The Gift of Mothers

God blesses us in so many ways, and in our country this Sunday we especially honor the gift of our mothers. While parent-child relationships can be complicated at times, we are grateful for the ways we are blessings to each other. We give thanks to God for those who gave us birth and those who embraced us as mothers through adoption or as step-mothers, for their motherly care as we grew and for continuing to guide us in strong and gentle ways. We give thanks for godmothers, grandmothers, and greatgrandmothers. We are grateful for women who may not be mothers but still love and shape us with motherly care and compassion. Our hearts go out to mothers who are separated from their children because of war, poverty, or conflict. And we pray for those mothers who have gone to their eternal reward with God; may our bonds of love and affection continue to unite us until we meet again.

If you are blessed to have a mother in your life, perhaps you might like to offer the following prayer, personally or together as a family. If she has passed on to the life to come, you can adapt it as a prayer of thanksgiving for the blessing she has been, and continues to be by her continued prayers for you!
 
God of Love, listen to this prayer.
God of Holy People,
of Sarah, Ruth, and Rebekah;
God of holy Elizabeth, mother of John,
of Holy Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ,
bend down Your ear to this request
and bless the mother of our family.
Bless her with the strength of Your spirit,
she who has taught her children
how to stand and walk.
Bless her with the melody of Your love,
she who has shared how to speak,
how to sing and
how to pray to You.
Bless her with a place at Your eternal dinner table,
she who has fed and nurtured the life that was formed within her,
or she welcomed into her family,
while still helpless but embraced in her love.
Bless her today, now, in this lifetime,
with good things, with health.
Bless her with joy, love, laughter, and pride in her child/children
and surround her with many good friends.
May she who carried life in her womb
be carried one day to Your divine embrace:
there, for all eternity,
to rejoice with her family and friends.
This blessing and all grace,
we pray, descend upon the mother of our family:
in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Adapted from Prayers for the Domestic church: A handbook for worship in the home, by Edward Hay