Luke 2:33-35 – Mary the Mother of Jesus – A Mothering Sunday (Mother’s Day) Reflection

And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

Sunday 15th March 2026 – Luke 2:33-35

An updated reflection. ………….

On Mothering Sunday (Mother’s Day) we give thanks for those who Mother us, for those who today and in years gone by have given themselves to and for us. For those who have made sacrifices so that we might enjoy life. In many communities now, only to say thank you to Mums, is to ignore all those who care for us. In families across our land, grandparents, aunties, uncles, fathers, foster parents and social services carers provide motherly love and care to many children. This is a day when we celebrate all who have and do provide that motherly care.

Luke 2: 33-35 reminds us that loving and caring in this way is a sacrifice of self-giving. A vocation to which many of us are called. A vocation which not only means a daily grind of tiredness and worry, but one which often can involve experiencing the deepest of pain – sometimes because that care is rejected by those we love, sometimes because of the hurt done to those we love and care for.

Mary understood that pain. At the death of her Son, she bore in her body the pain of the cross – she felt the nails being hammered into the wrists of her son, she agonised as she watched him die the most painful of deaths. She had to release her child into God’s eternal care long before his time. And as those things happened, I’m sure she will have felt a mixture of all the emotions a mother can feel – anger, guilt, shame, and deep aching loss. Like any mother, her grief was unbearable.

Mary also understood the joy of motherhood – she watched her precocious child grow to be a wonderful man. She felt the joy of being part of the making of this special son.

Mothers today face all of these emotions. Today we stand with them, pray for them and celebrate their self-giving love. Here, today, we can pledge ourselves again, for another year, to work for the stability of family life, to help those who find the burden of caring too difficult.

As we look around our world today, we reflect on the tremendous burden born by mothers, grandparents and others, in recent years, as they have watched:

many of the healthy younger generation around our world dying for lack of drugs to treat those who are HIV positive;
children dying for nothing other than the lack of clean water, or the cost of a mosquito net;
families still struggling to come to terms with Coronavirus for lack of available, affordable vaccines.

All threats which are again increasing in strength because of cuts made in aid budgets.

We see the burden of care carried by so few for so many children, we see children struggling for lack of food, their carers working night and day to bring in only just enough for survival. We see schools and their staff carrying an increasing burden so as to keep our society working.

In these and other ways today, our celebration of Mothering Sunday is mixed with sadness and mourning.

We are, no doubt, acutely aware of people important to us, whom we have lost and who we wish were still with us.

Our prayers also carry the weight of what we see each day on our televisions and what we know to be true for many around our world. We try, in our worship, to imagine the pain of mothers on both sides of the Ukraine conflict. We struggle to comprehend the depth of loss felt by all parents, but particularly by mothers, who have live today in Iran or Southern Lebanon. We recognise the pain of parents who have lost children in natural disasters around our world.

And we bring all this, the stuff of life in our world, the joy and the struggle, with us as we pray and as we come to Communion. In the midst of many conflicting, painful or joyful feelings, we give thanks for all that our mothers mean to us, all that our mothers have meant to us. And as we quietly remember Jesus’ sacrifice, we seek to understand the pain of those who are suffering for love throughout our world today.

Prayers of Intercession

To the words God who mothers us, please respond … hear our prayer.

As we pray today, we remember that Mothering Sunday celebrates our mother churches. The places where we first met Jesus and committed our lives to serve him, and places like our Cathedrals which have been beacons of love, hope and faith over many centuries. At the start of our prayers, we reflect and give thanks for those wonderful places:

Thank you Loving Lord God, for the churches of our childhood, for the nurture we received in our faith, places where we were encouraged and developed on our faith journey. …. We give thanks too for our Cathedral in Lichfield and its role over many centuries of proclamation of the Gospel and support of those in need.

We pray, Loving God, for those who do not have good memories of childhood, because of abuse and we pray for their healing. May our churches continue to grow in care and love, may we safeguard the young and the vulnerable. And may we lead others to a faith in you.

God who mothers us ….. Hear our prayer.

Loving God, we hold in our hearts our own mothers or others who cared for us in their place. … We endeavour also, Lord, to hold in prayer mothers throughout our world. Mothers in Ukraine and in Russia, mothers in Palestine and Lebanon, mothers in Iran and mothers elsewhere who have suffered the loss of their children. Mothers on the continents of Africa, Asia, South and Central America, and even in our own country who face a daily struggle to feed their children and themselves.