We are now midway through Lent, and this coming Sunday is known in Western Christian liturgical tradition as Laetare Sunday, ‘Refreshment Sunday’. Taking our cue from the entrance antiphon of the Roman rite, beginning ‘Rejoice, O Jerusalem!, we are encouraged to lighten the penitential mood, rejoicing in anticipation of the approaching Paschal feast of our salvation. The longing to return to ‘Jerusalem’ as a source of wholeness and joy is rooted deep in the consciousness of the Abrahamic religions. Whether as an actual motherland, a utopian social vision, or an eternal heavenly home, Jerusalem draws us as the goal of our earthly pilgrimage.

Lent IV this year will also mark a grimmer chronological milestone, in a warped quest for Jerusalem: Day 32 of Vladimir Putin’s apocalyptic and immoral invasion of Ukraine. Kyiv, with its golden domes, Cathedral of Holy Wisdom, and venerable Monastery of the Caves, is a Jerusalem for Slavs, heart of the medieval kingdom of Kievan Rus’. Ukraine is a holy land, sanctified by the River Dnipro/Dnieper—the Slavic River Jordan, in which Prince Volodymyr/Vladimir supervised a mass baptism of his pagan subjects in 988, declaring Rus’ for Christ, following his own baptism in Kherson in the Crimea. Hence, the latter-day Vladimir’s obsession with claiming this land for Russia.

Mothering Sunday on Lent IV originates in the custom of returning this day to our mother church, our personal Jerusalem—the church of our baptism—in preparation for Easter, with its renewal of baptismal vows.  But every church, and every prayer, bring us back to our true mother, the loving heart of our Mother God, whose love gave us birth and holds us in life.  And in that love, we rejoice.