On Mother’s Day I honor and celebrate all the mothers in my life, beginning with my immediate family. It’s also a day of great personal significance for me because my first child was born on Mother’s Day 1996. And, the way we think of and celebrate this holiday today is far from its original intention. When Julia Ward Howe proposed this holiday, it was a Women’s Peace Day dedicated to the eradication of war. These are her words, written in 1870:
Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: “We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
“Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”
From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says, “Disarm, disarm! The sword is not the balance of justice.” Blood does not wipe out dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each learning after his own time, the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.
Julia Ward Howe was a Unitarian, and thus we claim her as an ancestor. Her words are in our hymnal. I find this particularly appropriate today, as once again our nation is at war. And all the political and military leaders I can see are men. A general congress of women promoting the great and general interests of peace seems like a good idea today, as it did in 1870.
PRAYER:
Spirit of Life and Love, may this Mother’s Day bring joy to families across this nation. May those who are mothers be honored and appreciated. May all of us celebrate mothers, aunts, mentors—anyone who has played a nurturing and supportive and loving role in our lives.
May this be the moment when we agree, across all nations, that we will not send our sons to injure and kill one another over oil, land, or ideology.
May peace and love prevail on Mother’s Day and every day.
Amen.
Rev. Drew Frantz / May 5, 2026
Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: “We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
“Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”
From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says, “Disarm, disarm! The sword is not the balance of justice.” Blood does not wipe out dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each learning after his own time, the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.
Julia Ward Howe was a Unitarian, and thus we claim her as an ancestor. Her words are in our hymnal. I find this particularly appropriate today, as once again our nation is at war. And all the political and military leaders I can see are men. A general congress of women promoting the great and general interests of peace seems like a good idea today, as it did in 1870.
PRAYER:
Spirit of Life and Love, may this Mother’s Day bring joy to families across this nation. May those who are mothers be honored and appreciated. May all of us celebrate mothers, aunts, mentors—anyone who has played a nurturing and supportive and loving role in our lives.
May this be the moment when we agree, across all nations, that we will not send our sons to injure and kill one another over oil, land, or ideology.
May peace and love prevail on Mother’s Day and every day.
Amen.
Rev. Drew Frantz / May 5, 2026
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