What does your parish do on Mother's day?

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For my parish, there’s a longstanding tradition that the wives of the deacons speak. That and a blessing for the mothers. What does your parish do?
 
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Blessing of mothers, living and deceased. Knights of Columbus gives a small annual plant to moms as they leave. It’s a small, but very pleasant gesture. 🙂
 
The parish? Nothing. Unless Fr. did something special this morning. I went to Mass last night and there was nothing different.

The Knights of Columbus hand out a “Roses for Life” lapel patch to all mothers.
 
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Yesterday, in my parish located in Australia, the priest blessed the mothers and gave them each some chocolate.

🍫
 
I have to say, I am glad my parish celebrates nothing secular like mother’s day. A bunch of problems less in my eyes…
 
alice24 said:
I have to say, I am glad my parish celebrates nothing secular like mother’s day. A bunch of problems less in my eyes…
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What problems do you see with celebrating motherhood? I don’t think the church has ever had a problem with this institution
 
I don’t see a problem with celebrating mary as mother. But have you ever seen unwillingly childless women in a mother’s day celebrating mass? Or women after the loss of a child?
 
I deeply sympathize with this. However I think a blessing is still called for. We as a community should pray for our parents. I don’t think the mass should focus on Mothers Day though. Just a blessing and mention in prayers of faithful

My parish prays for vocations to the priesthood, religious life and holy matrimony every mass. This stings those in the parish that cannot find a spouse, are widowed or are celibate singles not eligible for religious life or priesthood. Every single mass. They are still things we need to pray for. (These are of course not as bad as losing a child )
 
The mothers who have lost a child and mothers who have died are each remembered in the prayers of the faithful. Then there is a blessing for the mothers. The K of C hosted a breakfast and moms were free.
alice24 said:
I don’t see a problem with celebrating mary as mother. But have you ever seen unwillingly childless women in a mother’s day celebrating mass? Or women after the loss of a child?
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There are going to be people who have lost their mothers, too, but there are things that are harder when you don’t think you can have children or lost your own mother or can’t be with your children or have lost a child than living through Mass on Mother’s Day. It is a hard day, but it is one of many and few really want to abolish prayers for mothers or Mother’s Day because parenthood or motherhood is a sore subject for them.

Most of us will live long enough to go through grief surrounding unrealized parts of our lives. To decide not to recognize anyone who has realized something that someone else had hoped to realize in their lives but did not or no longer do would mean deciding not to recognize any of the blessings, milestones or accomplishments of any of those among us. Is that really a way we want to live?
 
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My current parish had the mothers stand up for a blessing. I am not a mother and I stayed seated. They also passed out gifts at the end of Mass. I ignored the unenthusiastic boy scout who was trying to give them away though I did feel sorry for him. I did see a couple of women proudly waving around red roses but the Mass I went to didn’t pass them out. So I voted that our parish only had a blessing of Mothers.

At my previous parish we had mothers go up into the sanctuary for the mothers day blessing and I had the bad experience of someone trying to persuade me to go where I didn’t belong.
 
What do we do? We celebrate Mass, like we do every Mother’s day. Anything else pales in comparison. 😉

(For the record, the prayer over the people at the conclusion of Mass is the Mother’s day blessing from the Book of Blessings.)
 
alice24 said:
But have you ever seen unwillingly childless women in a mother’s day celebrating mass? Or women after the loss of a child?
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On Mother’s Day a few years ago I was with a friend who is childless. When the priest asked all mothers to stand up for a blessing, my friend stood up with the mothers. When I asked her why she stood up, she said she felt slightly ashamed and didn’t want to stand out to others as childless.

When I was little, we honored our own mothers. In Church, men wore flowers in their lapels: white for deceased moms and red for those whose moms were still living.
 
She did not say “motherhood”. “Mother’s Day” is a secular holiday. It is not fitting to honor a person IN the liturgy. Have tea in the hall after Mass. Bless after Mass.

 
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Yesterday, it was a rose as they left, at least at the 7:30 mass, that is. I can’t recall what it was previous years.
 
TigerLily-1 said:
When I asked her why she stood up, she said she felt slightly ashamed and didn’t want to stand out to others as childless.
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It stung. I can’t lie about that. I didn’t stand, but it still hurt. The looks I got didn’t help either.
PetraG said:
Most of us will live long enough to go through grief surrounding unrealized parts of our lives. To decide not to recognize anyone who has realized something that someone else had hoped to realize in their lives but did not or no longer do would mean deciding not to recognize any of the blessings, milestones or accomplishments of any of those among us. Is that really a way we want to live?
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If I’m to be honest, I have to say that for some of us, the answer some days is yes.

Especially days like yesterday. And I know I’m not alone.
 
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The Liturgy was for all mothers (living and deceased), the homily was about mothers, flowers were given to mothers after Liturgy and there was a Mothers Day breakfast at the social hall. I didn’t feel uncomfortable because I’m not a mother, but because my mother is deceased. It’s hard sitting through that.
 
I actually thought about you (an invisible friend) last evening. My husband was admitted to ICU Stepdown last night, a dear friend came to pick me up and take me home.

She has never married, has never been a mother.

As we waited for the elevator, a man in the custodial dept was polishing the floors. He said “Happy Mother’s Day, ladies.” He did it out of kindness, and my friend is gracious and did not try to correct him, she said “Thank You”. I guess the combo of leaving my husband in the hands of the nurses and standing with my friend just triggered your screen name in my head. I whispered a little prayer.
 
We have 4 mass times on Sunday, so I’m not sure what happened at the other masses. At the mass I attended. Fr. said a prayer for the Mothers right before saying the prayer after communion. He also mentioned mothers at the start of mass.
 
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