Our Lady’s University has a connection to the founding of Mother’s Day, thanks to the advocacy of an alumnus who helped build support for creating the holiday more than a century ago.

An action-oriented Renaissance man, Frank Hering earned two degrees from Notre Dame, coached several sports, served on volunteer boards, and is probably best known for his involvement with Notre Dame football. As a student, he played quarterback and served as both captain and coach. As an alum, he gave a speech at the dedication of Notre Dame Stadium and later served on the Rockne Memorial committee. But it was as a faculty member that he got the idea to help celebrate mothers.

The story goes that he was visiting a colleague’s class, noticed the professor handing out penny postcards to students, and asked what they were writing.

“Anything at all as long as it’s to their mothers,” his colleague replied. “We do this every month in this class. One day a month is mother’s day.”

The idea stayed with Hering, who used his leadership position with the Fraternal Order of Eagles to spread it beyond Notre Dame. In a Feb. 7, 1904 speech in Indianapolis, he called for the “setting aside of one day in the year as a nationwide memorial to the memory of Mothers and motherhood,” and he continued lobbying for it in the years to come. So did his fellow Eagles, who organized festivals around the country to build support for the idea.

Hering, who was later called the “father of Mother’s Day,” was among several advocates across several decades who supported the idea of honoring and celebrating mothers. Anna Jarvis, a contemporary of Hering’s who is often called the “mother of Mother’s Day,” partnered with retailers in the early 20th century to campaign for celebrations across the country. By 1914, when President Woodrow Wilson set aside the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day, the holiday was already widely celebrated in many cities and states.

In 1925, the Society of War Mothers honored Hering for his role in helping to create Mother’s Day. A plaque still stands in the Indianapolis opera house commemorating the moment where he first called for the holiday.

The word novena comes from the Latin word for nine, novem, and it refers to a kind of prayer that takes place on nine successive hours or days or weeks. The prayer is simple and repetitive and usually directed towards a specific member of the Trinity, or Mary or one of the saints. Offering a prayer for nine successive days is just long enough to make it effortful, so it is a way to engage the will and to dedicate oneself to a certain intention or cause.

There was an early Greek and Roman custom to spend nine days mourning the death of a loved one, and the Christian tradition of praying for nine days may have its roots in this practice. In fact, Christians often pray a novena for the soul of someone who has departed. Other novenas anticipate a Church feast and are connected to attending Mass or a prayer service, and some are offered for the remission of sins and are connected to the sacrament of reconciliation.

Christian tradition has also connected the number nine to other sacred events, such as the nine months Jesus grew in Mary’s womb, or Jesus’ death on the cross in the ninth hour of the day. Some Church fathers saw the number nine as a way to express the way humanity approaches God in prayer—if the number 10 signifies perfection, we fall short of it and aspire to rise to the fullness of divinity.

Many novenas are offered to ask for Mary’s intercession, just as this Novena to Notre Dame, Our Mother. Join us to offer this prayer, which begins on Saturday, May 2 and culminates in attending Mass or a worship service on Mother’s Day, May 10.

Mary is an important figure in Christian life because she lived with hope. As a young teenager, the angel of God approached her and asked her to be the mother of Jesus. She was young, unmarried, and poor—she might very well have been the least likely candidate for this role. Yet, she trusted God and had hope that God would see her through. When she said “yes” and accepted this role, she became an example for all Christians who turn their lives over to God in hope.

Catholics honor Mary as a human who was glorified through her willingness to trust God. Mary’s sorrows and joys, her hopes for her child and spouse, and her quiet endurance ring true to the experience of families today. She is easy to identify with, and through her faithfulness, God changed the world. We call her “Our Lady” because she is our mother in faith and our model of holiness.

Mary knew that God is not a remote, impersonal abstraction, like the Olympian gods of antiquity. She knew God was somehow “one of us” and she made room in her life for God to take shape in the world in the person of Jesus. This is an interior movement that all Christians are called to make—to make room for God in our lives and carry Jesus to the world.

Our prayers are directed to God, the source of all things, through Mary. We ask for Mary’s intercession with these prayers—we ask her to carry our requests or offerings of thanksgiving to God—and we are confident that Mary will do so in her care for us as our mother in faith.