Lord Jesus, truly present in the Most Holy Eucharist, we come before You carrying the desire that has followed us into so many prayers:
Please give us a child.
You know how long we have waited.
You know every month of hope and disappointment, every appointment, every treatment, every procedure, every prayer whispered when no one else could hear, and every time we tried to surrender this desire only to discover that we were still carrying it the next morning.
You know the empty place in our family.
And today, Lord, we bring that empty place deliberately before You through the intercession of Blessed Fulton Sheen.
Blessed Fulton Sheen, you loved Jesus in the Eucharist and made the daily Holy Hour a foundation of your priestly life.
Please make a Holy Hour with us now.
Bring our petition before Jesus.
Pray for the husband and wife who have waited so long to hear that a child is coming.
Pray for bodies that need healing.
Pray for marriages strained by infertility.
Pray for those waiting through adoption.
Pray for the woman who longs to become a mother.
Pray for the man who longs to become a father.
And pray especially for the child for whom we have prayed before we even know whether that child will come to us through conception or adoption.
Blessed Fulton Sheen, we are asking for something enormous.
Please ask Jesus with us for a miracle.
If there is infertility that can be healed, ask Him for healing.
If conception seems medically unlikely, ask Him for what medicine cannot promise.
If a husband and wife are waiting for adoption, ask God to guide every person involved and, if it is truly for the good of the child and according to His will, open the way toward the family He intends.
We do not ask for a child as though a child were something God owes us.
We know better.
A child is never a possession.
Never a reward.
Never proof that God loves one family more than another.
A child is a person.
A mystery.
A gift.
And still, Jesus, You permit Your children to ask.
So we are asking.
Boldly.
Persistently.
Hopefully.
Please give us a child.
Lord, perhaps somewhere within Your providence there is a little person whose story will someday become joined to ours.
Perhaps that child will begin within a mother’s womb after years when conception seemed impossible.
Perhaps somewhere an adoption story is unfolding that we cannot yet see.
Perhaps the answer is already moving toward us in ways known only to You.
Or perhaps Your answer will be different from everything we have imagined.
We do not know.
But You do.
So we place the entire mystery before You.
Blessed Fulton Sheen, help us imitate your confidence in the Eucharistic Christ.
When nothing appears to be happening, bring us before the tabernacle.
When the telephone remains silent, bring us before the tabernacle.
When another pregnancy test is negative, bring us before the tabernacle.
When another family announces a pregnancy and we smile while our hearts ache, bring us before the tabernacle.
When an adoption possibility disappears, bring us before the tabernacle.
When we are angry, bring us.
When we are hopeful, bring us.
When we have no words left, bring us.
Teach us that we do not have to arrive before Jesus with beautiful prayers.
Sometimes the whole Holy Hour may simply be:
Jesus, we are still waiting.
Stay with us there.
Blessed Fulton Sheen, you spent so many hours before the Eucharistic Lord.
Intercede for us during ours.
Ask Jesus to protect our marriage while we wait.
Ask Him to keep infertility from becoming bitterness.
Ask Him to keep adoption waiting from consuming our lives.
Ask Him to protect us from envy.
Ask Him to preserve tenderness between husband and wife.
Ask Him to make our suffering fruitful even before we understand what He is doing with it.
And Blessed Fulton Sheen, if God should choose to grant an extraordinary favor through your intercession, we will receive it with gratitude and give the glory to God.
If conception comes when it seemed impossible, we will praise Him.
If healing comes, we will praise Him.
If the long-awaited adoption call finally comes and a child is freely and rightly entrusted to our family, we will praise Him.
And if the answer comes differently, help us praise Him through tears until one day we understand more clearly.
Jesus, we ask especially for every person whose life could become part of this answer.
If conception is Your will, bless husband and wife and protect every new human life from its first moment.
If adoption is Your will, bless the child’s mother and father.
Give them freedom, support, wisdom, and peace.
If a mother wants and is able to parent safely, provide what she needs.
If she freely discerns adoption, surround her with people who respect her dignity and the dignity of her child.
Never let our desire for a baby make us pray selfishly for another person’s suffering.
Let us desire what is truly good for everyone involved.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother who carried the hidden Christ, cover every mother, father, unborn child, waiting couple, and vulnerable family beneath your mantle.
St. Joseph, guardian of the Redeemer, protect the men who are waiting to become fathers.
Mary, Mother of Jesus, remain beside the women whose empty arms ache.
Holy Family, enter the homes where nurseries wait in silence.
Bless the empty crib.
Bless the unopened baby clothes.
Bless the names written privately somewhere.
Bless the adoption profile.
Bless the medical chart.
Bless the calendar.
Bless the telephone.
Bless the husband.
Bless the wife.
Bless the child we cannot yet see.
And Jesus, when our longing becomes unbearable, remind us that You Yourself once came into this world hidden.
For months, almost no one could see what God was doing.
The Savior of the world was growing silently beneath Mary’s heart.
Teach us not to confuse hiddenness with absence.
We cannot see the whole story.
But You can.
So we will continue asking.
Blessed Fulton Sheen, pray with us:
For healing, if God wills it.
For conception, if God wills it.
For adoption, if God wills it.
For the protection of marriage.
For the protection of every child.
For perseverance during the long wait.
And above all, for the grace to desire God’s will even when we desperately desire a particular answer.
Lord Jesus, if it pleases You, let there someday be a little person in the arms that have waited so long.
Let there be a child carried into Mass.
A child blessed with holy water.
A child taught to fold little hands in prayer.
A child who learns the names Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
A child who someday hears the story:
“We prayed for you for a very long time.”
And perhaps one day we will tell that child:
“Blessed Fulton Sheen prayed for you too.”
Until then, we will keep bringing this intention before You.
Holy Hour after Holy Hour.
Prayer after prayer.
Hope after disappointment after hope again.
Because miracles belong to You, Jesus.
And our job is not to manufacture one.
Our job is to ask, trust, remain faithful, and love.
So here we are.
Still asking.
Still waiting.
Still hoping.
Jesus, if it is Your holy will, please give us the miracle of a child.
Blessed Fulton Sheen, pray for us.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.
St. Joseph, pray for us.
Mary, Mother of Jesus, pray for us.
Always remember Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
Holy Family! Help us to be a holy family and pray for us!
Amen.