---

The Legacy of Mother Angelica

IRONDALE, Alabama, December 23, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - EWTN, the Eternal World Television Network founded by Mother Angelica, has been an outstanding success. The network offers 24-hour programming to 104 million homes in 110 countries. 80 percent of the material offered to viewers is produced on site at the network’s studios in Irondale, Alabama. 

There are countless conversions attributed to the networks’ influence, by people from an endless variety of backgrounds and situations.

“Cancer patients, Playboy bunnies, secret Christians in Muslim countries who watch online—stacks of their stories come in to EWTN each day,” says Hoopes.

Life has not been easy for Mother Angelica, often full of loneliness, opposition, and physical pain. Abandoned by her father as a baby, she was raised in poverty by a childish and demanding mother. Her early experience of the Church was marked by coldness and harsh treatment from the nuns at her school. In later years she encountered much opposition to the work she was trying to establish through the network.

“It’s as if at each stage of her life, God took a strange pleasure in calling her to do something big, throwing an impossible obstacle in her way, then watching her do it anyway,” says Hoopes.

Speaking with author Raymond Arroyo, Mother Angelica said all that is required of her is faith in God.

 “[God] expects me to operate, if I don’t have the money, if I don’t have the brains, if I don’t have the talent—in faith,” she told Arroyo. “You know what faith is? Faith is one foot on the ground, one foot in the air, and a queasy feeling in the stomach.”

‘People who undergo suffering on this scale are usually crushed by it,’ says Hoopes. ‘ But those who accept these blows as ways to commune with God open up channels of grace capable of moving mountains.’

“You want to do something for the Lord?” Mother once asked. “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.”

When asked what her legacy would be, considering all of the work she has accomplished, Mother Angelica once said,” That all we did in all of this was rely on God’s providence.”
To read the full article, go to:

Love Bears Fruit: The Triumph of Mother Angelica
http://www.crisismagazine.com/feature2.htm

 Back to Top

---

MORE NEWS: LifeSiteNews.com Home Page  Last 10 Days   Archives   Special Reports

Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.