Anna Jarvis promoted "Mother's Day" to honor her mother, Ann Jeeves Jarvis (1832-1905), who had eleven children and spent much of her life promoting "Mothers' Day Work Clubs." The elder Jarvis organized these clubs to work toward ameliorating living conditions of families -- and especially infants -- in her native West Virginia. After the Civil War, she sponsored meetings between mourning mothers of Union and Confederate soldiers to promote reconciliation and encouragement.

After the "Mother's Day" celebration took off, the younger Jarvis (who was never to marry or have children) grew embittered that the day had become so commercialized: printed greeting cards and boxed candy quickly became the predominant means of rendering honor. Interestingly, however, it was she who had insisted that the commemoration's title place its apostrophe after the singular of "mother," not the plural. It was to be an honoring of all mothers as individuals - not a "mothers' day."

One must wonder if the focus on the individual somehow lent itself to a greater capacity for commercialization.

At any rate, this commercialization notwithstanding even today, we wish all our mothers, all the mothers who support us, and all the mothers of our friends a Happy Mother's Day.

Furthermore, we Dominicans honor our mothers - both as individuals and as bearers of a great, universal vocation - in the context of two other commemorations.

This being the month of May, parishes and other ministries celebrate "Crownings" of Our Lady. Through this devotion, we honor Mary as Queen and as Mother. She shows us the nature of ultimate honor and success. As Fr. Darren Pierre, O.P., pastor and prior of St. Gertrude Church and Priory (Madeira, OH) writes, "Mary is not queen through power and authority, seizing a crown for herself. Instead she is queen through sacrifice, the loving sacrifice of a mother. She gave up her own plans when the Angel Gabriel came to her and carried and bore Jesus." As any mother knows, motherhood involves the renunciation of her own hopes and even joys. Fr. Pierre comments, when Mary presents her child in the Temple, a friendly senior didn't pinch the child's cheeks and say, "What a cute little baby!" Rather, old Simeon approached the Holy Family and said: "This child is destined for the rise and fall of many" (Luke 2:34). If motherhood itself is a cross, especially in our age with its own distinct trials, nevertheless, Our Lady as Queen reminds us that our sacrifices pave the way to glory: she who stood and watched her son's crucifixion now lives, body and soul, with him. The sorrowful heart reigns forevermore as the Queen of Peace.

To all our mothers, then, living and deceased, we friars extend a genuine and warm declaration of gratitude.

We also celebrate the particular patronage that Our Lady has had over our Order since the very beginning. Yesterday, we renewed our Consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary in thanksgiving and in hope. May she who protects her preachers under her immaculate mantle, and may those who, like her, have sacrificed so much for the good of truth and salvation, be honored and thanked in justice and love.

Happy Mothers' Day to one and all.