Windows into Motherhood.
10 May 2026
Today, in the secular calendar, it is Mother's Day.
It will come as no surprise to you that I have absolutely no idea what it is like to be a Mother. I have never known and will never know what it is like to sense those first flutterings of movement in the womb. I have never known nor will I ever know what it is like to physically give birth and bring a child into the world, to say nothing of the whole breastfeeding experience.
But from time to time, when I look back over the years, I glimpse through a window, very dimly, something of what it must be like. I can sympathise and empathise. I can go so far but never be a Mum myself.
I also peek through the windows in some of the stories about Our Lady, Mother Mary. If I reflect on some of those stories, I can get a squinty bit of an idea, so today I thought I would just simply reflect on two of those times when Mother Mary is most a Mum.
The first is the annunciation of Our Lady when the Archangel Gabrielle comes and offers this working-class teenage peasant lass, in a tiny village, a vocation that will change her life, your life and my life forever.
I don’t think Mother Mary could have quite grasped the significance of the role. She had no way of seeing that radical change that would tsunami her life and that she could never be the same again. This would send her on a trajectory that was terrifying, painful, exhilarating and exciting. Can any new, first-time mother truly grasp how completely their life will change?
It’s important to understand that Our Lady could have said a polite ‘No, thank you’ and, for a little while in her conversation, I suspect that she might have had some doubts. ‘How can this be since I am a virgin?’ She doesn’t say ‘Yes Yippee’ straight away, she simply allows God to work in her and through her, and we shall always be grateful that she did say ‘Yes’.
Saying Yes to God is a beautiful, scary, but wonderful thing. For you are no longer in control. And saying yes to becoming a mother sure means that your life is changed, and in some ways, you are never in control the same way you were before.
So through the window of the annunciation, I glimpse that Motherhood changes everything. I glimpse that saying Yes to Motherhood changes your life in remarkable, unpredictable ways, but having embarked on this journey, you wouldn’t have it any other way.
The next window I peek through is when a pregnant Mother Mary goes off to have the world’s first Mothers club meeting with her pregnant cousin Elizabeth. What they talked about for three months, I have no idea, and I wonder what Elizabeth’s husband Zechariah thought of such a lengthy sleepover.
But when you read the text very carefully, you’ll discover that it is Elizabeth who speaks first. The Blessed Virgin Mary arrives, probably sits down with a cuppa and simply waits for Elizabeth to speak. Mary knows that just simply being there with her cousin says it all, and far from telling her own incredulous story, she simply allows Elizabeth to say everything that is upon her heart and mind. Such is the vocation of being a Mum. Those who listen attentively to what is being said both outwardly and inwardly understand that sometimes the most loving thing to say is nothing at all. To envelop their child in an attentive listening silence is one of the finest things you can do as a Mother.
While we are not told, I reckon that one of the things that Our Lady and Cousin Elizabeth did was laugh a lot. There is a unique and finely distilled joy in being a mother, and every so often it bubbles up and finds expression not in the spoken word, for there are no words, but it comes out as a jolly good giggle. A chortle and a chuckle.
One last thing about being a Mum, which I do know. The vocation is unending. I used to think that it finished when you dropped your child off at the school gate on their first day. But no. I was wrong.
Then I thought, well, it must finish when they leave home. Boy, was I really wrong.
Oh well, maybe Motherhood finishes with the last breath. But most definitely No! My own Mother is on the other side of the grave, and sometimes, unannounced and unexpected, I sense her still praying for me and cheering me on. Such is a mother's love that the grave is not the finish line, but beyond the grave, love is actually enhanced and made all the more beautiful and exquisite. A flimsy thing like death is never going to stop something as powerful as a Mother’s love.
I thank My Mother, I thank Cousin Elizabeth and I thank the Blessed Virgin Mary for these windows into the vocation of being a Mother. May their loving prayers continue to surround us as we journey on into the people we are called to be.
Happy Mother's Day.