A Pastoral Prayer for Mother's Day (adapted from the blog of St Paul’s United Methodist Church in Cherokee, Iowa)

Loving God and Parent of All,
We thank you for :

All mothers, everywhere - Strengthen them in their child-rearing ,grant them wisdom and discernment.

We thank you also for grandmothers, sisters, aunts, teachers, Sunday school teachers, adult mentors, big sisters, and anyone, everywhere, who plays a motherly role in the life of another.

We pause to remember those for whom Mother’s Day is a source of discomfort, even perhaps anxiety and pain:
For those who have lost their mothers, especially those for whom this loss is recent, grant them your peace and comfort.

There are those for whom Mother’s Day is a painful reminder of their own singleness, or their own inability to have biological children. Such women have always had a special place in your concern, especially throughout the history of the Bible. Give them your special care and love, and grant them your assurance that they are not alone; neither are they without ability to make a lasting impact on the world.

Finally, we pray for those whose experience with and memory of their own mothers has brought pain. Grant them the power of healing and forgiveness.
For all these things, we give you thanks, O God who is a loving father and mother to us all. In the name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity: One God.
Amen.