Within John Paul's appreciation of the family was his awareness of the beauty and value of women in society and the Church. These lines from his "Letter to Women" offer some very valuable insights into the role that Mother played in the early development of Karol's soul and later John Paul II's view on women, the family, and the Church:
"... Thank you, women who are mothers! You who have sheltered human beings, makes you become God's own smile upon the newborn child, the one who guides your child's first steps, who helps it to grow and who is the anchor as the child makes its way along the journey of life.
Thank you, women who are wives! You irrevocably join your futhre to that of your husbands in a relationship of mutual giving at the service of life and love.
Thank you, women who are daughters and women who are sisters! Into the heart of the family, and then all of society, you bring the richness of your sensitivity, your intuitiveness, your generosity and fidelity ..."
These words, spoken with such clarity, appreciation, and insight clearly come from one who has witnessed these ideas in action, these ideals lived out in his own family context. These words reflect the heart of one who longed to have experienced these gifts for a longer time than he had in actuality.
It is from that place of his own family that John Paul II would go on the blend his own familial experience, short-lived as it were with his mother, to the rich tradition and expansive teachings of the Church, the ecclesial Mother.
To learn more about John Paul's appreciation of women, it is worth understanding more of the impact that women played on the life Karol Wojtyla as family, as caretakers, as friends, as peers, and as spiritual companions.
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