Mother's Day Prayer 2016

Mother’s Day 2016

God of all, we acknowledge that mothers are near and dear to your heart. Why else would Scripture use maternal images to try to even approach the heights and depths of your love for us? As the givers of life, as those charged with the upbringing of children, they are central to our lives.   In deep ways, we carry the image of motherly love into our conception of divine love. “The love of a mother is the veil of a softer light between the heart and the heavenly Father.” (Samuel Taylor Coleridge).

Mother’s Day arrives with expectation and trepidation.  May the former be met and the latter unrealized. May mothers feel recognized, applauded, and appreciated.No mother can be perfect, but mothers certainly aspire toward perfection.

Mothers carry too many burdens. Some are imposed by social role demands. Some are self-imposed.Guilt emerges when we sense we have broken a rule. Where is the rule book for parents?Shame has a sense of being unworthy, of wanting to hide from the inspecting eyes of others. May those feelings be washed away when they intrude on living freely and fully.

Mothers worry. If they raise an infant, or a teenager, or are grandparents themselves,

Mothers worry.Mothers care beyond their own needs and pour themselves into their children. Sometimes that worry turns toxic into being controlling. Sometimes that worry stays within and harms their healthy perspectives. May their worries be eased, and may their worries be few.

When to say yes and no continues to bedevil mothers. They have particular difficulty in saying no. It doesn't seem to matter if the child is a newborn or an adult.The boundary between self and offspring is too porous.May mothers be given the discernment on when to say yes or no. May they have the strength to carry out that decision.

Forgive us for the expectations we place on mothers that cannot be attained.

Help us to forgive our own mothers for the resentments we may still hold.

In so doing, may mothers and their offspring come to acceptance of each other.

We measure our lives with a maternal yardstick. May we realize that mothers, at their best, do love unconditionally. “A mother's happiness is like a beacon, lighting up the future but reflected also on the past in the guise of fond memories.” (Honore de Balzac)