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Weekly Message for
Sunday, May 12, 2002
HAPPY
MOTHER'S DAY! There is no other holiday as wonderful as
Mother's Day. It is the  opportunity to truly appreciate and show
our love for our mother and mothers all over the world! Mothers
play a most important role in the development of their children.
It is the Mother's loving kindness, joy and confidence that makes her a
willing participant in bringing a new child into the world and her
influence is felt by the child even before birth.
Julia
Ward Howe suggested the idea of Mother's Day in 1872. Howe, who
wrote the words to the Battle Hymn of the Republic, saw Mother's
Day as being dedicated to peace.
Anna
Jarvis of Philadelphia is credited with bringing about the
official observance of Mother's Day. Her campaign to establish such a
holiday began as a remembrance of her mother, who died in 1905 and who
had, in the late 19th century, tried to establish "Mother's
Friendship Days" as a way to heal the scars of the Civil War.
Two years after her mother died, Jarvis held a ceremony in Grafton, W.
Va., to honor her. She was so moved by the proceedings that she began a
massive campaign to adopt a formal holiday honoring mothers. In 1910,
West Virginia became the first state to recognize Mother's Day. A year
later, nearly every state officially marked the day. In
1914, President Woodrow Wilson officially proclaimed Mother's Day as a
national holiday to be held on the second Sunday of May.
This is the
Mother's Day Proclamation written by Julia Ward Howe:
Arise,
then, women of this day!
Arise all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water
or of fears!
Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant
agencies, "Our husbands shall not come to us reeking with carnage,
for caresses and applause.
"Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have
been able to teach them of charity, mercy, and patience.
"We women of one country will be too tender of those of another
country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
From the bosom of the devasted earth a voice goes up with our own. It
says, "Disarm, Disarm!"
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice! Blood does not wipe
out dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war,
let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest
day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as the means whereby
the great human family can live in peace,
And each bearing after her own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
but of God.
I believe this
message is just as valid today as it was when it was written. As
we honor our mother's on this day, let's mark this as a new beginning to
continue to share our love with mothers and all others every day.
Love is the key to creating peace in the world. As each and
everyone of us gives of the love within us and continues to foster and
cultivate this love for the world that we live in and all peoples, we
will see the demonstration of this love reflected in the world's
affairs. "Perfect
Love casts out fear," and
fear is the thing that keeps us separated from each other and defeats
the intentions for "Peace On Earth." LET'S
CREATE A LOVE EXPLOSION BEGINNING TODAY IN HONOR OF MOTHERS EVERYWHERE!
Let's allow ourselves to be instruments for the Divine to express Its
Perfect Peace and Love through us out into the world. Let's take a
few moments, in honor of our mothers to see GLOBAL PEACE, to see LOVE
REFLECTED IN THE WORLD EVERYWHERE.
PEACE AND LOVE are the perfect gifts for our mothers and mothers all
over the globe.
And
So It Is!
Letting Love use me
in Its own Good Way,
Henry Lee
Bates
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