#motherhood

The Mother of God is asked to 'pray zealously to her Son and her God,' and the words of the psalm are put into her mouth:'My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. for He hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.' It is because of her child that she says this, He will magnify her ('For He that is mighty hath done to me great things'): He is her glory. Any woman could say it. For everyone of them, God is in her child. Mothers of great men must have been familiar with this feeling, but then, all women are mothers of great men-it isn't their fault if life disappoints them later. ↗

— Boris Pasternak

#life

Only a woman can carry in her body an eternal being which bears the very image of God. Only she is the recipient of the miracle of life. Only a woman can conceive and nurture this life using her own flesh and blood, and then deliver a living soul into the world. God has bestowed upon her alone a genuine miracle — the creation of life, and the fusing of an eternal soul with mortal flesh. This fact alone establishes the glory of motherhood. Despite the most creative plans of humanist scientists and lawmakers to redefine the sexes, no man will ever conceive and give birth to a child. The fruitful womb is a holy gift given by God to women alone. This is one reason why the office of wife and mother is the highest calling to which a woman can aspire. This is the reason why nations that fear the Lord esteem and protect mothers. They glory in the distinctions between men and women, and attempt to build cultures in which motherhood is honored and protected. ↗

— Douglas W. Phillips

#men

While parenthood served as no disadvantage at all to men, there was evidence of a substantial "motherhood penalty". Mothers received only half as many callbacks as their identically qualified childless counterparts. ↗

— Cordelia Fine

#motherhood #men

A mother isn’t the person who births you; it’s the person who rears you and shows you love. ↗

— Raquel Cepeda

#mother #mother-defined #motherhood #mothers-and-daughter #mothers-and-daughters

The Vatican won't prosecute pedophile priests but I decide I'm not ready for motherhood and it's condemnation for me? These are the same people that won't support national condom distribution that PREVENTS teenage pregnancy. ↗

— Sonya Renee Taylor

#catholic #feminism #feminist #motherhood #organized-religion

Having kids — the responsibility of rearing good, kind, ethical, responsible human beings — is the biggest job anyone can embark on ↗

— Maria Shriver

#ethics

So I guess you were hopelessly romantic and easily distracted, a B-plus mother, certainly good enough to get into Matriarchal State University but not quite good enough for St. Mary's College of the Blessed Womb Warriors. ↗

— Sherman Alexie

#romantic

The art of motherhood involves much silent, unobtrusive self-denial, an hourly devotion which finds no detail too minute. ↗

— Honore de Balzac

#detail #devotion #finds #involves #minute

Motherhood has been an exercise in guilt. ↗

— Felicity Huffman

#exercise #guilt #motherhood

But the truth is I wanted to have my daughter for so long. It's not the kind of thing you can visit, motherhood. Especially in the early years. Now she's eight, and I'm still not going to go anywhere. ↗

— Helen Hunt

#daughter #early #eight #especially #go