Bridget Golden and her 2-year-old son, Andrew, play with cars at their home last year in Hendersonville, Tenn. (CNS photo/Theresa Laurence, Tennessee Register)
By Bishop Kevin J. Farrell
Publisher of The Texas Catholic
May is the month of our mother. Those words from the familiar Marian hymn also have deep meaning when we celebrate Mothers’ Day on Sunday.
There is no human relationship like that between mother and child. It is the closest human love to divine love because it is always accepting and forgiving. I once read that our story can never be separated from our mother’s story because that is where our story begins.
Our mother is our first teacher, our first catechist, and our first love. As is often the case, it is only when we lose our mother that we realize how her love provided the glue that held our family together, that enabled us to weather the trials of growing up, of becoming a person.
Her roles were myriad: healer, arbiter, consoler, challenger, mentor, pedagogue, and disciplinarian, not to mention the pedestrian but all important roles of cook, housekeeper, manager and font of all knowledge.
It seems strange to bless our mothers because they have so blessed us with their unconditional love.
I salute and ask God’s blessing on all mothers, living and dead, and may we have the grace and strength to live up to their expectations.
