Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers, including myself. As I think about all of us today and everyone who has ever mothered anything or anyone, I realize that “mother” is a feeling. Yes, it is a person, but it is more than that. If mother were just a person, it would be contained and finite, and it is not. It is free and expanding. If mother is just an archetype, then we created that with our ideas of mother, handed down through the ages. That would make mother an opinion. It is more than that. If mother, is just a body that gave birth to us then mother would be nothing more than relegated to this physical plane. Mother is an eternal Principle. Mother is a feeling.

There is a passage in Matthew 12:47 and 48 where Jesus is told that his mother and brothers want to talk to him. He answers saying, “Who is my mother and who are my brethren?” He explained to his followers that in Truth each becomes the mother, father and brethren of all. 

Ernest Holmes goes onto to say “God is the Androgynous Principle, the Father and Mother of all. Our earthly parents symbolize this heavenly parentage. Jesus knew that love must become universal before it can reach its maturity. Hence he said that all who live in harmony with the Truth are brothers, mothers and fathers in it. Jesus knew that Mother was a feeling an idea that connects us all when we realize that we are one.

Mother is a feeling. As a feeling, we all get to experience it eternally, whether we’ve ever had biological children or not. If I understand that mother is a feeling then I can celebrate mother today no matter if my mother is here on earth or transitioned. If mother is a feeling then, we can celebrate the idea of mother even if we didn’t have the best relationship with our own mothers.

Thinking of mother as a feeling allows me to open up to the nurturing of this word that we’ve created to explain the deep need each of us has to be cared for, accepted, trusted and to trust. We lived in the womb in this nurturing atmosphere, all of us, and then were birthed to survive in a world of the unknown. We’ve been clamoring to get back to that feeling of being nurtured and nourished and to trust. I think we spend our whole life with this in mind and that it colors everything we do. Some of us act out in the most negative ways, not even knowing that this is what we are yearning for.

Well it is time now to know that we are nurtured. We are nourished. We can trust. There is an Infinite nurturer within each of us. It is our genius. It is our caretaker. It is the deep well of Spirit that never leaves us. It is always mothering us. If we reach out to Nature she will show us the way. Nature is the teacher of motherhood. We can feel her within and without. If we just study the story of trees and how they nurture each other, we would be transformed.

Mother is a feeling and please do not forget it. Let us share the feeling of mother with everyone. Let it guide your path. I celebrate the feeling of mother today and all the people who have assisted in my experience of that feeling. I celebrate the Divine Principle of Mother.

Happy Mother’s Day.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita Andriello-Feren