‘Learn, Practice True Motherhood As Divine Calling’

Bishop Tonito Francisco Xavier Muananoua has called upon Catholic women to embrace “truemotherhood”, which he described as a divine calling modelled after that of the Blessed VirginMary.In his homily during a Thanksgiving Mass for the Archdiocesan Women's Day, The AuxiliaryBishop of Mozambique's Catholic Archdiocese of Maputo described women as “a gift ofmotherhood that God has placed in the life of each one of us.”“For us to be in this world, by Divine Grace, the work of God, God used a woman,” BishopMuananoua said during the celebration at the Holy Trinity Parish of Maputo Archdiocese.He added, “It is a vocation to be a mother. Not all women have the vocation of motherhood.”True motherhood, the Mozambican Catholic Bishop said, “is an apprenticeship that needs to bepracticed every day.”“We need to learn every day to be true mothers, because being a true mother is a gift that wemust ask for,” he said.The Mozambican Catholic Bishop, who was appointed Auxiliary Bishop for Maputo in March2023 emphasized the need to embrace motherhood with humility and thankfulness.He said, “We must also ask in an attitude of gratitude, because it is beautiful to be a mother, it isbeautiful to transmit a life; it is beautiful to know that we collaborate as mothers in God's plan tobring an incipient life into our wombs.”Motherhood, Bishop Muananoua reiterated, “gives pride; but it needs to be exercised withhumility.”While motherhood “makes us proud,” he said, “it is also laborious; it takes a lot of work, becauseevery day we have to ask for the humility to be true mothers, the humility to be aware of thegreat responsibility that God has placed in us, to transmit the warmth of life, to nourish the hopeof life, to care for life from its earliest moments.”The Auxiliary Bishop of Maputo further reflected on the beginning of human life, saying, “Eachof us was welcomed by a womb for nine months; each of us grew up, nourished by breasts forsome time. We lived in the warmth (of the womb); we are what we are because a woman, by thegrace of God, brought us to life.”“Today, as we live this day in our Archdiocese, we have been asked to meditate on the vocationof motherhood, to give thanks for the gift of motherhood, and to look to Mary as our GreatMother,” Bishop Muananoua said on May 5, during the Thanksgiving Mass for Women's Day inMaputo Archdiocese. He added, “Let us accept the recommendations of love that Jesus makes to each one of us,looking also at those faces, looking at those mothers, looking at those lives that forgetthemselves so that we can be what we are.”Mothers, Bishop Muananoua said, “are a reflection of Divine Love.”*Bishop Muananoua, blessing Catholic Women during the Diocesan Women's Day in MaputoArchdiocese.ACI Africa