Happy Mother's Day

A Salute to Mothers

This year, Mother's Day in North America is Sunday, May 12th. It’s a day set aside to honor our mothers, living and deceased.  If you had a loving mother and an attentive, supportive father, you won the lottery!

Daiga Ellaby/Unsplash

When we hear the word “mother”, the words loving, caring, consoling, and self-sacrificing come to mind.  Although much has been written by experts on the art of mothering, there is no perfect textbook on the subject.  Usually, basic mothering techniques have been handed down from mothers to daughters throughout the generations but sometimes it is a trial-and-error process.

From the outset, mothering is challenging work.  Recently, there has been a barrage of articles from mothers who seldom speak about the challenges of pregnancy. They refer to the nine months of gestation that often entails constant fatigue, sore feet, nausea and even anxiety. However, these symptoms are sprinkled with strands of hope and love. Indeed, childbirth itself is a searing experience as women bring new life into the world.

As each infant grows, he/she has a unique experience of mother as she nurses and nurtures her little one through childhood, adolescence, post- secondary education, entrance into the workforce, and eventually marriage. Throughout all these stages, mother has worried about her children, endured sleepless nights, and early mornings while always being attentive to the joys and sorrows of young people growing up in an increasingly complex world.

Along with raising children, many mothers work outside the home to help make a living and provide children with life’s necessities, including food, shelter, clothing, and school activities. After a long day at work, there are meals to prepare, homework to supervise and ensure that all is well with each little person.

Mothers are the enduring thread that runs through each person’s life and memories.  Although often taken for granted during childhood - adults, especially when they have their own children, look back and realize the self-sacrifice, generosity, and love that a mother lavishes on her children.  She is a constant reference throughout life, generously available for assistance, advice, love, and friendship.

Mother, on your special day, put your feet up and let your loved ones pamper you!

-Sister Jean Moylan, csj

Images: Diana Polekhina/Unsplash;

A Tapestry of Love

Happy Mother’s Day

This Sunday families gather, many virtually, to celebrate our Mothers.  We want to celebrate these wonderful women who gave us life, and whose lives were spent in selfless giving and loving.  What we might say today with our words is important but less important than what these women have said with their lives.  Their actions show us what love really looks like.  Were they perfect?  No, they were not, but their responses to us, their children, created a tapestry of love full of meaning and memories that influence how we live today. 

“a tapestry of love full of meaning and memories that influence how we live today

There is a song sung by the Wailin’ Jennys called the “Parting Glass”.  After my mother had died, my large family went back to mom’s home to be with each other.  As we so often did, we started to play music filled with memories and had a very strong sense of my mother’s spirit with each of us.  We started sharing stories of my mother and realised that those stories and memories will never leave us.  She is still with us.  So we asked my brothers and sisters who play musical instruments to play something to mom.  Then we found a bottle of wine and poured a wee bit of spirit in each glass and sung this song called the “Parting Glass”.   This might have been my mother's wish to each of her children. So whether our mothers are alive or gone, I ask you to lift a glass to your mothers and say thank you for so much.

-Sister Joan Atkinson, csj [re-posted]

Lift a glass to our Mothers…

This Sunday families gather, many virtually, to celebrate our Mothers.  We want to celebrate these wonderful women who gave us life, and whose lives were spent in selfless giving and loving.  What we might say today with our words is important but less important than what these woman have said with their lives.  Their actions show us what love really looks like.  Were they perfect?  No, they were not, but their responses to us, their children, created a tapestry of love full of meaning and memories that influence how we live today. 

“a tapestry of love full of meaning and memories that influence how we live today”

There is a song sung by the Wailin’ Jennys called the “Parting Glass”.  After my mother had died, my large family went back to mom’s home to be with each other.  As we so often did, we started to play music filled with memories and had a very strong sense of my mother’s spirit with each of us.  We started sharing stories of my mother and realised that those stories and memories will never leave us.  She is still with us.  So we asked my brothers and sisters who play musical instruments to play something to mom.  Then we found a bottle of wine and poured a wee bit of spirit in each glass and sung this song called the “Parting Glass”.   This might have been my mother's wish to each of her children. So whether our mothers are alive or gone, I ask you to lift a glass to your mothers and say thank you for so much.

-Sister Joan Atkinson, csj