A special memorial Mass was held for Mother Angelica, the foundress of EWTN, in Rome on Thursday to commemorate her life, legacy, and unwavering faith in God. The Mass, celebrated by Father Diego Sanz Martinez in the Church of Santo Spirito in Sassia, near the Vatican, marked the ninth anniversary of Mother Angelica’s death in 2016.

EWTN Vatican Bureau staff — together with their families and friends — participated in the Mass in thanksgiving for the religious sister who launched EWTN in 1981 in the U.S. with approximately 20 employees on Aug. 15, the solemnity of the Assumption. 

“Through her action and her work, she has inspired many men and women to take part in this work of proclaiming the Eternal Word to the world, with new and ever more effective means,” Father Martinez said in his homily.

“Thanks to her legacy, today we also take part in this work, so we must pay good attention to the Word of God that we have proclaimed today in order to know what awaits us,” he continued. 

Father Martinez asked his listeners to remember Mother Angelica’s motto when contemplating how to communicate the faith in society today: “Unless you are willing to do the ridiculous, God will not do the miraculous.”

“Jesus Christ also wants to work the miracle through us today. We are the continuators of this long list of messengers and heralds of the Gospel, in which we appear in intimate union with Mother Angelica,” he said.

To be unafraid of a mission that “seems to be too great for us,” Father Martinez told Catholic journalists that sharing the Gospel is “simply a matter of telling others what we experience every day in our hearts.”  

“The person who truly experiences that God is saving me can no longer remain mute but feels the need to tell others what is happening,” he said. 

Toward the end of his homily, Father Martinez prayed: “Let us ask God for fidelity to our mission, because God never tires of calling us to conversion and to live according to his Eternal Word.”