Nurturing God, who gathers us up like a mother hen, today we give thanks for those who make Mothers’ Day a happy day, and we pray for those whom Mothers’ Day is not a happy day–
For children who mourn mothers,
For mothers who mourn children,
For people who yearn to conceive but cannot,
For those who are denied the right to marry the mother of their children,
For people who yearn for the motherly love they haven’t been blessed with,
For people who are told they’re worthless unless they’re mothers,
For all the nurturers who cannot claim the label “mother,”
For step-mothers struggling with their role,
For those whom motherhood was not a choice,
For mothers who fear for their children’s and/or their own safety,
For those who fear for their own safety around their mother,
For those who struggle with unmet motherly expectations,
For those who have never had a mother,
For those whose mother rejected their God-given identity,
For those who are caretakers to their mothers,
For mothers who are caretakers to their children,
For mothers who work two or three or four jobs to make ends meet,
For children who have to make difficult decisions because their mother cannot,
For all these people and the ones who have not been mentioned here we pray.