Witnesses to Faith: 5 Inspiring Mother’s Day Stories
When I was a teenager, my mom received a thyroid cancer diagnosis. This moment was particularly difficult for her because, when she was 15, cancer had claimed the life of her own mother. She told me later that getting cancer when my sister and I were kids was her worst nightmare.
Originally from Cuba and raised in Miami, Florida, my mom grew up in a Catholic family that did not consistently practice their faith. However, when my grandmother was dying, my mom discovered the power of the rosary, which played a huge factor in her rediscovering the Faith several years later.
Over the years, I have forgotten many of the details of my mom’s cancer treatment, but one sticks out. And it’s a testament to her faith.
After my mom’s thyroid removal surgery, she had to undergo a radioactive iodine treatment to make sure all the cancer cells were killed. That meant she had to stay isolated in her room, apart from us, to avoid exposing us to radiation. I vividly remember passing her bedroom door, noticing how she was tuned into the Catholic TV station EWTN all day. In particular, I remember her praying along with the Divine Mercy Chaplet.
Now cancer-free, my mom inspires me every day with how she finds her strength in God. In the middle of a world full of bad news, there are so many stories of women who uplift others with their faith and fortitude.
This Mother’s Day, here are just a few inspiring stories featuring mother figures who have exemplified life-changing influence on friends and loved ones.
What Happened When I Drove a Nun to the Airport
– Catherine Sandoval from San Bernardino, CA
When I first met Sister Madeleine of the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles—who works with me at the same Catholic school—she struck me as someone who is quiet. The thing about me is that I’m a chatterbox and sometimes get a little nervous around reserved people.
One day, I was asked to take Sister Madeleine to the airport. I happily agreed. However, I wondered if I would do all the talking, and if she might find me “annoying.”
To my surprise, she led the conversation. I remember my heart feeling full because I encountered Christ through Sister. More than just an encounter, I felt this beautiful motherly embrace by someone who said yes to Jesus and to embracing God’s children as her spiritual children.
From that moment onward, she’s become someone special in my life. My family and I are very close, and living far from them can be difficult sometimes. However, Sister has helped make Miami feel more like home through her motherly care.
She reminds me that the Lord is simple and all loving. That He’s hidden in the smallest treasures of life, from the wittiest jokes to the warmest embraces. She really has pulled me closer to the Lord, especially into His Most Sacred Heart. If she’s drawing me to Jesus, imagine how her motherly figure is leading everyone else she interacts with. All of us are grateful to the Lord for calling Sister Madeline to Florida.
A Faith Stronger than Illness
– Min Yue Jo from Peru
María Pilar was more than my maternal grandmother: she was a second mother and a gift from God who accompanied me for nearly two decades.
The youngest of nine siblings, she lost her mother when she was only five. She adopted the Virgin Mary as her role model, learning early on how to offer up her sufferings and sacrifices. Whenever she could help people, she did so gladly, believing she was someone through which God answered others’ prayers.
Even when she was diagnosed with stage II colon cancer, her gratitude remained unshaken. She viewed her illness as an opportunity to become more Christlike, fighting with courage against the disease just to grant us more time with her. Because of her, I realized that God is always working in our hearts, transforming us from the inside out and strengthening us to be a force for good. She showed me how to embrace the cross and glorify the Lord in every decision.
I was deeply moved at her wake. It was a proof of her impact, filled with people from every stage of her life: childhood friends, colleagues, former students, neighbors, and even those she befriended during chemotherapy.
It was a privilege to serve as one of her caregivers. It was a priceless gift to have her presence during my early years and, in a beautiful full circle, to be there for her during her final ones. I miss her every day, but her legacy lives on. I find peace in knowing I did everything I could to honor her with that same selfless gift of unconditional love.
Praying for a Miracle for Her Grandson
– Anonymous young adult from Miami, FL
My abuela (grandmother) was a strong matriarch of the family. She was as kind as kind grandmothers could be towards me and my sister—but to everyone else, she was a living sermon of fire and brimstone! Two totally distinct realities which were synthesized together because of her deep and lively faith that governed her, uncompromisingly, her whole life.
That same faith is what led her to saving my life and the life of my mother.
When my mother was about to give birth to me, the doctor rushed her in for emergency surgery. As the story goes, Abuela saw the situation was grim. It was as if the Reaper himself was standing ready to snatch away two souls at once. But she took out her rosary. And she prayed.
Somehow, the doctor figured out how to save the risky birth and let me breathe in—despite the odds—fresh air.
My father has no real religiosity in him, and so he dismissed this moment of divine intervention as merely the doctor’s work. But even he has said that he was afraid he would lose both myself and my mother.
My theory is that my abuela was offering me to Our Lady at that moment. I am confident of that. I have lost count of the number of times I’ve nearly died over the course of my life and have narrowly escaped. To this day, I thank my abuela for putting me into the arms of Mary from the day of my birth. I know the Blessed Virgin’s Immaculate Heart was moved with compassion with the heartfelt tears and rosary of a simple abuela frightened at a dangerous birth.
Mamá María’s Legacy
– David Contreras from Mexico City, Mexico
My grandmother was María Garnica, affectionately known to all of us as “Mamá María.” She was a woman whose life was a bridge between two worlds: the deep-rooted, provincial traditions of Puruándiro, Michoacán, and the bustling, modern landscape of Mexico City. She lived through the echoes of the Mexican Revolution and the personal heartbreak of losing two of her 11 daughters and raising nine of them in a city that was already losing the Faith. She was there for my abuelo always, caring for him with that love that the bond of a Catholic marriage makes special.
She was, quite simply, the moral and spiritual heartbeat of our family.
Mamá María was a woman of her time: tough on the outside and tender on the inside. In those days, that “toughness” was not a lack of affection, but rather the way faith was lived: as an unbreakable discipline and a sacred duty. For her, faith was the axis that sustained life through hardships and tragedies. It was a total commitment that demanded the strength to keep the family together. That firmness was her way of protecting her loved ones, while her tenderness was revealed in her kind gaze and her tireless service.
What left the deepest impression on me was that whenever I think of her, I imagine her with a rosary, either praying or keeping it in her room. I also remember how she went to Mass almost every day, and especially on Sundays, she would wake up very early to attend the first Mass.
Her example stripped away the idea that faith is something grand or distant; she made it intimate. Because of her, I don’t see the rosary as a repetitive chore, but as a conversation with a mother (the Virgin Mary) who understands sacrifice. Her devotion to the rosary was paramount when, later in life, I had personal struggles. I remembered that praying the rosary would help me—and I can actually say that the rosary saved me.
I now enjoy praying the rosary with my teen daughter, and I pray that this devotion will continue for many generations. When Mamá María passed away, I felt a mix of sadness and joy, thinking that from heaven, she will continue to intercede for all the generations of our family. What a beautiful legacy!
We wish a happy and blessed Mother’s Day to all mothers, spiritual mothers, and grandmothers of the Catholic Exchange community! You touch our lives more deeply than you can know on this side of the veil.
