Sunday is Mother’s Day—a time to honor mothers, grandmothers, stepmothers, godmothers, friends who are mothers and anyone in our life who fills the role of mother.
The concept first originated in 1868, when Ann Jarvis established a meeting for mothers whose sons fought or died on opposite sides of the American Civil War. She wanted to expand this into an annual memorial, but she passed away before that happened, so her daughter (Anna) continued the task.
Due to Anna’s work, in 1914 Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation establishing the second Sunday in May as a national holiday to honor mothers. Only six years later, by the early 1920’s, Hallmark and other companies had started selling Mother’s Day cards, making the holiday as much about sales as about mothers. Even though Anna Jarvis was successful in making Mother’s Day an annual holiday, she soon became resentful that companies were using the holiday as a profit maker. She even tried to get Mother’s Day rescinded as a holiday.
Unfortunately, Mother’s Day has gone the way of many of our holidays and turned into a commercial enterprise rather than a way to reflect on the gift God gave us when he gave us mothers. The real purpose of this holiday is to show love and appreciation to our mothers by writing a personal letter, rather than buying token gifts or simply signing our names to pre-made cards. The day Anna Jarvis worked so hard to create was supposed to be about sentiment, appreciation, and love, not about profit.
I encourage each of you to return to the original purpose of Mother’s Day and thank your mom in a personal way. Tell her how much she means to you and what influence she has had on your life. Recall funny things that happened when you were young or special family memories.
Pray for her also. Ask that God will bless her and give her strength and good health to continue being his instrument of his love in the world. And if your mom is no longer alive, pray for the repose of her soul and in thanksgiving for the gift she was to you.
As my experience as a mother grew and expanded, it certainly gave me a greater appreciation for my own mother. I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to thank my mom for all she taught me when she still had the ability to recognize me and understand what I was saying. I thank God for all the times I took a few minutes to send her a note, or write a letter or call to share a special memory or to tell her how much I appreciated and loved her.
Moms are quiet heroes working day-to-day in many small unnoticed, unappreciated ways that make all the difference in the world to their family.
We moms may never be able to bring about world peace, but we can plant seeds of peace in our family. We may never be able to solve world hunger, but we can feed the hungry by making meals for our own family. We may never make an impact outside of a small group of people, but influencing that small group within our family circle is all God is asking us to do.
When the kids are little it seems that there will be a day far into the future when they will fly from the nest and be on their own and you as a mom will be free. And that does happen (kinda.) But even when your kids are grown adults with children of their own, and they live far away from you, there is always a special bond between mother and child. You never stop being a mother. You never lose that special place in your heart where that child lives. And as a child, there is always a unique relationship with your mother.
Moms may get overwhelmed and they often do not get the appreciation they deserve. After all, who would willingly take an unpaid job that requires them to work 24 hours a day seven days a week with no breaks and no vacations? And even worse, any official holiday means even more work and stress. And mothers who have a job outside the home have twice as much pressure.
But then again, who could give up the sweet faces of trusting children who feel unconditionally loved. Or the macaroni necklaces. Or the handmade misspelled cards, or the sticky-fingered hugs, or the favorite book that has to be read over, and over and over?
For most Catholic children, one of the first prayers we learned is the Hail Mary. It is the most beloved prayer to Our Lady, our Heavenly Mother, and the prayer Catholics say most often. No one can count how many millions of Hail Mary’s rise up to heaven each and every day.
“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee,” is the Archangel Gabriel’s greeting to Mary at the Annunciation (Luke 1:28). “Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,” is St. Elizabeth’s exclamation of joy when Mary came to visit her (Luke 1:42). These two sentences said together were the whole Hail Mary for over one thousand years.
Sometime in the 13th century, the words “and blessed is the fruit of thy womb” were added. By the 15th century, Catholics had added the last half of the prayer, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.” Pope St. Pius V formally approved the complete Hail Mary in 1566, and Catholics have been reciting it this way ever since. This prayer developed from both the scripture as well as the lived experience of the Church.
If we want heavenly intercession for our role as a mother or if we want prayers for those mothers who touch our lives, who better to ask than our heavenly Mother, Mary, the Queen of Heaven and the most perfect example of a mother.
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