Dear Friends,
Before writing to all our mothers about their special day, I need to do a quick reminder to everyone. Of our 312 regular parish contributors we have received 115 updated data forms…so, before we start mailing out forms to everyone, (with the added cost that comes from mailing things) I ask that you take a few moments, fill out one of our new parish registration forms and bring it back to us next Sunday. Our present data base is very old and most phone numbers, parish involvement information, etc. are not correct. It helps me a lot to have the data base correct and up to date. I appreciate your help in getting current information to the parish office. If you wish the data to be confidential, simply please note that on the form. If you need one of the forms, they are at the entry ways to the church.
Now, I want to wish a “Happy Mother’s Day” to all the moms in the parish! You play such an important role in your family that you should be honored every day of the year! The history of a special Mother’s Day dates back to the ancient annual spring festival that the Greeks dedicated to maternal goddesses. Ancient Romans also celebrated a spring festival, dedicated to Cybele, a mother goddess.
Early Christians celebrated a day to honor mothers during a festival on the fourth Sunday of Lent. Originally the celebration was to honor the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ; the holiday was later expanded in England to include all mothers. The celebration was called Mothering Sunday. It almost died out during the 1800’s, but was reborn in the early 1900’s and by 1914 was made an official national day in the United States by Woodrow Wilson.
For Catholics, devotion to Mary adds another layer of significance to Mother’s Day that helps root it in something more substantial than cards, flowers and chocolate. God, the creator of the universe, chose to put himself — tiny, needy and helpless — into the nurturing and watchful hands of a human mother. Since then, every act of mothering by Christian women — both physical and spiritual — in every time and every corner of the world recalls Mary’s. Perhaps the vision expressed by Pope John Paul II in his 1995 Letter to Women, is something we could hold close today, “the unique experience of pregnancy, makes you become God’s own smile upon the newborn child, the one who guides your child’s first steps, who helps it to grow, and who is the anchor as the child makes its way along the journey of life.” Pope John Paul lost his mother when he was a young boy, so he always had a deep appreciation for mothers since he longed for a mother’s touch in his own life.
The Church does not intend to limit motherhood to those who have given birth to a child. Motherhood in God’s kingdom goes far beyond physical childbirth or parenting through adoption. Motherhood is about nurturing, and many women who have never been mothers physically nevertheless brim with the ability and passion to nurture others. I think of the many single teachers who have given their lives educating children, women who have worked in medicine, childcare, or social service and have made a profound difference in the life of a child.
Then, to all women who have cared for a child and so have touched the face of God – Happy Mother’s Day.
Peace,
Fr. Damian