Happy Mother’s Day!

The role of a mother is essential in every way. It is life-giving and requires tremendous amounts of sacrifice and selfless love. To create and nurture a child is the most important job on earth. Here’s what Venerable Jozsef Cardinal Mindszenty has to say about mothers:

“The most important person on earth is a mother. She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has built something more magnificent than any cathedral—a dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of her baby’s body— The angels have not been blessed with such a grace. They cannot share in God’s creative miracle to bring new saints to Heaven. Only a human mother can. Mothers are closer to God the Creator than any other creature; God joins forces with mothers in performing this act of creation… What on God’s good earth is more glorious than this; to be a mother?”

For mothers—whose service often goes unnoticed and unappreciated—those words are powerful. Your role is glorious, it is magnificent, it is vital. And it is your path to Heaven.

So today we honor and celebrate the women in our life who have been mothers for us, either in the physical or spiritual sense of the word. Our moms, birth mothers, adoptive or foster moms, godmothers, grandmothers, or any other woman who has shown us maternal care and love. We also pray for women who have lost a child or who long for a child. And of course, we cannot forget to honor our Blessed Mother in Heaven.

Thank you, moms, for your love, patience, strength, encouragement, affection, virtue, and selflessness. May God grant you the strength and grace needed to carry out your vocation each day. May your reward in Heaven be great.