A Blessing for Women on Mother's Day

For those  of you who are girls  just approaching the gift and challenge of being a woman
In your nervousness, and in your anticipation
And you who are older, in your remembrances of girlhood.

Woman be filled with God’s grace, blessed are you.

In your self, in your personhood, 
In your becoming… 
a woman, a wife, a mother, a partner, a grandmother
in the labours of your life;
The skills you have found, the talents you have discovered

Woman be filled with God’s grace, blessed are you.

In the talents you had to abandon,
In your memories of hurt, or abuse or rape and betrayal, 
In the anger and pain of long-suffering,
In the desire for things to have been,.. to be,.. different.

Woman be filled with God’s grace, blessed are you.

In your relationship 
with your partner
In the trials and sacrifices  you have made in a life together
In standing your ground, and in surrender,
In your labour to make that person see what's going on,

Woman be filled with God’s grace, blessed are you.

In your own sexuality, 
In the gift and challenge it has been to you,
In your bearing and raising children,
In your sending them out from your home into the world

Woman be filled with God’s grace, blessed are you.

In your regret over lost babies, and long sorrows,
In an inability to conceive, and self-doubt and anger and pain,
In the sorrows of heart and marriage
In creating alternate ways to use those energies for blessing and joy.

Woman be filled with God’s grace, blessed are you.

In the ways you bless others, 
using the gifts of womanhood and motherhood
To change the world, to heal the broken,
To make all things new.

Woman be filled with God’s grace, blessed are you.

In your sisterhood with
Mary the mother of Jesus,
and Mary Magdalene,
Mary and Martha, Jesus’ friends and companions.
In your sisterhood with those who follow you,
Those you mentor and encourage.
Those you pray for. 
In your sisterhood with daughters
and daughters-in-law and granddaughters.

Woman be filled with God’s grace, blessed are you.

May the blessing  of  God Almighty, 
who took flesh from Mary of Galilee, and walked the earth, a son of a mother, 

May the blessing of  God Almighty, God in  Christ  Jesus, 
whose mother walked with him to the cross, 

May the blessing of  God Almighty, God the Holy Spirit, 
a wisdom of feminine character, 
fill you with healing, and joy and divine approval for yourself, and empower you to be more and more the woman you were created and called to be. 
Amen.
written by S.H. Matheson, 2004