“Everywhere, the need exists for maternal sympathy and help, and thus we are able to recapitulate in the one word “motherliness” that which we have developed as the characteristic value of woman. Only, the motherliness must be that which does not remain within the narrow circle of blood relations or of personal friends, but in accordance with the model of the Mother of Mercy, it must have its root in universal divine love for all who are there, belabored and burdened.”

– St. Edith Stein