Saturday, May 13, 2006

Mother's Day Pastoral Prayers, Prayers of the People and etc.

For many years, I detested Mother's Day in worship because I felt excluded. My husband and I were in infertility treatment for six years without success. Every year, I would boil to a rage thinking of the insensitivity of those who mentioned Mother's Day in worship.

As one who leads worship, I pray thanking God for mothers, those who would like to be mothers but cannot, for those who've lost children through death or circumstances, for women who are like mothers to us and for a better world for girls to grow up to be mothers if they so choose.

It's tacky to exclude people in worship. You heard it here first.

A Mother Who Does Not Wear Sensible Shoes,

St. Casserole

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you. That means a lot to me.

annie said...

I think you are very wise, St Casserole.

SACC UCC said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Sue said...

Amen. May I use part of this post in the Sunday Prayer for the RGBP website in the morning?

Jody Harrington said...

I'm not a fan of either mother's or father's day or (God forbid) the new grandparent's day. And yes, there is one. They are contrived commercial holidays that I have never found very meaningful.

St. Casserole said...

Thanks for all the comments, y'all.

Sue, if I have something here you want to use, please do. I'm flattered.

I'm trying to do fourteen things at once to get ready to go after church tomorrow. I meant to get a tan and lose ten pounds. Maybe by tomorrow....

Anonymous said...

St C,
your comment about the tan and losing 10lbs cracked me up.

I'm with you all the way on this one sis. I don't like mothers' day encroaching ... it excludes too many, and raises up all kinds of horrible feelings in many more.

You are one wise lady and your church and family (and us here) are lucky to have you around :)

aola said...

after reading yours and bobbie's posts this morning I realized that I never thought about how mother's day might hurt someone who can't have children or someone who had lost a child. that makes me sad that I have been so insensitive to others.

I never have liked mother's day and now I like it even less.

Unknown said...

This ended up feeling very loaded for me as I prepared for worship, thinking about my birth and adoptive mothers, how I resemble them and how I wish I didn't, and I gave up on writing my own prayer. Fortunately, Seasons of the Spirit had a prayer for this occasion that seemed to cover the waterfront. At least I hope it did, because I gave it on autopilot. I returned to my body in time for the sermon, which was not about Mother's Day, but did feature an image of God as an African-American mama cheering her children on from the bleachers at a Little League game.

Anonymous said...

Hey I need to get a tan and lose 10 pounds for tomorrow, too.
I abhor mother's day. I think everyone should remember their mom on their birthday (otherwise known as the day your mom did all the hard work and you just showed up) and not have one big day where those who aren't mothers or who do not have mothers or had awful mothers are bombarded with images that say you're just not female enough.

I'm proud of you for wearing impractical shoes.

Anonymous said...

I'm with you. Great post.

I also have a hard time with Memorial Day just because it is more important than Pentecost around here. We could go through a whole Pentecost w/o every mentioning this feast but if we finish worship Mem. Day weekend and haven't sung national anthems, I hear about it for a long time. Ugh.

Back to mothers -- I have a couple folks who had hateful mothers and they also have a tough day of it.