Group: Faith and Formation
We explore how knowing the history of Mother’s Day can equip us to meet the challenges of the moment. We will revisit the original inspiration behind Mother’s Day — the Mother’s Day Proclamation powerfully articulated by Julia Ward Howe in the aftermath of the American Civil War—and how it still speaks with urgency in 2026, calling us to resist the normalization of violence and to claim our moral agency in shaping a more compassionate world. Howe’s vision of mothers united across borders, refusing to allow their children to be sacrificed to war, resonates in this moment marked by ongoing conflict, political polarization, and global instability. Her proclamation challenges us not only to honor motherhood sentimentally, but to embrace its prophetic dimension: a fierce commitment to peace, justice, and the protection of human dignity. In a time when the voices of conscience are often drowned out by fear and division, the spirit of that proclamation invites us—across generations and identities—to gather, to grieve, and to act for the sake of a more just and peaceful future.
