Join Us As We Celebrate the Great Gift of Motherhood this Mother’s Day
We will soon celebrate Mother’s Day… that special spring Sunday when we honor mothers who are still living and remember with love those who have died.
It is a very special day for the Maryknoll Sisters. We honor our own mothers, of course. We love and venerate the Blessed Mother, and we pray for our foundress, Mother Mary Joseph. But it’s also meaningful because every mission undertaken by our Sisters—whether they are in the field or at the Sisters Center—includes aspects of motherhood.
The Maryknoll Sisters consider this kind of love to be the inspiration and the guiding light of their ministry… whether that ministry is in the field on mission, or at prayer in the Sisters Center. Every member of our community strives to act from such selfless love.
When it was first established as a national holiday in 1914, just before the start of World War I, it was intended to be a day for promoting and praying for peace. All mothers lived in dread of seeing their children march off to war, never to return.
Peacemaking is a value of all our Sisters, and the primary mission of some. This concerns ending violence not just between nations, but between tribes, families, and family members. Peaceful mediation of disagreements, and educating against domestic violence, are important and impactful ways to improve any community’s standard of living.
Mothers are known for being overprotective of their children, and it’s no different for the Sisters on mission. If the people in their community are subject to tragedies like human trafficking and modern slavery, the Sisters advocate passionately for action to be taken, and they comfort the rescued victims.
Helping with a child’s education is a responsibility of mothers, and many Sisters work to bring educational opportunities to places where schooling is inadequate or completely absent.
A mother tends to her sick or hurt children, and many of the Sisters on mission work in health care. Their approach tends to be holistic; since doctors, clinics and drugs tend to be in short supply in the remote areas of the developing world.
The most important thing a mother does is pray for her children. This continues long after those children have moved out on their own. So too do our Sisters continue to pray every day for the Sisters on mission and the people they care for.
This Mothers Day—Sunday, May 12—the Maryknoll Sisters will keep the mothers in your life in their prayers.
Any financial gift YOU can send along with your prayers will help enable the Maryknoll Sisters to keep bringing motherly care, love and prayer wherever they go and whatever they do.