God of grace and love, we pray for your richest blessing upon all mothers:
Loving One, we thank you that Jesus enjoyed a mother's love and grew up within a family:
Thanks be!
We thank you for the homes where we were born and for the care and affection of our mothers.
Thanks be!
We thank you if we are still privileged to enjoy the warmth and security of family life.
Thanks be!
We pray* for all mothers today:
For expectant mothers, especially those awaiting the birth of their first child:
We pray.
For those who have young children and who get tired and harassed with so much to do:
We pray.
For those with difficult homes, whose children are more of a problem than a blessing:
We pray.
For those with difficult husbands, who find it hard to be constant and loving:
We pray.
For those who suffer from abuse - physical, spiritual or verbal - or whose opportunities for a full life have been denied:
We pray.
For those who find it hard to make ends meet, or who go short themselves for the sake of their families:
We pray.
For those who are nearly at the end of their tether:
We pray.
For those who are anxious because their children are growing up and seem to be growing away from them:
We pray.
For those who feel a sense of emptiness as their children marry and leave home:
We pray.
For those mothers who are trying to make the love of God real to their families:
We pray.
For those who have lost their children:
We pray.
For those who are elderly and may feel unwanted:
We pray.
For those who have no partner to share their responsibilities - the widowed, the divorced, the unmarried mother:
We pray.
We pray for those whose mothers are lost to death, or whose relationships are beyond repair:
We pray.
We pray also for those who have been denied the privilege of motherhood, those who cannot have children of their own, and those who have never had the opportunity to marry.
We pray.
Last, we pray for those closest to us. May we love and care for them as we ourselves have been loved and helped. We ask it for your love's sake.