Sometimes motherhood is seen as a curse given to women, but Mother Teresa understood that it is a gift from God.
This extends to all types of motherhood as well, not simply the physical kind, as all women are called to be mothers.
Mother Teresa wrote a special letter in 1995 to the United Nations when it held its Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. The full letter can be found on SpiritualDirection.com.
She wrote about how men and women offer different images of God’s love.
God has created each one of us, every human being, for greater things– to love and to be loved. But why did God make some of us men and others women? Because a woman’s love is one image of the love of God, and a man’s love is another image of God’s love. Both are created to love, but each in a different way. Woman and man complete each other, and together show forth God’s love more fully than either can do it alone.
This is an important point to make, as men and women are different, both having their own special gifts from God. It is not a competition, as together men and women can show God’s love to the world in a unique way.
In particular, Mother Teresa pointed out motherhood as a special gift from God.
That special power of loving that belongs to a woman is seen most clearly when she becomes a mother. Motherhood is the gift of God to women. How grateful we must be to God for this wonderful gift that brings such joy to the whole world, women and men alike!
Mother Teresa believed that motherhood was not a curse, but a gift, a special way to image God’s love in the world.
Men were not given this gift. It is a unique gift to women, regardless of if they become a mother in the natural order, or express their motherhood in a more spiritual way.
Motherhood is a gift of God and should be cultivated and appreciated as such.
And today we celebrate...