Thanks be to God for the wonderful treasure of Mother Angelica.
“If you’re breathing and you’ve got two legs, you’re called to holiness.” Such was the evangelization style of the bold and beautiful Mother Angelica, born Rita Rizzo, founder of EWTN — known as “the global Catholic network.” Mother Angelica died ten years ago today, and I was blessed to both meet her and be present to pray at her casket and at her funeral Mass in Hanceville, Ala.
When I met her, my father’s death was still new. And those who set up the interview assured me they did not tell her. And yet she knew. Perhaps it was obvious at some point in the conversation, but I prefer to believe — and don’t think it’s absurd, based on her life story — she had enough trust in the Holy Spirit that she went with her spiritual instinct, or direct line to the Lord, and talked about my father without me saying a word about my heartache. That was unexpected. And even if I had found out she had been fully briefed on the details of my life up to that point, my faith in her “real-deal”-ness would not have been shaken. She taught me that Christians can never be transactional. She could have just answered my questions in the parlor of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Hanceville, Ala. Instead, she let God use her. Which was the story of her life. Always ask the Trinity to use you, and every precious moment God grants us on this earth — even in, maybe especially in, suffering.
She was a trailblazer in media — doing what the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops hadn’t been able to pull off: a successful use of TV, radio, and other means to tell the Christian story.
Over the years, I’ve been blessed to know Paul Darrow, a former international model who testifies that he should have been dead from AIDS in the ’80s many times over. He was a regular at gay bathhouses in the infamous Village in New York City and saw many of his friends die of the disease. One night, he was flipping channels and happened upon a nun with an eye patch. It was Mother Angelica on her live show, where she’d take audience and viewer questions. He stopped to make fun of the pirate nun. And that encounter was a step in his conversion — he left his gay lifestyle behind and became a spokesman for Courage, a ministry for men and women who struggle with same-sex attraction and want to live as the Catholic Church teaches. His is but one of countless stories of people whose lives were changed in no small part by encounters with Mother Angelica, sometimes simply on screen. (His story is featured in the documentary from the Courage ministry, Desire of the Everlasting Hills.)
Paul did eventually meet Mother Angelica, as she lay dying. He prayed with her, and I was happy to see him at her funeral Mass.
You could have been easily forgiven for thinking it was a humble parish Mass of Christian burial — inside was a relatively small gathering of people who knew and loved her. When I prayed by her earthly remains, I couldn’t help but thank God for her — and that her long-suffering pain was finally over and she was closer to her true home.
Outside, it looked something like a papal visit, so beloved she was by so many. The road to the shrine has long attracted Catholics settling in Protestant country, Alabama. And yet everyone was mourning Mother Angelica that day — Bible churches and all the rest had signs of condolence and even offerings of bathrooms and water to the pilgrims.
Besides her personal suffering — which included ten years of silence, which had to be the worst penance for someone who knew the power of words — what she did in Christ showed us that media can, and must, be used in the service of God — even a participation in the life of the Trinity.
Thanks be to God for the wonderful treasure of Mother Angelica. Canonizing her, of course, is above my pay grade, but she makes me want to be a saint — and gives me hope that even a woman in media might be able to go to heaven! She wanted all of us to love and serve our Lord in our wounded humanity, with His grace.
I pray that she is at peace with Jesus, her true love, and continues to inspire us — and intercede for us — to give glory to God in everything we do, always. (I always hesitate to stop praying for the dead. If they have passed through the purifications of purgatory, God will use our pleas however they are needed.)
Here’s a little Mother Angelica here and here and here. If you want to get to know her and her incredible story of adversity and surrender to Divine Will in all things — and some wildly salty language in service of the Gospel, give Raymond Arroyo’s books on her here and here and here a read. And how EWTN is remembering her (with a brief quote from me) here.