May 9.    6th Sunday of Easter B.  Mother’s Day.  When Fr Brian looked at the readings for the day he smiled. “What could be more appropriate,” he posted in his whatsapp message, and told those at Mass. “We say ‘God is love’ but we can even make it more concrete and say, ‘A mother is love,’ or “mom is love.  And also ‘Mary, our Mother, and the Mother of Jesus is love.” I believe that no one can love as a mother does. No one sacrifices more and gives her life for her children – even in the animal kingdom that is a known fact.  And yet, there are women, potential mothers, who refuse to love, reject their unborn baby or abandon a child. What would drive a mother to do something so unnatural?  Let us pray for mothers everywhere and in all situations, that they may be examples of love, God’s love in the world and that we men, fathers and children will give them the support they need. At times these are not easy tasks.

Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God and she who loves is born of God and knows God. She who does not love does not know God; for God is love. 1 John 4:7. Pope Francis: Mothers are the strongest antidote to the spread of self-centred individualism.  It is they who testify to the beauty of life.  A society without mothers would be dehumanised for even in the worst of times they are witness to tenderness, dedication and moral strength.  AL 174  Our love for others, for who they are, moves us to seek the best for their lives.  Only by cultivating this way of relating to one another will we make possible a social friendship that excludes no one and a fraternity open to all. FT 94.   Mary, model of motherhood, pray for us.