On January 10th, Pope Francis welcomed in the Vatican the “Sentinels of the Holy Family”, a Marian prayer network formed by women to present the intentions of the Church and the world to the Virgin Mary.
The Holy Father thanked these “sentinel” women for their “simplicity and humility”, while reminding them of the requirement to be part of this group: to pray a decade of the Rosary each day.
For Pope Francis, this commitment may seem “small in the eyes of men, but is significant in the eyes of God, if done faithfully over time, with faith, and in a spirit of communion among you.” He affirmed, “God loves the small and makes it fruitful”.
Later, Pope Francis highlighted the fact that the movement is composed only of women, which “emphasizes your specific and irreplaceable vocation in the Church, in the image of the Virgin Mary”.
Addressing the women present at the audience, the Pontiff pointed out that they not only pray to the Virgin asking for her intercession but are “even more ready to conform to her, to her motherhood, to join her intercessory prayer as a mother for all the children of the Church and for the world”.
“Whatever your state of life, with Mary, you are all mothers. Your prayer and your commitment as ‘sentinels’ are modeled after Mary,” he stressed. Therefore, Pope Francis encouraged them to have a gaze “like that of the Virgin Mary, a mother’s gaze, patient, understanding, compassionate” in all aspects of their everyday life.
He then noted that their prayers might be marked by painful events such as conflicts, violence, or indifference.
“All this can cause misunderstanding, discouragement. But Mary, seeing the child Jesus suffer poverty, does not become discouraged, does not complain. She remains silent; keeps her heart and meditates,” he remembered. Lastly, he emphasized that our world needs tenderness more than ever, a term which, for the Holy Father, “some may wish to eliminate from the dictionary”.
“How harsh is today’s world sometimes, relentless, deaf, and indifferent to the suffering and needs of others. Mary was tenderness for Jesus; and she is tenderness for the Church and the world,” he concluded.
