Dear Mom,

It’s been a while since we’ve spoken, and I really miss not hearing your voice.  Please know how grateful I am for the life and love you gave me. 

You’ve been on my mind a lot, as I better understand the aches you experienced when you were my age. I have also grown in awareness of the joy and sorrow you felt as I grew into adulthood, married and had children.  I have experienced similar joy and sorrow with my own family.

You are in my prayers, and I hope that one day we will be together.

I love you Mom,

Terri

How many of you reflect or regret missed time with a loved one?  I regret the times I could have called my mom just to chat.  My mother hid her dementia from me and my siblings for years. Spending most of her time in the warmer southern states, she would visit each of us for a few weeks each year.  Near the end of her life, she was placed in a nursing home, and she did not recognize any of her family – she was not the mother we grew up with.  She was not able to hug us, tell us she loved us or sing us silly songs.  I miss that woman, the mother of my youth.

I ask that this Mother’s Day we each take time to honor those women who have influenced us in our lives.  Just as we honor our Blessed Mother Mary, who influences us daily in various ways, we must honor the “mothers” in our communities – those maternal influences of motherhood. Take time today to thank those women who have maternally influenced you. If she is still with you, start with your own mother. Then your neighbor, a cousin, sister, aunt, family friend or teacher. Pray for her and for women contemplating motherhood. Pray for women unable to conceive, that they may experience the gift of motherhood in relationship with others.

All-loving God, we give thanks and praise for mothers young and old.

We pray for your mothers, who give life and count toes and tend to our every need; May they be blessed with patience and tenderness to care for their families and themselves with great joy.

We pray for our own mothers who have nurtured and cared for us; May they continue to guide us in strong and gentle ways.

We remember mothers who are separated from their children because of war, poverty or conflict; May they feel the loving embrace of our God who wipes every tear away.

We pray for women who are not mothers but still love and shape us with motherly care and compassion.

We remember mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers who are no longer with us but who live forever in our memory and nourish us with their love. Amen.

—Terri McCormack is marriage and family life coordinator for the Diocese of Burlington.