…while both parents are responsible in all things for the family, it is the mother who is generally the first evangelizer. It was Mary who declared: "Do whatever he tells you" (Ibid. 2: 5). Experience shows that it is often Christian mothers who are the first to teach the truth about God, the first to join their children’s hands in prayer and to pray with them. Mothers teach their children to distinguish good from evil. They teach them the commandments of God, both the commandments given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, and the commandments of love of God and love of neighbour which Jesus put at the heart of the Christian moral life. The magnificent vocation and responsibility of parents, and in the first place of mothers, consists not only in bringing children into the world, but also in leading them to spiritual maturity.
-Blessed John Paul II, 1995 Homily at Uhuru Park
Thank you mothers, for being the first evangelizers and for leading your sons and daughters to spiritual maturity.
The role of women in the Catholic Church is something we’ve discussed here before. There have been a number of criticisms over the years, but Blessed John Paul II helped us to see that the Church truly needs and appreciates the contribution of women.
There is still unrest among women, though, especially those who are called to the married life. Some worry about holding a career while raising children, while others wonder if the challenges of their vocation can be sanctified.
In Him, it is always Yes—a woman can hold career, can be a good mother, and can also be a saint! Just look to St. Gianna Molla, who died on this day in 1962.
St. Gianna is often remembered as the mother who gave up her life to save her child. When she was pregnant with her third daughter, doctors discovered that Gianna had developed a fibroma in her uterus. Before undergoing surgery, Gianna begged the surgeon to save her child’s life. After the surgery and throughout her pregnancy, she turned these pleadings to God. She insisted that He choose the child’s life over hers. And He did—Gianna Emanuela was born on the morning of April 21, and her mother died one week later, despite all efforts to save her. In the pain of death, St. Gianna repeated over and over, “Jesus, I love you.”
St. Gianna was 39 when she died, and she had been preparing for that moment of sacrifice her whole entire life.
