Motherhood
Lord, who ordainest for mankind
Benignant toils and tender cares,
We thank Thee for the ties that bind
The mother to the child she bears.
All-Gracious! grant to those who bear
A mother’s charge, the strength and light
To guide the feet that own their care
In ways of Love, and Truth, and Right.
—William Cullen Bryant.
A mother is a mother still
The holiest thing alive.
—S. T. Colbridge.
Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.
—W. M. Thackeray.
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
—W. R. Wallace.
Womanliness means only motherhood:
All love begins and ends there,—roams enough,
But, having run the circle, rests at home.
—Robert Browning.
Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall;
A mothers secret hope outlives them all.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes.
In the heavens above,
The angels, whispering to one another,
Can find, among the burning terms of love,
None so devotional as that of “Mother.”
—Edgar Allan Poe.
Alternate Reading: Luke 1: 46-55.