My husband had the children color on cards for me, and wrote down what they wanted to say, and it was sweet and wonderful. (And he got me my own wonderful card too.) And a beautiful, beautiful raw silk scarf, in shades of green and gold. My sister also brought me back a scarf from Europe recently, and I've been having fun experimenting with the styles from this website. (So far, I like "the crown" best. It'll be a nice substitute, I think, for my favorite hairstyle of braiding a crown around my head - till my hair gets long enough again, of course!)
I also wanted to share a picture of my recent craft project. This is what I sent the grandmas for Mother's Day: little crocheted and beaded flower brooches:
I also found out just this week that a couple of friends are expecting, and it added to the celebration.
And now, especially to my mom: Happy Mother's Day! Thank you for teaching me about prayer, about marriage, about mothering, and about a million other things; you are blessed and a blessing and I love you.
peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell
10 comments:
So I'm curious: do you have any actual theological objection to crowning Mary with flowers on mother's day? Because it seems to me that we usually give our mothers flowers on mother's day, and Mary was rather an important mother, being that of our Lord Jesus. :) What's the problem with recognizing that?
Dear One, I love you, Mom
Actually, yes, I do have some theological objections.
I take your point that she's a pretty important mother, and we give flower to mothers . . . but she is not present with us. We give flowers to mothers who are present. Pretending that she is present is either delusional or it's prayer to the saints or it's idolatry (laying flowers on idols is a really common form of worship).
You could counter that, well, she's dead, and it's like putting flowers on her grave. That's a better way to look at it, I think. However, I think if that's what you're doing, you'd put them near her shrine, not in a wreath on her head, and NOT while singing a hymn to her asking her to pray for you and hold you in her arms.
So, yes. I do have a theological problem with it. It's either very silly (and so shouldn't be happening in the middle of mass) or it's very wrong. I hope, in our church, it's mostly silly.
(I go back to the place in the 39 articles where it calls prayer to the saints - among other things - a "fond" thing.)
-comment removed and reposted for clarification. :)
Oh, I should add that, of course, I could be wrong about prayer to the saints. I don't think I am, but I don't know that prayer to the saints is wrong in the same way that I know - say - that Jesus is the Son of God.
But I do know that prayer to the saints shouldn't be happening in Anglican churches. If you're Roman Catholic, you should be praying to the saints. If you're Anglican, it is, to use the old phrase, "against your religion". It might be good Catholicism, but it's bad Anglicanism.
The headscarf website is great! Where was this when I needed it in Africa?? :-)
And happy Mothers' Day. :-)
Can I ask do you always cover your hair?
No, I don't cover my head all the time, but recently I've been wearing at least a headband to church. There's that passage in Corinthians, and I just can't get past the "because of the angels" part. One commentator I read charmingly admitted - after competantly exegeting the rest of the passage - that he had no idea what it meant, but most of them seem to think that head-covering is more than just cultural.
I'm not sure. But where I don't understand Scripture, I try to follow the plain sense, and the plain sense seems to indicate that Christian women should have something on their head during public worship.
Again, since I'm not sure I understand it, I'm not going to preach to anyone about it. It just seems the most sensible thing to do.
I'm with you, Jessica. I don't find support in the Scriptures, for instance, that Mary is mother to anyone besides Jesus and any other children she may have had (yes, I know this too is a matter of dispute); nor is there any example I know of praying to her. I have to believe that the intentions of this particular Sunday were all good, but the expression of those intentions does indeed run counter to the Thirty-Nine Articles. (I have been told, though, that the Articles are not necessarily binding in every Episcopalian church.)
I don't mind putting flowers on a statue of Mary. It seems to me just like putting them on a grave. You don't do it because the person is there to enjoy them, but to remember them.
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