At her 10th anniversary Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, Fr. Michael Baggot reflects on Mother Angelica’s life of trust in Divine Providence and her lasting impact on the Church through EWTN.
I was intrigued when I first saw Mother Angelica on television as a teenager. I had watched Whoopi Goldberg sneak into a convent to sing in the movie Sister Act, but I had never taken the time to listen to a real-life sister teach. Mother Angelica was feisty. She conveyed the faith with wit and wisdom. Her message was both consoling and challenging. In high school, I was on a journey of conversion that led me to the Catholic Church. Her network introduced me to Catholic teachers from around the world and throughout history. The programs showed me that Catholicism has something to say about everything and to everyone.
In particular, I remember watching Fulton Sheen. He wove together philosophy, history, psychology, and scripture to explain the meaning of life with clarity and passion. His example eventually inspired me to discern the priesthood. I found in him a priest role model who encouraged me to use every technological tool to communicate the love of God that I experience each morning in my Holy Hour.
Look, Mom and Dad, now I am on EWTN too.
She had also taught me how to preach without notes, so apology to the translators, but I’ll do my best to stick to the prepared remarks.
Like Sheen, Mother Angelica understood that the fruitfulness of the apostolate depends on union with the Lord. What she proclaimed on air, she first pondered in Adoration. Mother Angelica also knew from experience that God works through humble, unexpected instruments to spread His Gospel. The world’s largest religious media network started with 13 cloistered nuns, $200, and a satellite in the garage. As Mother said, “You want to do something for the Lord … do it. Whatever you feel needs to be done, even though you’re shaking in your boots, you’re scared to death – take the first step forward. The grace comes with that one step and you get the grace as you step. Being afraid is not a problem; it’s doing nothing when you’re afraid.”
How fitting that we remember Mother Angelica just days after the Solemnity of the Annunciation and in this beautiful chapel dedicated to Our Lady. Mary was deeply troubled by the angel’s message that she would be the Mother of the Messiah. She was afraid, she was scared. “How can this be?” she wondered. She had likely already committed herself to remaining a virgin and was now being asked to give birth to the Savior. Yet, as St. John Henry Newman said, “ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.” Mary trusted that God could resolve any apparent contradiction. Before such a daunting mission, she abandoned herself to Divine Providence. She was sustained by a love greater than any fear.
On December 8, 1854, the day of the dogmatic declaration of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Pius IX placed a gold crown on the image in this chapel. He wanted to honor the woman who exemplifies the beauty of living in union with God and His plan. In the annunciation account, Luke uses the term Kecharitomene (κεχαριτωμένη), a perfect passive participle that signifies an action completed in the past with ongoing effects in the present. In other words, Mary was fully graced from the first moment of her existence and throughout her life. It is grace that gave her the strength to say “yes,” fiat to the Lord to bring about the Incarnation.
The Eternal Word took on flesh to approach us and to invite us to approach Him. The Incarnate Word gathered disciples around Him and sent them out to the nations. Throughout history, disciples have found new ways to share the Gospel across different continents. More recently, missionaries have spread the message of the Eternal Word to the digital continent.
Today, the Eternal Word Television Network reaches more than 435 million homes across over 160 countries and territories. Its programs reach areas where conflict or persecution deprives citizens of other means of religious formation. Every day, the Eternal Word’s network delivers images of beauty and inspiring stories of hope to feeds inundated with ugly polarization and mediocre AI slop.
Mary was the ultimate Eternal Word broadcaster. She went in haste to her cousin Elizabeth to declare the good news she had received. She did not go forth to sell a product. Like Mother Angelica, she was not interested in advertising. Mary proclaimed a joyful message in her Magnificat. Yet the joy of Mary’s mission as an Eternal Word broadcaster was also mixed with sorrow. Her heart was pierced as she watched the flesh of the Eternal Word beaten, bruised, and crucified.
Mother Angelica’s life also reflected the Paschal Mystery. She endured a lifetime of health complications and sufferings. A stroke and cerebral hemorrhage robbed her of her voice in 2001. The foundress of the major media network was silenced for the last decade and a half of her life. Mother knew from Mary that the fiat given in youth must be renewed at the foot of the Cross. After her long way of the Cross, she left this world on Easter Sunday, eager to share in the triumph of the Risen Lord who will transform our lowly bodies after the pattern of His glorious Body. How good it will be to hear Mother laughing again, walking alongside the bedridden faithful she strengthened through her programs.
Mother Angelica’s legacy lives on after her passing. Her dream of a Rome office in the heart of the Church has become a reality, bringing the sights and sounds of the Eternal City to the global Church daily. The EWTN Summer Academy gathers youth from around the world and trains them as media missionaries. They use new forms of media to communicate the same Gospel that Mother spent a lifetime contemplating and spreading. Many of those same students have returned to our expanding Rome office and other affiliates.
EWTN has outgrown its first Alabama garage, but it has never outgrown—and could never outgrow—the reliance on Divine Providence that characterized Mother Angelica’s life. No matter what fear or challenge we face, let us echo the words of the Immaculate Virgin, “be it done unto me according to your Word.”
Given on March 27, 2026, by Fr. Michael Baggot, in St. Peter’s Basilica
