A second prayer of mine, from many years ago, and soon to be published...

I am thinking of you,
Mothers that are,
Mothers that were,
Mothers that will be,
Mothers that will never be
Mothers that never were
Mothers that are not yet...
Thinking of you and praying, somehow, for you...

The new mother exhausted from labour whose new-born will
not suckle
The elderly mother whose age-eroded mind can no longer
recognise her own child
The frazzled mother whose children seem out of control
The mother who now nurses her own mother
The mother who longs to linger but is lured by death to eternity
The unexpected mother whose swelling belly bears witness to
unplanned activity
The shamed mother, whose rapist’s features stare at her from
infancy’s innocence
The stepmother trying, perhaps too hard, to get it right
The adoptive mother, finally holding the longed-for child
The mother who cannot be mother, life-saving drugs having
destroyed her fertility
The longs-to-be mother whose body has let her down yet again
The mother who cares for her children’s children, her child
having died
The mother who sits alone, rejected, neglected, unloved
The mother who clings to bitterness and refuses to be
reconciled
The mother who feels she has failed
The mother who dances for joy at her children’s achievements
The mother who lets go of the apron strings, and delights to see
her children grown
The mother who sacrificed her career to fulfil her calling as
mother
The mother who...
The mothers that were
The mothers that are
The mothers that will be
The mothers that weren’t
The mothers that aren’t
The mothers that never will be

On this Mothering Sunday,
May the mother-love of God,
In whom we are each conceived,
Surround and fill you,
Wherever,
Whoever,
Whatever you may be.
Amen.