Each year as I anticipate Mother’s Day I think about the power, beauty, complexity, and often pain that comes along with this holiday. My congregants speak to me about it, friends send me their celebrations and grief around it, and I am reminded in my own story – both of being mothered and being one myself – how much this role carries within it. For all of us on this Mother’s Day, I pray that we are encouraged wherever we find ourselves to know God is with us, for us, and in our stories. God sees us, celebrates with us, grieves with us, is healing us, and Mothers us. Here is a prayer I’ve used in worship before that is meant to help capture some of the complexity and diversity of Mother’s Day. (Feel free to use as helpful and cite this source.)
Gracious and Good God –
We praise You for being the One who brings life, who brings us love, who brings hope, who restores – and today, we lift up and thank you particularly for all those who Mother us in our midst. God thank you for our Mothers – for biological, adopted, foster, and step Moms, for single parents and Aunties, for Grandmothers and Godmommas, for spiritual mothers, for teachers, for midwives and healers.
We thank you for all the many ways that you call us to mother, for Madres and Mommas, for Ma and어머니, God we thank you for ALL who bring life, who love and lead us, who protect and nurture, those who teach and embody hope, those who both embrace and fight for us, who sing over us and speak into our faith.
We also remember those who have gone before us, Women who raised up generations, who immigrated and learned new languages, who broke patterns before them, who carried on the beautiful traditions, who created safety and home, who both suffered and created joy out of nothing.
Oh God, You know what power and what frailty it is to be a Mother. May you be our strength Jesus, may You pour into and refresh each of us as Mothers and Mother figures, may the Holy Spirit’s Power and Truth guide us first, as we guide and raise up others. Daily remind us as Women that we find our strength in you, we flourish when we abide in you, we can speak up and advocate for others when we have your Word in our heart, when your Spirit tells us first who we are so that we may resist any other voice trying to speak into our identity.
And God today we also lift up all those for whom today is difficult – whether this day brings up grief, longing, guilt, or a gap in our own lives; those who are missing their mothers or their hope of being or redeeming what mother means to them – Holy Spirit, thank you that you are our Comforter, the most complete Mother figure that we need today. Jesus would your presence fill in our gaps, our memories, our pains, and our unfulfilled dreams. God as you declare in Deuteronomy, would you be to each of us like a Mother eagle who hovers over and stirs her nest, the one protects her young, and helps us fly on strong wings. God keep healing us, keep speaking to us, keep redeeming our ways of seeing, and being, and longing for Mothers and Motherhood, so that we may turn toward you.
God, we declare again today that You are the source of all life, and we thank you for giving us Mothers in all their many beautiful forms, those who provide, birth, encourage, and strengthen us in our faith and on our journey. In the strong power of Jesus name we pray today – Amen.