Calvary of Motherhood

Teresa 2 days old

"It is well known that women are capable of far more sustained sacrifice than men; a man may be a hero in a crisis, and then slip back into mediocrity. He lacks the moral endurance which enables a woman to be heroic through the years, months, days and even seconds of her life, when the very repetitive monotony of her tasks wears down the spirit. Not only a woman's days, but her nights – not only her mind, but her body must share in the Calvary of motherhood. That is why women have a surer understanding of the doctrine of redemption then men have: they have come to associate the risk of death with life in childbirth, and to understand the sacrifice of self to another through the many months preceding it."

-Archbishop Fulton Sheen

courtesy of Staci