Many of you may know that I have been a little preoccupied with my mother who will turn 96 next month. Our medical advancements have given so many people a long life. If we compare our human life expectancy to say the Galapagos tortoises (150 years) or even the Antarctic Beech tree (technically a clonal organism, estimated at over a million years, near immortality, located in Springbrook National Park, Queensland, Australia) our human lives do sound rather short. Some scientists predict that children born today will die early if they don’t reach 100. This all boggles the mind. But we can’t help but think about such things as we care for our aging parents. On the more spiritual level, helping my mother these past years has been a great blessing. First, I thank God that my dad had prepared well for his precious wife after he was gone. Care givers are such a wonderful blessing, but we all know it can be expensive. Since our Catholic faith teaches us to love and pray to our Blessed Mother above, I want to share a recuring thought when it comes to my “two mothers”. Often, I pray that My Blessed Mother watch over and take care of my blessed mother. Our faith unites us as brothers and sisters no matter how old we are and even no matter what our blood relationships may be. It’s a confusing thought, but it’s such a wonderful thought. As my mom prays to her mother in heaven, I pray to my mother in heaven to take care of my mom who is my other mom’s daughter.

I also want to share a very interesting message from Our Mother in heaven about praying the Hail Mary. There was a mystic who died in 1981 by the name of Elizabeth Kindelmann. Here is what we find in her diary. “I am going to record what the Blessed Virgin told me in this year, 1962. I kept it inside for a long time without daring to write it down. It is a petition of the Blessed Virgin. Mary said: When you say the prayer that honors me, the Hail Mary, include this petition in the following manner: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, spread the effect of grace of thy flame of love over all of humanity, now and at the hour of death. Amen.”

When the competent bishop asked Elizabeth, “Why the very old Hail Mary should be recited differently?” Elizabeth responded that Our Lord said, “It is exclusively thanks to the efficacious pleas of the Most Holy Virgin that the Most Holy Trinity granted the effusion of the flame of love.” This insert, is of course, not a requirement at all. But try it. I think connecting words we say to our Mother in heaven to the intention to spread love around the world can’t hurt. Isn’t that what mothers do?