A song of Miriam – and for mothers – words of spirit and faith

Service theme: “Miriam, leader of the Exodus”—Mother’s Day

Let us pray for our community and our world.

Mothering Spirit, loving and guiding, accepting us as we are and as we can be; Parenting Spirit, mothering impulse, caregiving part of us—innate or intentional,

We give thanks for the women and men, the carers and nurturers, who lead by example, who ask questions about authority and social responsibility, who make time to dance and sing.

On this day when we celebrate mothers and women of authority, we hold in our hearts those who lack the confidence and empowerment that a wise, loving and supportive mother figure would have given them.

We hold in our hearts parents with illness or disabilities which make it hard to care for their children in all the ways they might wish; mothers with postnatal depression which inhibits the joy and love that others take for granted; and the partners who love and grieve for them.

We think of mothers struggling without partner or family or community support; refugee and migrant parents whose lives and networks have been shattered; those who lack parenting skills and options due to inter-generational poverty, family breakdown, or abuse.

We hold them in our hearts, Mothering Spirit, and offer them our care.

We give thanks for this family of faith and this community; for those who care for us when we are distant from birth families, for the experienced wisdom of elders and the innocent wisdom of children.

As we go “forward out into unknown space[s]”, as “we join her labour to bring new life to birth”¹—

May Hine-te-iwa.iwa, atua of childbirth, weaving and female arts, exemplary figure of a wife and mother, inspire us to also care for our Earth Mother, Papatūānuku, from whose womb all life is born, and for all her tamariki;

May the creative Spirit of Wisdom, Sophia, speak to us of the power that is love at the heart of Creation;

and may the Midwifing, Parenting, Sacred Spirit arouse in us the strength of Miriam and the courage of Mary. These are our prayers.