Prayer of thanksgiving and confession for Mother's Day May 8th 2016

This is a general prayer of thanksgiving and confession for mothers day I'm going to have a special Mothers day thank you prayer written by the children as they come into church... But in this prayer I've focused on some of the feminine imagery for God in the scriptures.

Acts 17:29 although being full of male pronouns has the image of God 'in whom we move and have our being" and I remember a feminist theologian saying that it was very much an image of the womb and had been liberating when she heard it.

El Shaddai is a word that scholars say has two possible roots God of the mountains from which we get God almighty and God who has breasts from which we can get God all sufficient, Just like a mothers milk is all sufficient for her children and image that comes out in Psalm 131.

Jesus used the image of a hen gathering her chicks under her wings in Matthew 23:27 for his and God's love for his people, as he laments over Jerusalem.

Ruach is the Hebrew word for spirit and is a feminine noun. I'm not saying that implies the Holy Spirit is feminine as in Greek the word pneuma is used which is neutral implying it is a thing not a person...  God made humans both male and female in God's image!

God, in whom we move and have our being,

We give you praise for the wonderful birth of creation

That you spoke and it all came into being

All that is around us and all that we are is a gift from you

God, All sufficient

We give you praise for your generous provision

For food and water: the bounty of the earth

For family and friends their love a reflection of your own  

God, made flesh in Jesus Christ born of Mary

We give you thanks for our mothers, in life and in the faith

We acknowledge their commitment, love, nurture and care,

We celebrate those with us, we remember and honour those no longer here.

God, who made us, male and female, in your image

We come and confess that image tarnished beyond our hope by our sin

We have done wrong and left undone the good you call us to do

We humbly come and ask you to forgive and restore

God, who in Christ longed to gather us under your wings like a mother hen,

We give you praise for our gracious rebirth

That the slate is whipped clean and we are welcomed in

For new creation and new life in Christ’s life, death and resurrection

Ruach: Holy Spirit, loving companion and help

We thank you for Christ’s abiding presence with and within

Your nurture into all truth and the fruit of Christlikeness that results

For enabling and equipping to witness and serve by your love and power


here is a link to another prayer of thankgiving for mothers day I wrote in 2012... I simply offer these things in the hope people will find them helpful, meaningful, useful, a starting point for their own creativity or a cautionary tale of what not to do...