Welcome to our daily Rosary meditation. Let's begin in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen. Let's call to mind all those we've promised to pray for.

We're meditating on the fourth commandment and as we reflect more deeply on the role of a mother,

I don't want you to misinterpret me.

When I highlight the vital role of a mom, I am not saying the only place for women is in the home.

I have a brilliant daughter who is a fantastic lawyer and an equally great mom.

And in his encyclical on the family, St. John Paul II stated clearly,

there is no doubt that the equal dignity and

responsibility of men and women fully justifies women's access to public

functions. So in other words it's a good thing that women now have

access to all kinds of education and careers and elected political offices.

And we need to reject any temptation to indulge

in the absurd idea that women are incapable or incompetent

that they should be kept at home because that's all they can handle.

But sadly, it's not uncommon to hear people talk about getting trapped in motherhood, imprisoned in the home.

They talk about the need for women to be liberated from family life as though family life

was a small claustrophobic cell.

It is not unusual for someone to say to a mother,

I could never be a stay-at-home mom,

I couldn't handle the tedium. Sometimes they'll be even more astoundingly rude and

say things like, do you miss using your brain?

But think of what's implied by this attitude. All these utterly thoughtless people are acting like a house

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