"Thank you, women who are mothers! You have sheltered human beings within yourselves in a unique experience of joy and travail." 

With this message, addressed to women throughout the world as a sign of his gratitude and solidarity, St John Paul II expressed three fundamental truths about motherhood: Every woman is called to be a mother, a mother is one who shelters human beings, motherhood is joy and travail.

Mother's Day is, in a wider sense, dedicated to all women, because every woman carries within her a unique capacity for motherly love and complete self-giving, which she is called to live out in her relationships with others.

Every woman is called to be a mother. Woman is, by her nature, a mother. A mother in the sense of devotion and orientation towards the other. At the core of feminine identity lies the need for motherly care for other people. This is the most consistent suggestion arising from scientific research into women's personalities. In her essence, woman has a need to express a kind of motherly love towards others, whether or not they are her biological children. We live in a society which, insidiously yet subtly, seeks to root motherhood out of womanhood. A negative connotation is attached to woman's natural inclination towards motherhood. The danger in this lies in the fact that it degrades feminine identity, treating what is by nature most deeply rooted in woman as a deficiency that hinders her in her activity in society. In doing so, it overlooks the fact that it is precisely woman's capacity to give life and to nurture with her motherly love that enables society to survive, and that makes woman so sublime a being. It is therefore worth recalling what it truly means to be a mother:

A mother is one who shelters human beings. The word shelter is of Greek origin, and in the Old Testament it denoted the veil with which Moses covered the radiance of divine glory that shone on his face after his encounter with Yahweh. A mother is a woman who covers, protects and shelters the radiance of "divine glory" on Earth. A biological mother literally shelters a human being within her womb, and every woman is called, in her own particular way, through her motherly care to shelter what is "divine" and sublime in man – his inalienable dignity and freedom. This also expresses woman's extraordinary power. Through her life-giving strength, woman has a fundamental role in the renewal of a wounded world, in building a culture that nurtures the sublimity of every single human being, as manifested in intrinsic human dignity.

Motherhood is joy and travail. Seemingly contradictory, travail lies at the very core of joy. Everything that is deeply meaningful is born out of travail. For everything truly worthwhile in life, some measure of toil is required. But if the toil is purposeful and meaningful, however intense and prolonged, it always gives birth to joy, because it is fruitful. Motherhood is an outstanding example of the deep connection between the experience of travail and joy. The Declaration on Women of the World Youth Alliance states that "woman is unique in her capacity for love, and so can experience freedom in her own radical way through the gift of herself." True self-giving is a radical act of the arduous, constant separation from the selfish desires of "one's own self", which strives for superficial comfort, and clinging instead to what will allow a fuller and more devoted service to another person. When a woman realises that it is precisely through the gift of herself that she has come to know her unique capacity for love and to experience true freedom, the travails of her self-giving become as nothing compared with the joy that fills her when she feels she is fulfilling the purpose of her existence.

The sublimity of the motherly vocation is revealed in its fullness in God's plan for the salvation of the human race. It was precisely through the motherhood of one woman that God became like man and, having conquered death, redeemed humanity. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the archetype of the perfect woman and mother. In her person, the mystery of motherhood and redemption are united. Through Mary, God shows us woman's original vocation to spiritual and/or bodily motherhood.

Mary was the woman worthy, in perfect fullness, to shelter divine glory in this world, carrying God himself in her womb. Thus, through Mary's motherhood, the radiance of that original divine glory present in every human being was sheltered. Through Mary, the motherly vocation whose seed lies in every woman was fully consecrated. That is  why Mary is depicted in art as the Hortus Conclusus – the Enclosed Garden from the Song of Songs: "You are a garden locked, my sister, my bride, a garden locked, a fountain sealed." She is the union between earth  and heaven , body and soul, an enclosed space of the most sublime worth, the most sublime place - a garden in which  the most beautiful flower blossomed – the world's Joy, as Bonaventura Duda called him. It is therefore a sealed garden, a protected and safe place transformed into a locus amoenus – the most beautiful and pleasant of places.

Finally, Mary became co-redemptrix by living through the travail with her Son. No woman and mother has experienced such pain as the Blessed Virgin Mary experienced watching the passion of her Son. Yet neither has any woman experienced such joy as the Blessed Virgin Mary experienced watching His glory and resurrection. In Mary is deeply rooted the experience of travail from which indescribable joy is born. Mary, woman above women, mother above mothers, becomes an example of perfect union with the Lord, manifested in the complete surrender and simplicity of the motherly vocation.