The Mothering Spirit | May 11, 2025 | Rev. Dr. Kathryn Benton

Holy mother where are you? Tonight I feel broken in two

I've seen the stars fall from the sky Holy mother, can't keep from crying

Oh I need your help this time Get me through this lonely night

Tell me please which way to turn To find myself again

Holy mother, hear my prayer Somehow I know you're still there

Help me please find peace of mind Take away this pain

I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait any longer

I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait for you

Holy mother, hear my cry

I've called your name a thousand times

I've felt the anger running through my soul

All I need is a hand to hold

Oh I feel that the end has come

No longer my legs will run

You know I would rather beIn your arms tonight

When my hands no longer play

My voice is still, I fade away

Holy mother, then I will be

Lying in, safe within your arms

Holy Mother hear my cry…

The opening music sung by Luciano Pavarotti and Eric Clapton is a beautiful tribute to the power of the mothering spirit…the place we can turn for comfort…for solace in times of despair and turmoil. It gives voice to the desperate cry of the human spirit to the mother.

This idea that we can count on the presence of the Holy Mother has deep roots in the Catholic tradition, where this Holy Mother is in the person of Mary, the mother of Jesus…the one who gave birth to the light of the world…the so-called son of God. Yet, I think this opening music speaks to a broader vision of the Holy Mother. It may be that the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, written in the 19th century could shed some light on what I mean. He wrote:

Wild air, world-mothering air,

Nestling me everywhere,

This air, which, by life’s law,

My lung must draw and draw

Now but to breathe its praise,

I say that we are wound

With mercy round and round

As if with air: the same

Is Mary, more by name.

She, wild web, wondrous robe,

Mantles the guilty globe,

Mother, my atmosphere;

Stir in my ears, speak there

Of God’s love, O live air,

Of patience, penance, prayer:

World-mothering air, air wild…

This is for me a foundational treatise on the Mothering Spirit. Hopkins goes much further than the typical Christian portrayal of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Instead, he compares this Mothering Spirit to the air we breathe…the air that nestles us everywhere. He says that she mantles the guilty globe…she surrounds us and is both within us (through our practice of breathing) and without…all around us. She is our atmosphere! This can be a very comforting vision, reflected in the following hymn:

Translated from the Greek this way:

Beneath thy compassion,

We take refuge, O Theotokos [God-bearer]:

do not despise our petitions in time of trouble:

but rescue us from dangers,

only pure one, only blessed one.

This expands our understanding of Mary as God-bearer…the only blessed one. She is the one we can petition…bring closer to us (through our breath)? It could be that she humanizes God (Goddess), as well as expands her meaning.

May is traditionally the month of Mary in the Catholic Church and of course, in the underlying pagan traditions from many places, including the ancient Greek Goddess Maia. The traditions associated with it were still being observed when my mother was in college where they danced around the maypole on the first of May. Of course, this bit of information was actually met with a sense of shame and embarrassment for my mom…a sense of diminishment for the female deity.  This mindset continues to this day where Catholics (and others) do not want to admit that there is a connection between the pagan Holy Mother and their own Mary, the mother of Jesus. Of course we now know that there is a resonance between traditions because we are all human and we are all connected through the dance of creation. The so-called pagan Goddesses are, of course, also connected to goddesses from all over the world. Some examples are: Egyptian (Isis), Igbo (Ala), Buddhist (Tara), Hindu (Radha), Aztec (Toci), Yoruba (Yemoja) and so many more. This is just an extremely small sample of deities listed in Wikipedia under the title Goddesses. This is evidence of the powerful suppression of the Goddess…the feminine nature of God. In the Christian tradition it has been reduced to a vision of a passive virgin who says in the Magnificat in Luke:

My soul doth magnify the Lord,

And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour

Because He hath regarded the humility of his handmaid:

for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

Because He that is mighty hath done great things to me,

and holy is His name.

And His mercy is from generation unto generations to them that fear Him.

He hath shewed might in His arm:

He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.

He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.

He hath filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich He hath sent empty away.

He hath received Israel His servant, being mindful of His mercy.

As He spoke to our fathers; to Abraham and his seed forever.

Yet, if we are able to overlook the male representation of God, we can see the broader meaning of this passage. It is a description of God’s (Goddess’) choosing a poor, refugee, pregnant teen to be the birther of God…the bearer of light into a world of darkness. And it reflects the commitment of Mary to the work before her…at that time and now as well…in each moment. And this work is not easy. Meister Eckhart, in the 13th century broadened the meaning and responsibility for this work when he said:

We are all meant to be mothers of God...for God is always needing to be born.

This description leaves no one out…not one of us is off the hook. Teri Daily, Episcopal priest and former pediatrician writes:

Being Mary isn’t for the faint of heart, because to be Mary isn’t just to be some kind of passive vessel; it’s to let our entire lives be taken up into God’s plan for the world. It’s to live expectantly, knowing that our lives carry more significance than just our own individual destinies. It’s to claim our place in the cosmic story of God’s mercy and goodness, knowing that “we are all meant to be mothers of God.”

This is the work…to be birthers of God(ess)…mothers of the all-pervading presence that holds us in love…that holds all of creation in its embrace. And as Daily writes, it is not for the faint of heart…it is no joke. It is our work in the world. The work of freeing the captives, feeding the hungry, loving and protecting the vulnerable, including our Mother Earth. It is the work of love…the work that we all must claim as our own. It is our birthright as children of God (Goddess). We may be able to hear this bond with the Mothering Spirit from Ray Charles:

Is this song only about the singer’s mother? I think it resonates so strongly with us because we all have a mother, but there is a part of us that is being held in each moment by the mothering spirit…that nestles us everywhere…that we draw in with our lungs…that mantles the guilty globe…teaching us… Stirring in our ears, speaking of God’s love.

O live air, come to us today, empower our spirit with your world-mothering air, air wild…that we take on the work of Mary…the work of birthing God and Goddess in our time.