Three Mothers at the Heart of Resurrection

Today I’m traveling back to Poland on Mother’s Day – May 26th in our Polish tradition. As I journey home, I’m reflecting on three mothers who have shaped my spiritual resurrection years ago: my earthly mother whom I’ll embrace today, the Mother Church to whom I returned after 17 years in the wilderness, and Mary, the Mother of the Church.

Like the three women who came to the empty tomb and discovered resurrection, these three mothers have been witnesses to my own spiritual revival.

The Ancient Roots: Mothering Sunday and the Return to Mother Church

It feels fitting to be coming home today, having in mind the beautiful historical background of what used to be called “Mothering Sunday.” This ancient Christian tradition, celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent, was originally about returning to one’s “mother church” – the cathedral or parish where one was baptized, where one first became “a child of the church.”

For centuries, Christians across Britain and Ireland would make pilgrimages on this day, journeying back to their spiritual birthplace.

The day was also called “Refreshment Sunday” or “Laetare Sunday” (from the Latin “to rejoice”) – a brief reprieve from Lenten fasting, when families could gather for special meals. The very liturgy of the day spoke of Jerusalem as mother, of consolation and homecoming.

This tradition of “going a-mothering” – returning to the mother church – carried profound spiritual meaning about our relationship with the Church that births us in faith, nurtures us in grace, and calls us home even when we’ve wandered far.

Our Polish Mother’s Day on May 26th may follow a different calendar, but it carries this same deep truth about returning home to those who have mothered us – whether in flesh or in faith.

Those “Boring” Hours

I remember being seven years old, kneeling with my sister as we prayed the rosary at home. Four of us on our knees for what felt like endless hours. My sister and I would communicate silent complaints – “This is so boring!” – while my parents persevered in prayer.

I even rewrote a love poem in Polish to make the rosary more interesting, trying to fit new words to the familiar rhythms. My dad laughed with such pride and joy at my creative rebellion. Little did any of us know that those “boring” hours were planting seeds that would bloom decades later.

(Funny how what seems tedious to a child can become the foundation of grace for an adult.)

The Lost Sheep Season

For 17 years, I was away from the Church. This wasn’t a casual drifting – it was a necessary journey into the desert. I had difficulties with the Church, disappointments with how love was (un)expressed, frustrations with human failings dressed in holy garments.

But I’m grateful for those difficulties now. Sometimes we need to be the lost sheep to truly understand what it means to be found. Sometimes we need to experience the absence to appreciate the presence.

The Return

About 8 years ago, I found my way back. Not because the Church had become perfect, but because I finally understood something crucial: it’s not always about how we are being loved, but how we love. It’s not about how we are being treated, but how we treat others.

This doesn’t make me blind to the Church’s problems. I see them clearly – perhaps more clearly than before. The Church needs both divine and human intervention. It’s beautifully broken, gloriously flawed, magnificently in need of transfiguration.

But I never want to be separated from it again, no matter how “molten” it becomes. Because in leaving, I also left behind the liturgical rhythm that creates deeper meaning each year, the community that holds us, the ancient prayers that anchor us.

Rediscovering Mary

Now when I pray the rosary – those same prayers from my childhood – I see Mary in a constant state of grace, eternally receiving the Annunciation. With each mystery, I watch her pondering in her heart what the angel told her: “The Lord is with you.”

Especially in the Sorrowful Mysteries, I see her accompanying her Son through every scene of pain and sacrifice. At every stage, she embodies grace, whispering to her heart and mine: “The Lord is with me. Full of grace. The Lord is with me.”

This is how the rosary speaks to my heart now – on good days and difficult ones, in times of fulfillment and times of lack. It reminds me that the same words spoken to Mary are spoken to each of us. The difference is that Mary was open to hear them. Mary was open to say yes.

The Mother of Grace

During my years away from the Church, I encountered many blasphemies about Mary that I didn’t fully appreciate or defend. But now I see: there is no one like her. No one with such grace, such patience, such gratitude. No one who shows us so perfectly how to be both strong and surrendering, how to say yes to mystery.

(And let’s be honest – if Mary can handle the Annunciation, teenage Jesus, and watching her Son die, she can probably handle our family drama this Mother’s Day too.)

Coming Full Circle

So here I am, traveling home on Poland’s Mother’s Day (May 26th), ready to celebrate my earthly mother while holding deep gratitude for the Mother Church and Mary, the Mother of the Church. These three mothers have shaped me through presence and absence, through boring hours and profound moments, through love that sometimes felt difficult and grace that always remained available.

The Church I’m returning to in my heart today is the same one that taught a seven-year-old to kneel and pray, even when she found it boring. It’s the same one that let me go when I needed to wander, and welcomed me back when I was ready to return. And Mary, the Mother of the Church, has been present through it all – in those childhood rosaries, in my years of wandering, and in my return to faith.

The Lord is with you. Full of grace. The Lord is with you.

Happy Mother’s Day (May 26th in Poland) to all the mothers – earthly and heavenly, perfect and beautifully broken, patient with our wandering and faithful in their love.

“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee… Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”

(Some prayers are worth the wait to understand.)