Happy and Blessed Mothers' Day

All of us at St. Mary the Protectress Orthodox Church and the Mor Gregorios Community Center wish all mothers a happy and blessed mothers’ day.  We hope you enjoy Wendell Berry’s poem to mothers.

To My Mother

by Wendell Berry

I was your rebellious son,
do you remember? Sometimes
I wonder if you do remember,
so complete has your forgiveness been.
So complete has your forgiveness been
I wonder sometimes if it did not
precede my wrong, and I erred,
safe found, within your love,
prepared ahead of me, the way home,
or my bed at night, so that almost
I should forgive you, who perhaps
foresaw the worst that I might do,
and forgave before I could act,
causing me to smile now, looking back,
to see how paltry was my worst,
compared to your forgiveness of it
already given. And this, then,
is the vision of that Heaven of which
we have heard, where those who love
each other have forgiven each other,
where, for that, the leaves are green,
the light a music in the air,
and all is unentangled,
and all is undismayed.


"To My Mother" by Wendell Berry, from Entries. © Pantheon Books, 1994.