In 2007, recognizing the challenges facing Catholic priests, Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, prefect for the Vatican’s Congregation of the Clergy, wrote a letter to all bishops asking them to help revitalize the vocation of Spiritual Motherhood for Priests.

A 40-page document that accompanied the letter said, “The vocation to be a spiritual mother for priests is largely unknown, scarcely understood and, consequently, rarely lived, notwithstanding its fundamental importance. It is a vocation that is frequently hidden, invisible to the naked eye, but meant to transmit spiritual life.”

Responding to the letter, and in recognition of Pope Benedict XVI’s declaration of June 19, 2009, as the beginning of the “Year for Priests,” several women’s prayer groups or “cenacles,” Maria Mater Sacerdotis (MMS) or Mary Mother of the Priest, have formed in the Arlington Diocese to spiritually adopt and pray for priests.

MMS was the inspiration of a parishioner from St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church in Colonial Beach. Several years ago she adopted a priest and prayed for him every day. When Cardinal Hummes’ letter came out she worked to form prayer groups to formally pray for priests. The first group met in February of last year.

Father Robert Lange, a retired Arlington Diocesan priest, loved the idea when he was first asked to be its spiritual director. Father Lange said that praying for priests was done years ago by sisters in convents. But the decline in women religious vocations has affected that source of prayer. Father Lange would like to see Maria Mater Sacerdotalis spread.

“I would like to see it grow in the diocese and beyond,” he said.

Father Lange is the spiritual director of the MMS cenacles which are not associated with any particular parish. Each is composed of seven women, one for each of the Seven Sorrows of Mary. Before becoming a member of the cenacle, Father Lange said the women must be consecrated to Mary through the St. Louis de Montfort 33 day formula, a total consecration to Jesus through Mary.

Each woman is assigned a priest to pray for by the group’s spiritual director. The priests are never told that they are being prayed for. The regimen of prayer is demanding. There are daily morning and evening prayers from the Liturgy of the Hours, plus a daily rosary with a chaplet of the Divine Mercy. Daily Mass is encouraged. Ideally on Thursdays, members make a Holy Hour for their priests.

On the last Thursday of the month the cenacle members gather, usually at a member’s home, for meeting and prayer.

Thursdays are significant because on Holy Thursday the priesthood was instituted by Christ.

There is also a dress code. When praying for their priests in church and at their monthly meetings, cenacle members must wear a skirt or dress rather than pants as a sign of femininity, “representing the Blessed Mother, who is femininity itself,” said Father Lange.

Kathy is a leader of the Maria Mater Sacerdotis group in Stafford. She said that the group started praying together in February. Chandler has two rooms set up in her house, which she and her husband added on to their house, for the monthly meetings. One room is set up for the general meeting and another is a chapel for the monthly service. The prayer spaces for the other cenacles have seven candles, a crucifix and a statue of Our Lady of Sorrows.

“I thought a priest would live there and use it as an apartment,” she said, commenting on the original vision for the rooms.

Donna Clare is the Annandale cenacle leader. She works in the rectory of Holy Spirit Church in Annandale. The Annandale cenacle group has had only one meeting in June so far.

“I see the priests every day. It fits so perfectly,” Donna Clare said of her work with the cenacle.

“It’s a calling,” she said. “It’s really a vocation.”