From Aleteia
By Jenny Lark Snarski
A mother of two priest-sons shares her testimony and gratitude. “I truly believe that mothers of priests have a special connection with one another."
Just as the feasts of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary are intimately related, so is the heart of a priest and that of his mother.
One Arkansas mother knows this firsthand, times two. Angie Elser and Dr. Joseph Elser, a pediatrician in Little Rock, raised six children. Angie told Aleteia that raising their children in the teachings of the Catholic faith was one of their parenting priorities.
Vocational exposure in Catholic schools
“From kindergarten through high school, each of them attended Catholic school,” she shared, “as we believed this would help shape their Catholic faith during their formative years.” Not only did Catholic schools help form their children in the faith, the schools also played a prominent role in her two priest-sons discovering their vocations.
The Elsers' oldest son, Father Stephen Elser, first discerned his priestly vocation in the second grade. Ordained June 2, 2018, he has served three parishes and a school for seven years in the northeast corner of the state.
Courtesy of Angie Elser
His younger brother, Christopher, was in third grade when Stephen joined the seminary. As Christopher shared for a student profile for St. Meinrad Seminary, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree, he recounted, “Watching my brother go through seminary was something that I began to picture myself doing.”
Devotion to the Eucharist and Sacred Heart of Jesus
Angie recalled that an important moment in Christopher’s discernment was becoming an altar server in fifth grade. She noted that his first time serving for Mass was May 30, 2011, was 15 years, to the day, before the day of his ordination to the priesthood.
“We discovered that a few days before the ordination and truly felt that was a sign of God’s providence!”
Courtesy of Angie Elser
She said the schoolteachers would frequently bring students to the adoration chapel. Making time for Eucharistic Adoration was another priority as a family, “a routine that played an integral part in the discernment of Fr. Christopher’s priestly vocation.”
Christopher emphasized that the Eucharist was what attracted him to the priesthood, saying, “The Eucharist has been and continues to be the heartbeat and compass of my life.”
His mother echoed the sentiment. “In this perpetual adoration chapel, Fr. Christopher developed a deep love for the Eucharist, as he often states that the Eucharist is the ‘heartbeat of his vocation.’ In addition to his deep devotion to the Eucharist, Christopher also has a profound love and devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. When our children were young, we enthroned our home to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.”
A family of priests!
The image of the Sacred Heart the family used during this enthronement was one that was gifted to Angie’s grandmother by her son, Fr. Jim Schaefer, the great uncle of Fathers Stephen and Christopher. She explained that both Fr. Jim and another of Christopher’s uncles, Father Bill Elser, were present during Christopher’s childhood.
Both priest-uncles recently celebrated milestone anniversaries: for Father Jim Schaefer, a momentous 70th anniversary of ordination, and for Father Bill Elser, his 40th. “Witnessing their lives devoted to Christ as priests was influential for Christopher in strengthening his discernment, even from a young age,” his mother commented.
While Father Bill Elser was at his nephew’s ordination and First Mass, Father Jim Schaefer was unable to travel from where he lives in St. Louis, as he is recovering from a broken hip. Father Stephen was able to celebrate the 70th-anniversary Mass with him in his hospital room in March, though.
Courtesy of Angie Elser
Among the family members the Elser family calls “Father,” there are even more than the four mentioned so far. Fathers Christopher and Stephen come from a long and broad line of priestly vocations.
Here's the whole list:
On their mother’s side: a deceased great-great uncle Father Bill Schumann (Archdiocese of St. Louis); a great-uncle Father Jim Schaefer (Archdiocese of St. Louis); a first cousin, twice removed Father Bill Hodgson (Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Missouri); a third cousin Father Ben Armentrout (Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph); and a seminarian first cousin for the Diocese of Little Rock, Andrew Schaefer.
On their father’s side: a deceased great-uncle Father Joseph Blitz (Diocese of Little Rock); and uncle Father Bill Elser (Diocese of Little Rock).
As Christopher told their diocesan paper, the Arkansas Catholic, not long before his May 30th ordination, “I’m excited to be a spiritual father, to be called Father Christopher and to really live by that name…”
Angie believes that her other four children have all been “very supportive” of their brothers’ vocations to the priesthood.
“It is quite countercultural for a man in today’s world to make the decision to dedicate his life to serving God and His people,” she said, “but my children constantly encourage one another to reach their goals, and ultimately, strive for holiness. Not only did they learn this importance within the home of our family, but they also were taught this in their home at Christ the King Church and School, as well as their Catholic high schools.”
Drawn closer as a family through God’s callings
She admitted, “Along the way, our family has encountered many struggles, but these struggles have ultimately strengthened our love for one another and for our Lord as we were all drawn to place our trust in Jesus throughout both the highs and the lows of our lives."
“In the midst of these struggles we as a family were drawn closer to the perpetual Eucharistic Adoration chapel at our church," she said, explaining that it was a place and time that really fostered the vocation of Fr. Christopher as he learned that “the time you spend with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the best time that you will spend on earth,” a quote from St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta that he incorporated into his First Mass of Thanksgiving.
A shared bond as mothers of priests
She was deeply moved during her son’s first Mass of Thanksgiving on May 31 — the Feast of the Visitation of Mary — when Father Christopher presented her with the maniturgium (the cloth used to wipe the Sacred Chrism during his ordination) that she will be buried with as the mother of a priest.
“I truly believe that mothers of priests have a special connection with one another,” Angie shared.
“As a mother, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of prayer for the vocations of each of my children. I often remind myself that it is God’s calling -- not mine. Priests are chosen by Christ -- not by a mother or father. As Pope Pius X once said, ‘A vocation comes from the heart of God but goes through the heart of the mother,’” she concluded.
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