Sunday 31st March
St James's, Clacton-on-Sea @ 10:30
St Christopher's, Jaywick @ 09:00
Mothering Sunday, Laetare Sunday, also known as Mother’s Day, is the fourth Sunday in Lent, exactly three weeks before Easter. It’s name stems from a tradition in western Europe of visiting your Mother Church (where you were baptises, you home village or a cathedral) on this particular Sunday. It was also a holiday for many giving those working away from home an opportunity to travel home and visit their mothers.
Rose Vestments
On this Sunday there clergy where pink, or rose, vestments for the mass. It represents a ‘lighter purple’ a lifting of the heavy penitential tone of Lent as we take a moment to look forward to the good news of Easter we are preparing to celebrate. It’s sister feast is Guadate Sunday in Advent when we similarly look forward to Christmas.
Honour your Mother...
The commandment to honour you mother extends way beyond our biological connections. In remembering how important Mother’s are supposed to be in bringing life, nurturing and caring, we also remember that for many grandparents, foster carers, fathers and others have stepped into this role in their lives. Today is about honouring them too. For those without children it’s a chance to think about he care we show to the world and those who have cared for us. Julien of Norwich called Jesus our Foremost Mother, a reminder that it is ‘Mothering’ we honour today – not just mums.
Our traditions
Like many parishes, we wear rose vestments on this day, and by tradition we bless and distributes posies of flowers to the women in our congregation (and usually the men as well!) We also offer flowers, usually banished from church for Lent, to Mary, Jesus Mother. We remember that on the cross Jesus gave us Mary to be the mother of the Church.
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