What's an "Extraordinary Mom"?

This blog is dedicated to extraordinary moms everywhere.

Extraordinary moms come in all shapes and sizes and colors, just like their families. Some are pretty. Some are sporty. Some are frazzled. Most are prayerful, because everyone needs a little backup sometimes.

In his 1988 letter entitled "On the Vocation and Dignity of Women," Pope John Paul II acknowledged that women by their very nature are motherly. Whether or not we ever bring our own offspring into the world, we instinctively nurture the lives around us courageously ... often sacrificially.

Extraordinary moms, then, are women who invest themselves in the life of another person -- in many cases, the life of a child. These women include

* Adoptive mothers

* Foster mothers

* Stepmothers

* Grandmothers (custodial, proximate, and long-distance)

* Godmothers

* Sunday school and religious education teachers

* Teachers of all kinds

* Women who are single and/or childless, who come alongside "regular" mothers and help share the burdens associated with our vocation. These may be the most courageous of all extraordinary mothers, for they nurture mothers and children alike!

This is not intended to downplay the importance of biological motherhood -- not at all! Without you, there would be no children in this world for us to love. And yet, just as laity who serve as Eucharistic ministers are considered "extraordinary" in that they fill in or substitute for the "ordinary" minister (the priest), so extraordinary mothers come alongside and support (and in some cases, fill in for) "ordinary" ones.

Extraordinary mothers are extraordinary because we take after the best mother of all -- Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. Just as she said "Yes" to God and His plan for her life, so we say "Yes" to all God has for us. Whether that includes carrying ten children in our bodies ... or just one special one, under our heart ... the response of extraordinary moms is the same:

"Yes, Lord, Yes!"

As Mother's Day approaches, is there an "extraordinary mother" in your life you would like to remember? Why not give her "Tea with Mary"? For more information, click here.