Last Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day.

Mother’s Day has many meanings and it can be a time when joy and sorrow come hand in hand. The role of ‘mother’ can take many different forms in the contemporary family structure. So who is a mother, who are we celebrating?

A mother, like Mary the mother of God, is a person who has said yes; yes to new life, yes to being responsible for the growth and development of another human being who is totally reliant on a mother’s preparedness to do so and yes to loving another to the best of their ability. Yes to taking their children’s hands and leading them into life with a tenderness and unconditional acceptance that reveals God’s love and yes to walking beside them through the challenges and difficulties life presents.

There is much that motherhood teaches us - that deep love brings both deep joy and heartache, the moments to hold on tight or let go, speak up or listen deeply, advocate for or encourage assertiveness, take time for oneself or time for sacrifice and selflessness and always to see God in the other and in situations - to be people of hope.

In the words of Pope Francis, “A world that looks to the future without a mother’s gaze is shortsighted. It may well increase its profits, but it will no longer see others as children. It will make money, but not for everyone. We will all dwell in the same house, but not as brothers and sisters. The human family is built upon mothers. A world in which maternal tenderness is dismissed as mere sentiment may be rich materially, but poor where the future is concerned.”

It is easy to see the glow of an expectant mum or the love on a new mum’s face as she gazes and smiles at her baby and tells them how loved they are, even if they have kept her awake half the night. Blessed is she!

Mothers know motherhood is a sacrament, a gift, a privilege, an honour, a blessing. Mothers know life is to be celebrated and so it is right that the country dedicates one day a year for all of us to stop and celebrate motherhood, to celebrate those mothers in our lives who said yes, who continue to turn up for us and to love us unconditionally, to cherish us tenderly, even if they are no longer physically with us; to say thank you for their sacrifice and effort, hard work and determination, their attending to the ordinary in the everyday, for helping us grow.

Thank you to all the families who sent in a photo to be included in our Mother’s Day assembly earlier this week.  Please find a link to the video we showed at our Mother’s Day Assembly here: