Mothering Sunday

Also known as Refreshment Sunday or Lætare Sunday, Mothering Sunday originally had nothing to do with our earthly mothers.

In early times the Mass for the fourth Sunday of Lent began ‘Be glad’ (Lætare)(Isaiah 66.1) and psalm 122 was used as the gradual: ‘I was glad’.
The epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians which speaks, in chapter 4, of Hagar, the slave wife, and Sarah, the free wife:
because Christ has died for us, our mother is the free woman.

Because of the  Gospel story of the feeding of the five thousand,  this can be a day for special food such as the Simnel Cake.
Thus the fourth Sunday in Lent is a day of gladness and refreshment in the middle of Lent.

The term “Mother” refers to the mother church or cathedral. The bishop at the cathedral has the “cure”, or care, of souls in the diocese but she/he devolves this responsibility to the parish priest. The Bishop conveys this obligation at the collation (part of the institution and induction service): ‘receive the Cure of Souls which is both yours and mine’. This nurturing aspect of the calling to the priesthood is like that of a caring parent. To acknowledge the importance of the caring aspect of the Bishop, people would make a pilgrimage to their cathedral on the fourth Sunday in Lent. This activity was called ‘mothering’.

As time went on, people went to their local church, where they had been baptized, rather than the mother (cathedral) church, which was often a distance away.

Later, servants were given this day to visit their home to see their mother. Giving flowers or gifts to our mothers is now a tradition for Mothering Sunday.

All of these facets make the day special and meaningful for us.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, we rejoice with thanks for all those
who have mothered us in our lives.
In a world that is broken and in need of your motherly love,
please use us to aid others as you do us
in providing comfort, nurture, protection and support.
We ask that you grow us as carers to those who need us,
so that we might celebrate your goodness together
even through our own brokenness. Amen.