Reader 1:
Mother’s Day can bring a mix of emotions for many women. There are those anticipating the birth of their first child, step-moms wondering what their place is, those who have lost their mother and are faced with grieving on Mother’s Day. There are moms who encounter feelings of hurt because their children have turned from God, and those overwhelmed with pain from the loss of a child. No matter what you face this Mother’s Day, you can turn to God and experience peace and healing through prayer.
A Mother’s Day Prayer
Reader 2:
Dear God, we approach your throne on behalf of the mothers whom you have entrusted with the care of your most precious little ones. We thank you for creating each mom with a unique combination of gifts and talents. We thank you for the sacrifice of self each mom makes for her children. For the late nights spent rocking a colicky infant. For the hands calloused from washing, wiping, scrubbing, mixing, baking, stirring, hugging, patting, disciplining, holding, writing, erasing, painting, and pouring.
Reader 3:
We thank you for the gift of time moms give for their kids, whether it’s stay-at-home moms, working moms, or moms who are some combination of the two. We thank you for the flexibility of moms, for their tirelessness, their perseverance, and their devotion.
Reader 4:
We pray you give each mom Strength. Help her to see in every mundane task the eternal, cosmic significance that you place on motherhood. Help her to understand that the most radical, world-changing events may be happening anonymously in her home. Help her to forgive those who undermine her significance.
Reader 5:
We especially pray for single moms, who must lean solely on you for the role of father for their children. We thank you that your big arms surround children who may never know their earthly fathers. We also pray for mothers who never had the honor of bearing children, but whose nurturing extends to the many poor and needy who cross the threshold of their lives.
Reader 6:
We ask you to be the daily bread of tired mothers. We ask you to be their living water. We ask you to be their source of spiritual and physical strength. We pray that each mother rejects perfectionism and instead embraces the goodness of the Gospel. We pray that the rhythms of repentance and forgiveness shape every home.
Reader 7:
Lord, give each mother a worshipful reverence of you, the Creator and Sustainer of life. Help each mother to rest in the knowledge that they are but stewards of your children and that only your Spirit can produce change in the hearts of each boy and girl. May each mother find rest in you.
Reader 8:
Most of all, Lord, on this day in which we honor mothers, may we love and cherish the special women who have borne us, who have nurtured us, and who have prayed for our well-being. May our hearts overflow with gratitude to you, who formed and knitted each of us in our mother’s womb.
All:
Loving God,
we thank you for the love of the mothers you have given us,
whose love is so precious that it can never be measured,
whose patience seems to have no end.
May we see your loving hand behind them and guiding them.
We ask you to bless them with your own special love.
We ask this in the name of Jesus, our brother.
Amen.
Quiet Reflection:
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