Worship & Prayers for Mothering Sunday 

Opening Rite 

If you’re at home you might wish to light a candle, make sure you are sitting comfortably and take a few deep breaths to still yourself.  

Praise God who loves us.  Praise God who cares.

A large candle may be lit.

We light this candle to remind us that the love of God is like a light in our darkness. Blessed be God for ever.

We praise you, our God, for all mothers who have loved and laughed and laboured as they cared for their children; Blessed be God for ever.

We praise you, our God, for all mothers who have wept in sorrow and joy for their children: Blessed be God for ever.

We praise you, our God, for Jesus, born of a woman and nurtured in her love, and for Mary, a reminder of your patient, waiting love. Blessed be God for ever.

Prayers of Penitence

Let us call to mind our sin, our failure to value the love of others and our failure to love as Christ has loved us.

Silence for reflection

Your love gives us life from the moment of conception. We fail to live as your children. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

You call us to do good. We seek our own good. Christ, have mercy. Christ have mercy.

You hear us when we cry for help. We ignore the cries of others. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

May the Father of all mercies cleanse us from our sins, and restore us in his image to the praise and glory of his name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

The Collect

Praise God who loves us. Praise God who cares.

You might like to keep a few moments of silence

God of compassion, whose Son Jesus Christ, the child of Mary, shared the life of a home in Nazareth, and on the cross drew the whole human family to himself: strengthen us in our daily living that in joy and in sorrow we may know the power of your presence to bind together and to heal; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

1 Samuel 1:20-end

In due time Hannah conceived and bore a son. She named him Samuel, for she said, ‘I have asked him of the Lord.’  The man Elkanah and all his household went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice, and to pay his vow. But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, ‘As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, that he may appear in the presence of the Lord, and remain there for ever; I will offer him as a nazirite for all time.’ Her husband Elkanah said to her, ‘Do what seems best to you, wait until you have weaned him; only—may the Lord establish his word.’ So the woman remained and nursed her son, until she weaned him. When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine. She brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh; and the child was young. Then they slaughtered the bull, and they brought the child to Eli. And she said, ‘Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord. For this child I prayed; and the Lord has granted me the petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he is given to the Lord.’  She left him there for the Lord.

Psalm 34:11-20

/R: Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Come, my children, and listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Who is there who delights in life and longs for days to enjoy good things?  /R:

Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from lying words. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. /R:

The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to root out the remembrance of them from the earth. /R:

The righteous cry and the Lörd hears them and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the broken-hearted and will save those who are crushed in spirit. /R:

Many are the troubles of the righteous; from them all will the Lord deliver them. He keeps all their bones, so that not one of them is broken. /R:

Colossians 3:12-17

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

The Gospel according to John                                       Chapter 19:25b-27

Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

This is the Gospel of the Lord    Praise to you O Christ

Reflection

These verses immediately follow the crucifixion. This Gospel writer (but not others) envisages the possibility of friends and family being close enough to speak with Jesus. While all the Gospels agree that some of the women who followed Jesus were eyewitnesses to both the crucifixion and the resurrection, only John's Gospel includes Jesus' mother among them and only John's Gospel has 'the beloved disciple' also present. Some commentators have seen in the words of Jesus to his mother (unnamed in this Gospel) and to his disciple a deeply symbolic episode (representing the new Church in relationship to Israel, or Jew and Gentile meeting in the Church). Others concentrate on the simplicity and tenderness of a scene in which grieving people are given to each other's care to begin a new family, which can be seen as the beginnings of the Church, but which remains here at the level of a personal encounter. Though this episode may allude to the duty of a son in providing for his mother, it is the new relationship which is the focus, not the relationship between Jesus and his mother. What might have been a formula of adoption ('I take you as…') is here spoken not by Jesus' mother and disciple but by Jesus. It is one more example, for the writer of John's Gospel, of Jesus being in control of what happens to him, to the very end.

Reproduced with permission www.rootsontheweb.com 2002-2021  

Prayers

Spend a few moments praying for the people you know and love, for the world, for peace and for the relief of refugees everywhere. 

On Mothering Sunday

God of love, passionate and strong, tender and careful: watch over us and hold us all the days of our life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Praying for the Earth                                                                 Air pollution

We give thanks that life depends upon the air we breathe. Help us to see the atmosphere as a precious resource, and forgive us when we use it as a dumping ground. As the wind blows where it wills, grant all nations wisdom in dealing with the effects of air pollution, for the health and well-being of all your creatures. Amen

From the Diocesan Cycle of Prayer for the Church

Porvoo Communion: Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia, Diocese of Lichfield and Diocese of St David’s (Wales)

Anglican Communion: The Anglican Church of Kenya Primate: The Most Reverend Jackson Ole Sapit

Diocese of Møre: Outer Nordmøre Deanery, Parishes of Frei, Kvernes and Bremsnes

Bellingham Deanery: St Cuthbert’s Church, Corsenside and All Saints’ Church, West Woodburn

From our Parish Prayer Cycle this week 

pray for all residents of Cleveland Gardens, Gretton Place and Leyburn Drive

For the sick and those being cared for in hospital or at home      

For those in residential care    

For those whose year’s minds are this week 

Violet Clarke, John Grant Patterson, Ronald James Fisher, Sarah Appleby, William Wilson, James Swan, Mary Ann Todd Fairbairn and Margaret Charlton

You might like to end your prayers with The Lord's Prayer  

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.  And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever.  Amen.

The Conclusion

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen

Let us bless the Lord! Thanks be to God!