Mother’s Day Prayer in a Pandemic

This Mother’s Day is different, God.
So many cannot visit their
beloved mothers or grandmothers,
or the women who have been like mothers.
People feel so lonely because their hands
are not held, their arms cannot hug.
Other families have had too much togetherness,
and the past year has been tumultuous
with tantrums and fights and frayed tempers,
and too many words said too quickly.
You are the one who hears our lament
about what is, and what we deeply regret.
Others are missing mothers or children who have died;
the recently bereaved may not have been able
to say in-person goodbyes,
they have not been able to have funerals.
You are the one who comforts us
when we are aching and bereft.
Thank you for new babies, born in a pandemic,
for mothers who carried them to term and birthed them.
Thank you for all the mothers who are
cooking and cleaning, caregiving and homeschooling children
who are missing their friends and activities.
Hear our prayer for mothers whose patience
is stretched to breaking,
who are worried about finances,
or who walk on eggshells around a violent partner.
Broken family relationships hurt more on Mother’s Day.
Hear our prayer for children with jagged memories
of being hurt or neglected by their mothers,
and hear our prayer for mothers who minimize
or cannot face the damage they’ve done.
Giver of Life, fill our congregation with love.
Open our ears to hear each other’s stories
so that we can be a community of hope,
nurturing each and every person
with tenderness and compassion,
each one a treasured member of the family of God.