Prayer of Praise    

Life giving and sustaining God, we are grateful and thankful today for mothering,
for the feminine touch of parenting, for the special connection of Mother and child.

We give you thanks for the gifts women bring, for the caring love that is given, for their cradling of children, for their willingness to give and not count the cost, for their tenderness and warm embrace, for their encouragement and support.  We thank you for their words of wisdom, and acknowledge that our lives are the richer because of their influence and example.

We ask this day that you would strengthen our families.  We know that no family is perfect, that mothering is hard, and not all are able to do so as they would like.  Heal our families where they are broken.  May You be present in our families, guiding and sustaining us, this day and into the future.  We thank you for the ongoing leadership of women, and ask that you would uphold and strengthen all Mothers this day, remembering the important role they play in our families and in the life of the church and community.

Thank you for those who have been Mothers to us in nurturing our faith, who have helped us know and experience Your love.  We honour them this day and ask that you would help us follow the example of love they have shown.

Strong and compassionate God, like a Mother you tenderly care for your children.  You pick us up when we fall over.  Your face smiles on us, you sing songs to us of your love.  Like our Mother, you feed us from your hand, you search for us when we are lost, you bind up our wounds, you comfort us when we are hurting.

May all of us have the comfort of knowing that your mothering love is constant, that your understanding is perfect, and that your compassion is never-ending.  We pray in the name of Jesus, who spoke of himself as a mother hen who seeks to gather her chicks under her wings (Matthew 23:37).  Amen.

Prayer of Confession   

God of all Living and Loving, we pray of our sorrow for families that do not express amongst the love that you have for us.

We acknowledge that mothering is hard, and not all are able to do so as they would like.  We acknowledge that we all fall short in life and love, and that Mothers are no exception in this.  We confess our faults and fragility, we confess those times when we seek to judge and not to understand or to offer compassion.

For those times when we do not live together in unity.

We express our sorrow and regret.

For those times when we do not sincerely express our gratitude for the gifts of life and love.

We express our sorrow and regret.

For those families who do not experience the noise of laughter but only the silence of sadness.

We express our sorrow and regret.

For those families who do not find it a sanctuary from danger and judgment.

We express our sorrow and regret.

For those families where words of love and openness are not the rule of their life.

We express our sorrow and regret.

For those families where violence and rejection are living realities; where hearts are broken, and dreams are shattered.

We express our sorrow and regret.

We grieve for families, where walls of protection become fortresses of isolation, where language is a weapon of destruction and hate.

We express our sorrow and regret.

We grieve for those Mothers who suffer but whose suffering is covered up.  We grieve for those Mothers who have been humiliated, harassed and stigmatised and who dare not tell.  We grieve for those Mothers who have been beaten, tortured, and threatened, and who cannot tell.  Forgive us, and your church, for our complicity in silence and concealment.
Lord, in your mercy.

Hear our prayer.

Help us to understand, those families whose identities are different from ours;
Help us to understand the ways of loving, parenting, partnering and working together for peace.
Help us to dare to stand strongly against hate and divisiveness, to encounter our differences with love and respect.
This we believe: that love is stronger than hate, that hope is stronger than despair, and that good is stronger than evil.
In the name of the One who is Loving and Living.
(Source: Church of Scotland Starters for Sunday)  (Source: Jon Humphries, Prayers that Unite)  (Source: Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart)  (women of the Presbyterian Church in Colombia, sourced on OLSH website)   [altered]

You, O Lord, have called us to watch and pray.
Therefore, whatever may be the sin against which we pray,
make us careful to watch against it,
and so have reason to expect that our prayers will be answered.
In order to perform this duty aright,
grant us grace to preserve a sober, equal temper,
and sincerity to pray for your assistance.  Amen.

A PRAYER OF SUSANNA WESLEY

Mother’s Day Worship and Sermon Resources (desperatepreacher.com)

Assurance of Forgiveness  

(from 1 John 5: 5 and 11)  

John writes that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and the source of eternal life that God has promised.  Let us be assured than that, having confessed our sins before God, we are forgiven and cleansed in His sight.

Thanks be to God.

Prayers for Others

Let us come before God with our cares and our concerns.

  God be with the Mother who sits long nights beside those who cannot sleep, who holds in aching arms the hurting child, who carries in her heart the burden of care and worry, and comforts without words.
  God be with the Mother who listens and does not judge, who forgives and bears no grudge, who opens the door to her heart no matter what the cost.
  God be with the Mother, grant freedom from anxiety, grant peace and understanding, give hope and perseverance, give patience and unlimited grace.
  God be with the child who enters an exciting world, who has much to learn, who has much to share, who is becoming.
  God be with the child who looks up to the Mother, who takes in all the Mother does, who learns from the wisdom shown, who has boundaries to learn and stretch.
  God be with the child, grant freedom from anxiety, grant peace and understanding, give hope and perseverance, give patience and unlimited grace.
  God be with us all, may we learn to be all that we can be, may our respect be always there, may our gratitude be endless, may we love and be loved.
(Adapted from a prayer from “God Be With The Mother – A Mother’s Day Prayer”)

We express our grateful thanks for those Mothers who raised us, who held us and fed us, who cared for us and kissed away our pain.  We pray that our lives may reflect the love they have shown us.

We pray for Mothers whose children are grown.
Grant them joy and satisfaction in how their children’s lives unfold.
We pray for those with adult children, but whose lives are still shaped by their children’s needs and cares.
Grant them strength, patience and wisdom.
We pray for new Mothers experiencing changes they could not predict.
Grant them rest and peace and confidence as the days unfold.
We pray for pregnant women who will soon be Mothers.
Grant them patience and good counsel in the coming months.
We pray for Mothers who face the demands of single parenthood.
Grant them strength and wisdom.
We pray for Mothers who enjoy financial abundance.
Grant them time to share with their families.
We pray for Mothers who are raising their children in poverty.
Grant them relief and justice.
We pray for the challenge of blended families, and those who take on the care of others children.
Grant them patience and understanding and love.
We pray for Mothers who are separated from their children.
Grant them faith and hope.
We pray for Mothers in marriages that are in crisis.
Grant them support and insight.
We pray for Mothers who have lost children through illness, or death come too soon.
Grant them comfort that their children are held in divine embrace.
We pray for Mothers in developing countries who die in childbirth due to inadequate maternal health care, or whose children die too young.
Grant that generosity may abound, that money will be released for resources, and to attract skilled personnel who can support these women and children.

We pray for Mothers who gave up their children for adoption.
Grant them peace and confidence that the children will be held in good care.
We pray for adoptive mothers.
Grant them joy and gratitude for the gift of life entrusted to them.
We pray for girls and women who think about being Mothers.
Grant them wisdom and discernment.
We pray for women who desperately want, or wanted, to be Mothers.
Grant them grace in their particular and often private sense of loss and grief, and hope.
We pray for all women who have assumed the Mother’s role in a child’s life.
Grant them joy and the appreciation of others.
We pray for those people who are grieving the loss of their Mother in the past year.
Grant them comfort, and confidence that loving continues in how we live our lives.

(Adapted. Source: http://worshiphelps.blogs.com/worship_helps/2006/05/a_mothers_day_l.html)  Mothers’ Day Liturgy Mothers’ Day Liturgy