Family Communion for Mothering Sunday: celebrant the Revd Cynthia Finnerty.
First reading: Colossians 3.12–17
Gospel: Luke 2.33–35

Today we shall observe Mothering Sunday, using its readings instead of those for the Fourth Sunday of Lent. Even so, the readings are appropriate for Lent: in his letter to the Colossian church, St Paul encourages them to behave with kindness and self-discipline within the family of the Church, clothing themselves metaphorically in the Christ-like garments of 'compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience'. In the Gospel, Simeon's grave words 'and a sword will pierce your own soul too' refer to the agonising distress which will inevitably come to Mary as the events of the Passion unfold, but also underline the truth that love always has a cost, be it paid in practical care, in worry and concern, or in grief. There is no human joy or sorrow in which Christ and his earthly family did not share.

In Christian art, 'Madonna and Child' paintings give immediacy to ideas and emotions difficult to explain in words. Jesus is simultaneously God Incarnate and a child wholly dependent upon his parents. Mary is simultaneously 'Theotokos', the bearer of God, and a young first-time mother anxious about her new-born son. Over the years artists approached the subject in different ways: by around 1600, when Orazio Gentileschi created the painting shown above, it had become normal to depict Mary as an ordinary young woman of the time, emphasising the Holy Family's humanity.