Mothering Sunday Prayer (2022)

Mothering Sunday Prayer

Loving God, you are both Father and Mother to us. When things are broken and painful, when things are full of joy and goodness, when things are full of hope and when things are full of despair, we choose to sit with you and tell you about our day. When nothing much has happened and when our world has almost fallen apart, we know that you are always there, with ears that hear, arms to hold and gentle calming whispers to soothe the soul.

As we come to you today we come with much fear and sadness, with anxiety for the future and worries for the world. As we celebrate today with Mums and their children, we hear not only laughter, but crying too. Amidst our celebrations, the groaning of a conflict where women and men, boys and girls, grandparents and siblings are separated and suffering great loss. Our hearts travel across the continent where children being knitted together in their mother’s womb were not given the chance for life. Where women were not given the chance to be mothers. Where orphans who already had less had their home stripped away.

We celebrate our Mum’s today, knowing and seeing the protection of a child goes far beyond offering a comforting knee. It is bodies thrown in the way of snipers, it is sending children away and staying to fight, it is leaving everything behind to give our children a life, it is sitting breastfeeding on a wall that has been broken by bombs. We thank you for those who will do everything to protect and care for their children.

Where we hear the sounds of mourning, we pray for those today who are feeling most strongly loss. We pray for those who are separated by war, may they find connection. We pray for those whose Mum is not with them any more, we pray for comfort. We pray for those who have lost a child, we pray for peace. We pray that you might soothe their souls as you pick them up and carry them today.

Loving God, you are both Father and Mother to us. When things are broken and painful, when things are full of joy and goodness, when things are full of hope and when things are full of despair, we choose to sit with you and tell you about our day. When nothing much has happened and when our world has almost fallen apart, we know that you are always there, with ears that hear, arms to hold and gentle calming whispers to soothe the soul.

As we come to you today, we come knowing that family life is not always all we hope it to be. This day for some is a day of bitterness, a day where those who have wanted but not been able to have children have a sorrowful and painful reminder of that. We pray that you might bring some sweetness into their lives through the blessings of others. We pray that they might know that you hold that pain with them and hear your gentle voice.

We celebrate our Mums today and as we do so think of those who are in difficult circumstances and doing everything they can to make sure their children have a life. As the cost of living rises, they work their hardest to ensure that food and clothes and laughter is readily available. When they, themselves are worried, they sit and listen to the worries of their child as they tell them about their day. Where anxiety for the future overwhelms, where the call to be a good parent is a battle in itself, where a Mum never feels they can give enough, we pray that they may be reminded of how you look upon their face – with joy and with love and with compassion – your strength leading them on.

In amongst the good Mums are the Mums that have never been there, the Mums that don’t seem to care. We pray for those who have never known a Mum that sits and makes time for them, for whom this day reminds them of what they have never had. We pray that they might find a place where they can simply sit and tell someone whose attention is fully on them all about their day, in its joys and in its brokenness, in its hope and in its healing.

Loving God, you are both Father and Mother to us. When things are broken and painful, when things are full of joy and goodness, when things are full of hope and when things are full of despair, we choose to sit with you and tell you about our day. When nothing much has happened and when our world has almost fallen apart, we know that you are always there, with ears that hear, arms to hold and gentle calming whispers to soothe the soul.