Gracious God,
As Mothering Sunday approaches we pray and thank You for our Mother Church, the place where we started to learn of You, where the seeds were sown in our hearts, where we began to love You and commence our journey with You.
We bring You our prayers for anyone who has a mothering responsibility in society – pastors and bishops, counsellors and nurses, teachers and therapists. Many of the traditional female roles of an extended family, may now be done by professionals and we pray for those who have taken these on.
We pray for mothers the world over – especially those in war torn areas who have to stand by helplessly while their children and grandchildren suffer. We pray for those who through conflict, divorce or work are separated from their children. We recognise the joys and demands of motherhood, the privileges and pressures, hopes and fears, pleasure and pain. We pray that You will grant them the strength, patience and wisdom they need. Draw them to You, show them Your love, fill them with love.
We pray for those women who are expecting a child. Help them through their pregnancies and preparations, grant them peace and someone to hold their hand, rub their back and say encouraging words.
We pray for single mothers, bearing the full responsibility of parenting alone, struggling and stigmatised. Grant them the financial and emotional resources they need to draw on day after day.
We pray for mothers who have experienced heartbreak – through still birth or miscarriage, or disability, shock diagnosis, illness and infection. Those who have had their children maimed or killed through accident or assault. Comfort them Lord. You know what it is like to see a child suffer.
We pray for those denied the joy of being a mother, of hearing a little one call out ‘Mummy’ or feel a small hand in theirs. Those enduring the trauma of infertility, those who for health reasons can’t risk a pregnancy or not part of a relationship into which children can be born. Help them to come to terms with their pain.
We pray for those who foster or adopt children or have done so in the past. Thank you for what they do for those not biologically theirs. For the sacrifice and the love they give so unselfishly. We pray for those who long to be able to but are denied the opportunity and those who, for various reasons, have had to give up their children and who are haunted by what they might have been and the relationships they might have had. Grant them your strength and support.
We pray for those mothers fighting for the best for their children. Those with children who need special placements and nurture, those who find attending school difficult or who are facing bullying and intimidation. God of Justice make the world fairer for them, that mothers will have the peace and assurance that their children are safe and happy.
We pray for those who long to discover their natural mothers, those who have become estranged from them. We pray for those whose mothers have died – all for whom Mothering Sunday brings pain rather than pleasure, hurt rather than happiness. May Your love enfold them always.
Gracious God, You understand what mothers face, what they give, what they feel. Thank you for them and grant them a special blessing.
Lord of love, hear our prayer, in the Name of Christ, Amen