THE GREATEST PRAYER AND MY MOTHER

Even though my mother passed years ago, I’m really feeling it today; she’s a beacon shining​ over my life. I find I keep measuring my life against hers, and I’m praying someday I’ll even come close to measuring up. I knew her heart, and I know she had some faults, but her goodness just seemed to come so naturally; not like me for who goodness is a goal that I keep striving for.

She was a humble, strong, very nice woman. She worked like a horse until she couldn’t anymore. She exemplified, in great part, the explanation of love described by St Paul in Corinthians 13. She wasn’t a selfless person; she just didn’t seem to have that insecure, selfish need to think of herself before others. She had strength, love and character and wore them very well.

By far her greatest weaknesses were me and my father, she supported my father no matter what, and she was shameless about her pride in me. She could get angry, and it would really surprise me and my father at the fire that could irrupt from her soft, loving heart if you struck the right nerve at the wrong time.

Unfortunately, after my father’s passing, there was no fire left and she just bided her time until her own death. That’s the only failing, if it was a failing, I ever saw in her. She did all she could do to teach me independence and to always put God first, but it seemed she couldn’t do it herself. So, I thought she clearly lost her reason to live with my father’s passing, but today, I view it as her way of showing me why I should do what she told me to do; love others but maintain my own individuality, and always put God first before anyone or anything.

When my spiritual teacher told me that the greatest prayer I could ever utter was, “God Is” I understood perfectly because of my mother’s teaching. Thank you God for that prayer; and thank you God for my mother.

Jack