A Litany for Mother’s Day
Loving God, you know us through and through, knitting us together in our mothers’ wombs.
We praise you for gathering us like a mother hen, protecting us with the ferocity of a mother bear, and calming and quieting our souls like a weaned child with its mother.
We thank you for the gift of mothers and the examples of faithful mothers in Scripture, for Hagar, who suffered and endured great injustice to care for her son Ishmael.
We pray for all those mothers who persevere through poverty, violence, and persecution to try to provide for their children.
For Leah, who was unloved by her husband, and Rebekah, whose children battled even in her womb.
We pray for all those mothers who labor to hold their families together amid strife.
For Sarah, Elizabeth, and others who spent much of their lives desiring but unable to have children.
We pray for all those women who, for various reasons, longed for children but were unable to become mothers.
For Mary and “the disciple Jesus loved,” who became surrogate mother and child when Jesus was on the cross.
We thank you for surrogate mothers and mother figures who love and nurture students, nieces and nephews, neighbors, and other children.
For Naomi, who faithfully devoted herself to her widowed daughter-in-law.
We pray for mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law, thanking you for loving bonds and praying for healing where these relationships are frayed.
For Mary’s obedience and trust when she answered God’s call with, “Let it be with me according to your word.”
We thank you, God, for the love and faithfulness of mothers, for channeling your love through them, and for magnifying your work in them. Bless them and strengthen them today for the important work you have called them to do.
We pray this is the name of the son of Mary according to the flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
SERMON
“Naming reality can free us so much. When we deny reality or are afraid to name it, we become imprisoned by it.” —Father Paul Faren, Confession: Finding Freedom and Forgiveness
POINT: We have to learn to name the problem and the pain.
“Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all people love poorly. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour increasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family.” —Henri J.M. Nouwen
POINT: Forgiveness is a choice.
John 13:5-11 NRSV
Then, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
POINT: There can be no hopeful future without forgiveness.
Luke 11:2-4 KJV
And he said unto them, When ye pray, say,
Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
as in heaven, so in earth.
Give us day by day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins;
for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.