"Mothering Sunday" is another name for the Fourth Sunday in Lent. It received this name for one of the following reasons:

1) In the Epistle for the day, from Paul's letter to the Galatians, the comparison is made between those who try to achieve salvation by their own works and those who obtain it by the grace of God. The former are compard to earthly Jerusalem who is in bondage; the latter to the heavenly Jerusalem "which is the mother of us all..."

2) It was a custom for apprentices to be permitted to visit their mothers and to take her a 'simnel cake' sometimes called 'mothering cake.'

3) In medieval England, it was the custom to visit the 'mother church' of the Diocese on this Sunday.

Another name for the Fourth Sunday in Lent is 'Refreshment Sunday" coming from the Gospel account of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with 2 fishes and five small loaves.

Padre