A Blessed Mother’s Day to all mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers this year, 2026! Where would we all be without you?
Bringing new life into the world—whether directly or indirectly—is an awesome marvel. And mothering it, caring for it, being with it in health and sickness is a vocation we are all called to in some manner.
As Julian of Norwich put it, “a mother’s service is nearest, readiest and surest” and “compassion belongs to the motherhood in tender grace.”
To be an instrument of compassion is to be motherly. When Jesus called all to compassion—“Be you compassionate as your Father/Mother in heaven is compassionate” (Lk 6:36)—he invited each of us to practice our motherly capacities.
Motherhood includes the artist in each of us, the call to creativity, and birthing in all its manifestations. As Jung observed, creativity comes from “the realm of the mothers.” Tapping into our creativity and encouraging others to do the same is practicing motherhood. To deny creativity is to kill the mother.
We are all mothers in some way. As Meister Eckhart insisted, we are all mothers of God and “God is always needing to be born.” We are all bringing the Christ (or Buddha or image of God) into history through our work and relationships.
There is a reason we talk about “Mother Earth.” Gaia, the Greek word for Earth, is a goddess. There are so many ways in which Earth is our Mother—just one is the atmosphere she creates and maintains that allows all of us to breathe (see the DMs on Sam Kean’s book on Air HERE.) How many ways Earth nurtures all living things!
As we wake up to the pain Mother Earth is in today, we wake up to the divine feminine and to the need to find a truer balance of feminine and masculine energies in our deepest selves, so we can give birth to a healthier culture. Mothering brings balance and caring, compassion and justice into education, politics, economics, and religion.
For example, when it comes to education, a greater balance between our intuitive brains and our rational brains is needed. Art as meditation brings the intuitive brain alive. How important is that? Einstein said he “abhorred American education” because it leaves out the intuitive brain—where values are found—and emphasizes and rewards the rational brain almost exclusively.
With creativity comes Joy. And self-expression. And sharing. And a myriad of art forms that humans need to stay real and grounded. Laughter is one of them.
I am thinking now of how Stephen Colbert and The Late Show will be shut down this month. What a loss that will be to many of us who appreciated tuning into his nightly gift of naming and laughing at the folly of our times.
Here, in our DMs, we work to “pray the news.” One dimension to praying the news has to be laughing at it and ourselves also. Laughter is one of the art forms that gets us through hard times while remaining grounded and graced. Humor is a threat to fascism which wants to shut it down as part of its addiction to control.
In a recent interview, Colbert was asked about his legacy. He responded: It’s important to never forget that your standard is the joke. We’re not changing the damn world. Have you seen the world?
…I want to be remembered as a comedy show. We harvest laughter for a living, and ultimately, that’s the thing I want more than anything else. I just want to make the audience laugh.
He says that the “first principle that we started with 25 years ago…is: What’s funny about this?”*
May we never lose our sense of humor—so much a part of holy resistance.
*Lacey Rose, “The Stephen Colbert Exit Interview: “I Did Not Expect It to End This Way,” Hollywood Reporter, May 6, 2026.
Banner Image: “The Jester.” Statue by James Butler, R.A., inspired by Shakespeare’s As You Like It, bearing the faces of comedy and tragedy. Photo by Seth Roby, on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
What does Mother’s Day 2026 mean to you? Do you see healing Mother Earth and honoring art and creativity and the art of laughter as part of it?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic—and Beyond, pp. 102f
Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet
The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors To Awaken the Sacred Masculine
Meditations with Meister Eckhart: A Centering Book
The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human
One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing From Global Faith Traditions, pp. 218-267
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings in Creation Spirituality
