Happy Mother's Day

"The eternal mystery of generation, which is in God himself, the one and Triune God (cf. Eph 3:14-15), is reflected in the woman's motherhood and in the man's fatherhood.  Human parenthood is something shared by both the man and the woman.  Even if the woman, out of love for her husband, says:  'I have given you a child,' her words also mean: 'This is our child.' Although both of them together are parents of their child, the woman's motherhood constitutes a special 'part' in this shared parenthood, and the most demanding part.  Parenthood- even though it belongs to both- is realized much more fully in the woman, especially in the prenatal period.  It is the woman who 'pays' directly for this shared generation, which literally absorbs her energies of her body and soul.  It is therefore that the man be fully aware that in their shared parenthood he owes a special debt to the woman.  No program of 'equal rights' between women and men is valid unless it takes this fact fully into account."

Mulieris Dignitatem, Pope John Paul II