to seek spiritual support.  Placing themselves under the special patronage of Mary, the Mother of Sorrows.  These women wanted to combat societal forces undermining family life, share parenting advice, and pray together for the salvation and Christian upbringing of their children.

Mothers play a vital role in upholding Christ’s presence in the world through their high mission to the family. They nurture souls, teach their children, serve and strengthen their families, model Christian self-sacrifice, and witness to the unfathomable parental love God bears for each of His children. The prayers and good works a mother performs in her daily work are of inestimable value.  As a member of the Confraternity, a Christian Mother and her children share in the grace and merits of the prayers and good works of all other members, as if she had performed them herself.

Here are a few other advantages to membership in the Confraternity:

1. The special protection of the heavenly patrons of the Confraternity. Our Blessed Mother cannot be far distant from her Divine Son. The confidence of the mothers in choosing Mary, Most Sorrowful, as their chief Patroness, and the blessed parents and children of heaven as their special helpers, will obtain, as it deserves, their very particular protection and powerful intercession.

2. The particular favor, approbation, and hearty blessing of the Holy Father and the Bishops.

3. The instructions, prayers, and care of the spiritual director and the prefects or officers.

4. Participation in all the holy Masses which are offered for the Members of the Confraternity.

5. Participation in the daily prayers and the good example of the other Members of the Confraternity.

6. The special communion of prayers and merits of the whole Confraternity. Wherever a Member of the Confraternity prays for herself and her children, she also includes, in a particular manner, all the other Confraternities of Christian mothers and their children; all the other Members and their children partake of the fruit of her petition. The same holds true concerning the good works. Every Member has as much share in the merit of the good performed by others as if it were, to a certain extent, her own individual work; and this union of love, prayer, and merit follows the departed Christian Mothers beyond the grave.

8. Special plenary and partial indulgences offered only to members of the Confraternity. 

As we celebrate our Sorrowful Mother this September 15th, please keep our Mothers in your prayers.  

In Christ,

Fr. Luke Fleck