This Wednesday, January 22, is the Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children. And as we approach the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision on, many feel called to pray in a special way for the unborn.
Below are three powerful prayers you can use on the Day of Prayer this week, during a pro-life event in your community, or during your own personal prayer time year-round.
1. The first prayer is the Collect from the Mass “For Giving Thanks to God for the Gift of Human Life,” which is often celebrated on January 22.
God our Creator, we give thanks to you, who alone have the power to impart the breath of life as you form each of us in our mother’s womb; grant, we pray, that we, whom you have made stewards of creation, may remain faithful to this sacred trust and constant in safeguarding the dignity of every human life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
2. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) also has a prayer resource, in which they include Intercessions for Life: Children Born and Unborn. Below is an excerpt of this beautiful prayer:
For all unborn children:
that our love for them may keep them safe
until the joyous day of their birth;
We pray to the Lord
That the Lord,
who rescues the life of the poor
from the power of the wicked,
might send an angel to guard and protect
all unborn children;
We pray to the Lord
For every little child
and especially for those who
live in their mother’s womb,
that they might grow
in the image and likeness of
the God who made them;
We pray to the Lord
For the littlest child in her mother’s womb,
that in her life we may see the infinite love of God;
We pray to the Lord
Find the full prayer at the USCCB Prayer page.
3. The next prayer was composed by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in 2010. He prayed this prayer for the protection of life and the family at the conclusion of a Prayer Vigil for the Unborn at the Vatican. Below is the English translation of his prayer.
Lord Jesus,
You who faithfully visit and fulfill with your Presence the Church and the history of men; You who in the miraculous Sacrament of your Body and Blood render us participants in divine Life and allow us a foretaste of the joy of eternal Life; We adore and bless you.
Prostrated before You, source and lover of Life, truly present and alive among us, we beg you. Reawaken in us respect for every unborn life, make us capable of seeing in the fruit of the maternal womb the miraculous work of the Creator, open our hearts to generously welcoming every child that comes into life.
Bless all families, sanctify the union of spouses, render fruitful their love.
Accompany the choices of legislative assemblies with the light of your Spirit, so that peoples and nations may recognize and respect the sacred nature of life, of every human life.
Guide the work of scientists and doctors, so that all progress contributes to the integral well-being of the person, and no one endures suppression or injustice.
Give creative charity to administrators and economists, so they may realize and promote sufficient conditions so that young families can serenely embrace the birth of new children.
Console the married couples who suffer because they are unable to have children and in Your goodness provide for them.
Teach us all to care for orphaned or abandoned children, so they may experience the warmth of your Charity, the consolation of your divine Heart.
Together with Mary, Your Mother, the great believer, in whose womb you took on our human nature, we wait to receive from You, our Only True Good and Savior, the strength to love and serve life, in anticipation of living forever in You, in communion with the Blessed Trinity.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the unborn, pray for us!
