This Sunday, May 11, Americans celebrate Mother’s Day, a holiday first acknowledged in the United States in 1914 in honor of public health and peace activist, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis. Established initially as a “holy day” to offer gratitude to mothers, this day marks an opportunity to reflect on the beautiful, challenging, and complex experiences of maternity. This Mother’s Day, Interfaith America connected with four faith and spiritual leaders to discuss the sacredness of motherhood across a diverse range of traditions.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Anne Marie Witchger
Rector, St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery
Recognizing that Mother’s Day can be as difficult and complex a day as it is celebratory, what has your tradition taught you to understand about motherhood in its various iterations?
I’ve learned to see motherhood in Christian tradition as being about the spirit of love and care that God has for us and that we’re called to share with each other, rather than a biological relationship. We celebrate God as our creator, as our friend, teacher, and redeemer, and also as the spirit that surrounds us and is alive within us. But most of all we draw our strength and our hope from God’s love. God’s love for the world — and for each of us — animates everything we do. It’s God’s love for us that gives us the capacity to love each other.
Motherhood is the journey of figuring out how to love unconditionally and how to care for someone else. Those two things are at the core of Christian faith. And it can take so many different forms. Yes, parenthood, but also friendship, mentorship, tending to a loved one who is sick or going through a difficult time, grandparents, teachers, dear family friends. I think we can celebrate the spirit of motherhood while recognizing that our biological or legal relationships may or may not always be the best reflection of that spirit. We can celebrate the many different ways that God’s love and care can manifest in our relationships.
Is there a maternal figure in your tradition that stands out as a sacred model of motherhood?
We lift up Mary, the mother of Jesus, as a sacred model of motherhood. Mary was brave and faithful. She responded to a call to embrace an uncertain future and did so with confidence, grace and joy. She also suffered incredible loss. I think we can look to Mary to find solidarity with the deep losses and challenges that so many parents experience today. We can also see in Mary a wonderful and difficult tension that many of us experience throughout parenthood — we love our children so much, but we can’t control how they choose to live their lives and what they are called to do. Parenthood involves both letting go and holding on.
What have you learned about motherhood from other faith or spiritual traditions or folks in your life of diverse faith backgrounds or worldviews?
I studied abroad in Tel Aviv and learned so much from Orthodox women there about what it meant to them to raise children and keep religious traditions at home. I know that every tradition has ideals, and the lived experience is not always ideal, but I felt so encouraged by watching how much value these women placed on their roles as mothers.
I also spent some time in Southern India and learned a lot from Hindu women who absolutely saw their motherhood and maternal instincts as inextricably linked to the divine. I appreciated the confidence and clarity they seemed to have about their value as mothers.
Is there a quote, passage, or ritual from your tradition or worldview that centers maternity which you find meaningful?
Advent is the season leading up to Christmas in Christian tradition. It’s meant to be a pregnant time — literally, I guess, because Mary was getting ready to have Jesus, but also spiritually. We are meant to grow in our hope and anticipation for the light that is about to come into the world. I love pregnancy as a metaphor in our faith because it’s about what can grow in us, and what’s possible within us.
Irene Glasse
Heathen witch and teacher of witchcraft, meditation and magic, Glasse Witch Cottage
Recognizing that Mother’s Day can be as difficult and complex a day as it is celebratory, what has your tradition taught you to understand about motherhood in its various iterations?
One of the things I love about Heathenry is the way the wisdom and strength of mothers (and women in general) is celebrated and honored. In our traditions, motherhood extends far beyond the raising of children. We honor a group of ancestors known as the Dísir. They are the embodiment of the female line of a bloodline, and act as protectors and guides for the children of that line. Motherhood, for us, is eternal. We celebrate not only our own mothers but all the mothers of our line. We feel that they watch over us to this very day.
Is there a maternal figure in your tradition that stands out as a sacred model of motherhood?
Within Norse mythology, one of the sources that modern Heathens use to draw inspiration from, there is a wonderful story about the goddess Frígg. To soothe the fears of her son, she travels the entire world and convinces every being living upon it to swear an oath not to harm him. It is an extraordinary undertaking and illustrates such a profound love of and care for her child.
What have you learned about motherhood from other faith or spiritual traditions or folks in your life of diverse faith backgrounds or worldviews?
I learned that there’s a beautiful commonality when it comes to reverence for mothers. The specific shape and language around the devotion to those who give life changes, of course, but the thread of connection between religions and traditions is strong: motherhood is sacred and should be honored.
Is there a quote, passage, or ritual from your tradition or worldview that centers maternity which you find meaningful?
Dísablót (roughly translating to “Ceremony for the Disir”) is our annual celebration of the sacred mothers that watch over us. During the run-up to Yule, there are several holidays that occur over a time period we call Winternights, and Dísablót is one of them. Contemporary celebrations vary, but most include a feast in honor of the Dísir, the cleaning and decorating of the home, and stories or prayers of praise said in their honor.
Sam Ryan
Grants Coordinator, Interfaith America
Recognizing that Mother’s Day can be as difficult and complex a day as it is celebratory, what has your tradition taught you to understand about motherhood in its various iterations?
I have learned, and my personal experience has confirmed, that motherhood is holy and sacred. In my life, the experiences of pregnancy, childbirth and now child-rearing have been instrumental and revolutionary in my understanding of our Heavenly Parents — especially Heavenly Mother — and the power of Their love for us.
Is there a maternal figure in your tradition that stands out as a sacred model of motherhood?
Eve — the mother of all living — is as complex a figure as the motherhood she represents. Latter-day Saints believe Eve is the hero of the Fall from Eden; that she intentionally transgressed in the garden, knowing the Fall was a necessary part of our Heavenly Parents’ plan.
As we learn in the Book of Mormon, “if [Eve] had not transgressed [s]he would not have fallen, but [s]he would have remained in the garden of Eden. […] And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.” (2 Nephi 2:22-23)
In short, the mother of all living “fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.” (2 Nephi 2:25)
Eve symbolizes a bravery borne from intense faith — which I believe motherhood (and frankly, personhood in general) requires.
What have you learned about motherhood from other faith or spiritual traditions or folks in your life of diverse faith backgrounds or worldviews?
I learn a lot about motherhood watching my sister. She is deeply in touch with her divine femininity, which she harnesses and realized especially during the birth of her first son. Watching her practices as a Witch, I have learned to pay more attention and reverence to my own embodied divinity; to pay attention to the cycles of the earth and of my own body; and to realize and see divinity around me. She has proven to me that the divinity of motherhood is not exclusive to a faith or worldview. She exemplifies a perfect example of sacred motherhood — one that is messy and human, but beautiful and pure.
Is there a quote, passage, or ritual from your tradition that centers maternity which you find meaningful?
Though not a figure of literal maternity (there is a lesson here about who can be a “mother” — and what “motherhood” truly might be), I’d be remiss not to discuss Jesus and his role as maternal figure.
Like Eve, Jesus embodies the heaviness and complexity of motherhood. The sacrifice, the pain, the blood – all that are necessary to consecrate for the great joy of loving, leading, gathering, and guiding another soul toward Heaven.
To paraphrase Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (see: “Behold Thy Mother”): Jesus bore our griefs, carried our sorrows; He bears the sins of the world; He is the great deliverer. [C]an you hear in this language another arena of human endeavor in which we use these words? As Jesus said to John while in the very act of Atonement, so He says to us all, “Behold thy mother!”
Sunita Viswanath
Executive Director, Hindus for Human Rights
Recognizing that Mother’s Day can be as difficult and complex a day as it is celebratory, what has your tradition taught you to understand about motherhood in its various iterations?
In my faith tradition there is a core concept called dharma which is often loosely translated as duty. This concept is taught to Prince Arjuna by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita and has anchored me throughout my life. To me, it means that at any given time, I must consider the various inclinations, commitments, obligations, both to myself and to others, before I act. My dharma to myself, as a mother and as a daughter may not be the same. In each situation I must weigh these and other factors and do the best thing I can do to be true to myself.
I am a mother to three marvelous young men — Gautama, Akash and Satya — and daughter to nonagenarians Saraswathi and Viswanath. This itself is an abundance of blessing. And yet, seeing my own parents become more frail, seeing our youngest child struggle with depression, and losing my beloved mother-in-law to cancer just weeks ago, means that the blessings are tinged with deep sadness.
These past months, like all of us, my heart has shattered again and again at the images of children dying of bombings and starvation in the devastation we are funding and fueling in Gaza. The United States is arresting and deporting some immigrants simply because they spoke up about what they viewed to be a genocide. We have deported a young undocumented nursing mother without her baby and partner, as well as another undocumented mother with her two-year-old American citizen son who has cancer. My mother’s heart cannot be quiet on Mother’s Day when Palestinian and American mothers and children are subjected to such senseless cruelty and misery.
Each day, I make decisions about how to balance my responsibilities to myself, my children and my parents. When I make decisions that take me away from my youngest son and my elderly parents — like when I traveled with an interfaith peace delegation to the West Bank last August — I am making a decision to live true to my own self and spirit, my sva-dharma (my dharma to myself). Such decisions may seem selfish, but I know that I am a better mother, daughter and wife because I am true to myself. And of course, at other times, I make decisions to put aside my sva-dharma for my family.
This Mother’s Day, even as I count my blessings, I will grieve both the loss of my mother-in-law and the ever-rising death toll in Palestine. I hail from India and feel deep fear and sorrow for the new war between India and Pakistan, and the rising death toll on both sides. And I will pray that my children thrive in an increasingly alienating world.
Is there a maternal figure in your tradition that stands out as a sacred model of motherhood?
The Ramayana is a Hindu epic tale of Lord Rama, an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu, and his beloved wife Sita. Sita is the daughter of Bhumi Devi, Mother Earth. The Ramayana tells of Sita being kidnapped by the demon king Ravana of Sri Lanka, and the war that Rama wages to rescue her and bring her back home to his kingdom of Ayodhya. Sita is forced to walk through fire to prove her chastity since she had been the captive of another man. Even though Sita comes through the fire test unscathed, Rama banishes her to the forest because even though he loves his wife, he feels it demeans the role of King to have a Queen who has lived in another man’s house. Sita leaves for the forest where she gives birth to twin boys, When Rama learns that he is father to two boys, he wants Sita to come back to his palace.
At this point Sita cannot tolerate any more indignity, and she asks her mother to take her back into her arms, and the ground opens up to swallow Sita.
This is the way my mother has been in my life. She has let me live my life according to my choices but has always swooped in to protect me during crises. This is the kind of mother I try to be for my sons: giving them space and freedom to live according to their own choices, but with the full knowledge and security that their mother will be there for them in a heartbeat, should they need her.
What have you learned about motherhood from other faith or spiritual traditions or folks in your life of diverse faith backgrounds or worldviews?
Both in my own Hindu community and in other religious communities and cultures, mothers tend to be essentialized as the keepers of traditions. The honor of the family in most cultures requires the women to overlook oppression and abuse and behave according to social norms. I yearn for examples from my lived experience, and from scripture, of women who break the norms to stand for a noble principle.
