Mothering Sunday Prayer

Prayer for Mothering Sunday

Lord, as a mother hen gathers her chicks,so you long to shield us from the harm that threatens us,or that we bring upon ourselves.

We know how easily we romanticise motherhood by thinking only of idealistic images;

we pray for all women, and particularly mothers,

mindful of the demands our society places on them,

mindful of the pressures we place on them,

knowing that we could offer more in the way of support:

Lord, father and mother to us all, help us to care as much as you care for us.

We pray for mothers, and those in mothering roles,

denied the opportunities that most of us –

male, or richer, or child-free by choice – enjoy;

for some the opportunity to make even simple choices,

for others the choices that come from building careers,

knowing that we are part of one humanity, one family:

Lord, father and mother to us all,help us to care as much as you care for us.

We pray for mothers and fathers, women and men,

where they go without so that their children can eat,

where it is difficult to build a safe and secure home,

where, for some, hope of any kind is not easy to find;

whether this is through economic ills,

or the result of war and violence, or any other threat:

Lord, father and mother to us all,

help us to care as much as you care for us.

We pray for families in which children are threatened

by gangs, or drugs, or street-violence,

or sexual abuse and exploitation;

for mothers and carers who fear that their ‘wings’

are no longer enough to protect the family from the storms of life:

Lord, father and mother to us all,

help us to care as much as you care for us.

Amen.

help us to care as much as you care for us. Amen.