Today in the United States is Mother’s Day, when we honor the matrons of our families.

Saint John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem (On the Dignity and Vocation of Women), speaks beautifully of the irreplaceable role of women in their families and in the whole world.

The moral and spiritual strength of a woman is joined to her awareness that God entrusts the human being to her in a special way…

A woman is strong because of her awareness of this entrusting, strong because of the fact that God “entrusts the human being to her”, always and in every way, even in the situations of social discrimination in which she may find herself. This awareness and this fundamental vocation speak to women of the dignity which they receive from God himself, and this makes them “strong” and strengthens their vocation.

Thus the “perfect woman” (cf. Prov 31:10) becomes an irreplaceable support and source of spiritual strength for other people, who perceive the great energies of her spirit. These “perfect women” are owed much by their families, and sometimes by whole nations.[1]  (emphasis added)

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