RECTOR’S CORNER

Dear Friend of The Pontifical North American College,

Years ago, I had a humorous experience while giving a tour of the College to a married couple and their six-year-old son. When we entered the impressive Immaculate Conception Chapel with the 50-foot mosaic of the Blessed Mother, I told the boy, “When the seminarians come here to pray before this beautiful image, they ask Mary to protect them, to guide them, and to intercede for them.” The boy looked at the image, paused, and then said, “Wow. The chapel where the seminarians pray to Jesus must be huge!”

The Eucharist is the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, and just as there is no God Incarnate without Mary, there is no Eucharist without Mary. Our seminarians at the College know that the closer they stay to Our Blessed Mother, the closer they will be configured to her Son, the One whose self-offering continues in the Eucharist.

We know, of course, that Jesus and his Mother are never separated. When we are introduced to Mary in the Gospel of Luke, we are, at the same time, introduced to Jesus in her womb. That is of great importance because his body does not simply appear from heaven: It is fashioned out of his mother’s flesh and blood. Because Jesus does not have a human father, he is physically more indebted to his mother than any other child ever could be. Only Mary, along with God the Father, can say to Jesus, “You are my Son.” What a mystery!

The Eucharist is the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, and just as there is no God Incarnate without Mary, there is no Eucharist without Mary. Our seminarians at the College know that the closer they stay to Our Blessed Mother, the closer they will be configured to her Son, the One whose self-offering continues in the Eucharist. They realize that just as God chose Mary to make his Son present in the world at the Incarnation, God has called them to make Jesus sacramentally present, especially in the Eucharist, as priests.

Please ask Jesus and his mother, Mary—you won’t need two chapels!—to form our seminarians with Eucharistic hearts; that is, sacrificial and self-giving hearts, which will be offered for those whom they serve as priests.

Thank you for your continued support, for which we are deeply grateful.

Rev. Msgr. Thomas W. Powers ‘97 Rector