Although I have a complicated relationship with Mother’s Day (Mom thought it was silly and now she’s gone), I wrote the following blessing for Mother’s Day at St. Vincent DePaul last year, and offer it again today for the amazing mothers I know on this on earth as well as the dear ones in heaven.  Special thanks to the great women who raised me (but whose taste in hats I did not inherit).

Blessings to all the women to whom this day applies.  You know who you are.

A Mother’s Day Prayer

Loving God, you have graced the women we honor today
with the gift and the awesome responsibility of motherhood.

Their children are young and old, near and far.
Many are living; some have gone home to you.

Some have been theirs from the very beginning;
others were welcomed when a young person’s need
met a generous heart.

Bless these mothers today, we beg you, with every grace they need.
Equip their hearts for the love that never ends, but always changes.

Fill them with the gifts of your Spirit, that they may be wise and understanding,
fortified with courage and with wonder all their days.

We pray in a special way for all those for whom this day is a source of pain.
Wash their grief in the gentle rain of your love.

Bless all our mothers, living and deceased.
Keep us grateful for their gifts and forgiving of their flaws.

Renew in each of us a commitment to peacemaking,
and a ferocious, protective love:
the true gifts of motherhood.

We ask all this through the intercession of Mary our Mother,
and in the name of Jesus her Son.
Amen.

Happy Mother’s Day.