Minister’s Column
This past weekend I traveled to Wisconsin for my mother’s memorial service. It was presided over by Pastor Kathleen Remund at the First Congregational United Church of Christ on Saturday afternoon. The next morning I also attended Sunday worship with Pastor Kathleen, where one moment stood out for me.
Before the service I was chatting with a friend in the sanctuary and a young school-aged child came up, someone familiar to my friend. She introduced me to the child and we both gave him the gift of our full attention for a few minutes—as we should. Later, during the time of special music in the worship service, the pianist was playing a moving piece by Rachmaninoff and I looked over to see this child seated in the front pew next to Pastor Kathleen. No one else was in their pew; the child’s parent was one or two rows behind. The sight of the two of them sitting together—Kathleen absorbed in the music, the child with a toy or book in their hand—spoke of warmth and connection and trust and love. I knew with certainty that this was the most important connection in the whole sanctuary at that moment. And I realize now that I was witnessing an embodiment of the Universal Mother.
Having memorialized my own mother the day before—with stories and tributes, with tears and music, with the interment of her ashes in the church’s memorial garden—I reflect that my mother’s loving energy toward me is the same as Pastor Kathleen’s energy with the child in church, and the same energy that lives in me as I try to be loving to those in my circle. It is a beautiful, divine, eternal thing. It is a life-giving and healing thing: Mother’s Love. It is something that we all have within us, sometimes dormant and sometimes finding expression in acts of love and kindness and nurturing. May that love be celebrated today and always.
PRAYER:
Spirit of Life and Love, Mother-Father God, shine on me and bless me with love like the sun blesses the world with sunshine. May I remember that I loved and loving.
May universal Mother’s Love, the healing and nurturing energy within us, find its expression in how we treat one another in this lifetime. May we show unconditional love to every child with never any exceptions. May we find the love in our hearts to share with one another: neighbors, friends, and all the ones we encounter in our daily routines.
May love bless us all. Amen.
Rev. Drew Frantz
March 19, 2024