Editora Cléofas wishes to pay tribute to all mothers on this special date
When our world is shaken by this sea of violence and injustice, we cannot help but remember you, Mother, because you are still the greatest reserve of love that God has placed in this world.
When everything seems to be lost, the heart still remains; It is from there that life begins to be reborn. And you, O mother, have among men the primacy of the heart.
Neither the tallest skyscrapers, nor the most powerful computers, nor the fastest planes can be compared to the transcendent beauty of your eyes and the incomparable feeling of your heart.
Mother, you were created not only to give life to men, much more than that, to sow love among them. You are so worthy that even God himself wanted to be born from you, in human form.
The world needs to learn from you, mother, before it’s too late, the lesson of unlimited forgiveness, of compassion that makes people suffer in solidarity, of kindness that overcomes all envy, of patience that overcomes all restlessness, of love that overcomes all hatred, and which is stronger than death.
We are grateful to God who created you and gave you as a gift to each of us. Your beauty is great because in you the intensity of the spirit that penetrates matter is great. Above all, mother, we want to recognize and thank you for the gratuitousness of your good works. You are like the root of the tree, always hidden, but always promoting the growth of branches and fruits.
Someone said that “the bee’s pleasure is to suck the honey from the flower, but the flower’s pleasure is to deliver the honey to the bee”. I know that’s how you are, mother! Looking at you we learn to give thanks to God every day. And, if by chance, someone does not recognize your value, or does not reciprocate with gratitude your love that never ends, know that the Creator sees you. Remember what someone said: every day the sun also puts on a beautiful show at dawn, and yet the majority of the audience sleeps and cannot recognize its beauty. But that doesn’t mean the sun stops being beautiful, beautiful and fundamental. In the same way, mother, you are the sun of the home.
May the good God, who gave us the grace to create it, renew your strength and your grace, today more than ever, so that a new hope for everyone may emerge from your heart. Mom, more than before, we really need you!
Michelangelo once saw a block of stone and told his students: “inside there is an angel, I’m going to put him out!” After some time, with his genius as a sculptor, he made the beautiful work. Then the students asked him how he had achieved that feat. He replied: “the angel was already there, I just removed the excess that was left over”.
This is your beautiful mission Mother, to educate; and this is what educating means, with patience and skill, removing bad habits and discovering the child’s virtues, until the “angel” appears. Michel Quoist said “that it is not for themselves that men educate their children, but for others and for God.”
Educating is collaborating with God, and it is in the education of children that the virtues of parents are revealed. Educating is promoting the growth and maturation of the human person in all its dimensions: material, intellectual, moral and religious. The task of educating, as Don Bosco said, “is a work of the heart”, it is a work of love, which is why it has a lot to do with the mother. Without the mother’s affection and attention, the child will certainly grow up lacking affection and disoriented in life.
People say that behind a great man, there is always a great woman, but we must not forget that “this woman”, more than the wife, is the mother.
It is in the mother’s lap that the child needs to learn what faith is, learn to pray and love God and people. It is in his mother’s lap that the man of tomorrow must learn what is righteousness, character, honesty, kindness, purity of heart. It is in the mother’s lap that children learn to respect people, to be kind to their elders, to be humble and simple and not to look down on anyone.
It is in the mother’s lap that the son learns charity, the pure life of chastity, the control of all disordered passions and the rejection of all vices. It is the mother, with her sweet and gentle way, who removes from her little plant that grows the weed of laziness, disobedience, bad parenting, inconvenient gestures and words. She is the one who teaches you to forgive, to overcome moments of anger without retaliating, to not be envious of others who have more goods and money. It is the mother who, in her first tasks at home, teaches her the redemptive path of work and responsibility.
Even the son of God wanted to have a Mother to fulfill his mission of saving humanity; and He performed her first miracle at the wedding in Cana exactly because she asked him to. Therefore, each mother is a sign of Mary, who teaches her child to live according to God’s will.
Congratulations, dear mother, may God bless you.
Professor Felipe Aquino is a widower, father of five children. On TV , he presents the program “Escola da Fé” and “Pergunte e Responderemos”, on Radio he presents the program “No Coração da Igreja”. On weekends he holds in-depth meetings throughout Brazil and abroad. He wrote 73 Catholic education books for publishers Cléofas, Loyola and . Teacher page: Twitter: @pfelipeaquino