Celebrate Mother’s Day this year by uncovering the power and majesty of the Feminine Divine with your children.
Perhaps this Mother’s Day you celebrate because you mother lots of children. Or perhaps you aren’t a mother of children, but of ideas. Maybe you don’t have a relationship with your mother or you speak with her every day. Or perhaps your mother is now gone.
No matter where you find yourself fitting or not fitting this Mother’s Day, there may be even more to celebrate than you’ve imagined.
On Mother’s Day, we celebrate God our Mother. God who loves and offers faithfully, who nurtures, advocates for, and believes in us, who stands, speaks, fights, and births so life can prevail.
And on Mother’s Day we celebrate women, those with and without children, who embody Mother God. The women in the fields feeding us, those caring for the living and the dying, those cheering us on, those birthing their inspiration and inviting us to do the same.
We always love hearing from you. Share your thoughts on relating to Mother God this Mother’s Day in the comments below!
Finding God Our Mother in Scripture
Our sacred texts have so much to offer us on Mother’s Day. Look to these scriptures for reflection and prayer! I hope you find joy and appreciation for the feminine within us all as you do.
Mother Eagle – Deuteronomy 32:11-12
God guarded Jacob as an eagle stirs up its nest,
and hovers over its young;
as it spreads its wings, takes them up,
and bears them aloft on its pinions.
Birthing Mother – Isaiah 42:14
For a long time I have held my peace,
I have kept still and restrained myself;
now I will cry out like a woman in labor,
I will gasp and pant.
Comforting Mother – Isaiah 66:13
As a mother comforts her child,
so I will comfort you.
Mother Hen – Luke 13:34
How often have I desired to gather your children together [Jerusalem] as a hen gathers her brood under her wings…!
Ways of Reflecting Upon the Scriptures This Mother’s Day
Paint or Draw
On Mother’s Day, read the scripture repeatedly aloud with your kids. Invite them to look for the words and images that stand out to them as they listen. Perhaps even colors will come to mind. Then, after paying attention to what comes to mind, bring pens or colors to paper and create.
Give your kids ten minutes to draw and color. Then, invite them to share their creations with each other. Close by reading the scripture once more together.
Practice Lectio Divina
On Mother’s Day, read the scripture aloud three times with your kids.
First, read the scripture slowly. Invite your kids to simply listen openly and to gather their focus to the present.
Second, read the scripture and encourage your kids to reflect on what God is giving to them, a word or image in the scripture perhaps.
Third, read the text and invite your kids to respond to God. This can be a time of sharing verbally together, silence, prayer, etc.
Fourth, invite your kids to rest and let go of their thoughts, listening deeply for whatever God brings to them.
Breath Prayer
On Mother’s Day, read together one of the scriptures. Invite your children to choose, as you read, a word or phrase that they will speak in rhythm with their breath when you all pray. For example, from Isaiah 66:13, “I will comfort you.” On the inhale perhaps recite silently “I will” and on the exhale “comfort you.”
Consider bringing the group back together playing music or ringing a bell. Invite them to share with each other what the experience was like. Explain that they can use this kind of prayer with any phrase or scripture.
Blessings in Your Mother’s Day Celebration
I hope these scriptures help you connect to God, to women who do and have mothered you, and to the Sacred Feminine within you this Mother’s Day. And don’t forget to share your thoughts on relating to Mother God in the comments below!
Further Resources for Mother’s Day Reflection
- Swallow’s Nest: A Feminine Reading of the Psalms
- God Our Mother, a poem by Allison Woodward.
- “God Our Mother,” an episode on The Liturgists podcast
- A Mother’s Day Prayer, by Rev. Marci Glass
- An open letter to pastors {a non-mom speaks on Father’s Day}
- Two prayers by Rev. Ashley-Anne Masters: Prayer for Parents & Those Who Want to Be and Prayer for Children of All Ages
David Madio says
While the Bible, as you accurately point out, identifies some feminine characteristics with God, the Bible never refers to God as “Mother” or “Mother God.”
In fact, Jesus, who repeatedly challenged and corrected human tradition, NEVER referred to God as Mother but frequently as Father.