"The attitude of the Christian mother remains that of the expectant one. ...."

In bringing up her child she cannot fashion it according to her own wishes; she can only foster and protect that which was entrusted to her. This, in its religious sense, means the divine image in the growing human being. The child that in the natural sense the mother conceived by its father is in the religious sense the child of the Creator. He creates; she cooperates, with reverence. If the character of nature as the preliminary condition of grace revealed itself in the physical mother, when regarding her as the Christian mother it becomes manifest as the cooperation of the creature with the divine action.

In light of this fact, the great them of the Marian dogma refers also to the maternal woman. The cooperating creature is the daughter of the Eternal Woman, the reflected carrier of the Fiat mihi. If the attitude of the Christian mother toward her child is derived from its character as a child of God, her bearing toward her own maternal destiny is inspired by the life of Mary.

— From The Eternal Woman: The Timeless Meaning of the Feminine by Gertrude von le Fort.

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