As we pray in gratitude for our mothers this weekend, we remember that every day is Mothers’ Day, and every day is Earth Day. And so we salute them both today:
Mother, and Mother Earth, gift of God, we thank You;
for You are our life, our breath and our blood.
You bear us in Your arms and nurture us through life.
The rolling sea in our heart, the mountains in our bones,
the wind in our lungs, the flowing rivers in our blood,
all sing praise to God and remind us that we are of You.
Mother, and Mother Earth, we confess:
though You are our own flesh, we have wounded You.
We have treated You selfishly, as “the least of these.”
We have betrayed our oneness with You, and
with the grasses and the hawk, the beetle and the whale.
Even as we use You, we repent.
Even as we mistreat You, You forgive us.
Dear Mothers of Life, as the Earth is renewed in spring, restore our mercy.
Return us to our place in the great circle of life.
Give us the generosity of Your self-giving,
the humility and wisdom of all Your creatures.
Mother God, hear our praise and our confession, and renew in us the beauty of the Earth, the wondrous gift of our life from our earthly mothers. We ask this for the sake of all life.—AMEN.
(Unfolding Light by Steve Garnaas-Holmes)