Our ‘Truest Friend’: Happy Mothers’ Day

Today is Mothers’ Day. It’s a day to honor and appreciate our mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and other maternal, mentoring figures in our lives. I am grateful every day for my mother. It is the greatest gift a woman can have, to be a mother—biologically or spiritually—to another.

To all those who chose to bring life into the world, to all those women who nurtured and sacrificed, have a blessed and happy day.

“A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.” —Washington Irving

“The loveliest masterpiece of the heart of God is the heart of a mother.” —St. Therese of Lisieux

“Her children rose up, and called her blessed: her husband, and he praised her.” —Proverbs 31:28

“All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” —Abraham Lincoln

“Honour thy father and thy mother, that thou mayest be longlived upon the land which the Lord thy God will give thee.” —Exodus 20:12

“If I have done anything in life worth attention, I feel sure that I inherited the disposition from my mother.” —Booker T Washington

“[Mother], you have always rejoiced exceedingly in the successes of your sons, and have made no use of them whatever.” —Lucius Annaeus Seneca, praising his mother’s unselfishness

“Like all mothers—though even more than others—she loved to have me with her… It was that whenever she could she acted as a peacemaker between any differing and discordant spirits, and when she heard very bitter things on either side of a controversy . . . she would disclose nothing about the one to the other except what might serve toward their reconciliation.” —St. Augustine, describing his beloved mother St. Monica

“Do not be troubled or weighed down with grief. Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother?” —Our Lady of Guadalupe

“A mother’s arms are made of tenderness, and children sleep soundly in them.” —Victor Hugo

“The Most Important Person on earth is a mother. She cannot claim the honour 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?” —József Cardinal Mindszenty

“Motherhood then becomes a kind of priesthood. She brings God to man by preparing the flesh in which the soul will be implanted; she brings man to God in offering the child back again to the Creator….she is nature’s constant challenge to death, the bearer of cosmic plentitude, the herald of eternal realities, God’s great cooperator.” —Ven. Fulton Sheen

“My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.” —George Washington

“[A] woman by her very nature is maternal – for every woman, whether married or unmarried, is called upon to be a biological, psychological, or spiritual mother.” —Alice von Hildebrand

Happy Mothers’ Day!