Prayers

Lord Jesus, Thanksgiving is here, and today we are supposed to count our blessings. We have blessings. So many. People we love. Food on the table. A home. A marriage. Family and friends. Moments of laughter. Prayers You have answered in ways we sometimes forget. Your mercy. Your Church. Your Eucharistic presence. Your love that has carried us through days we did not think we could endure. We are grateful. But Lord, there is still an empty place at our…

Lord Jesus, Father’s Day is here again. Today fathers are celebrated everywhere. Children make cards. Little hands reach for Daddy. Families gather for cookouts and photographs. Churches offer blessings for fathers. Social media fills with pictures of men holding newborn babies, coaching teams, teaching children to fish, walking daughters down aisles, and standing beside sons who have grown into men themselves. And I look at those pictures and think: I want that too. Lord, I want to be a father.…

Lord Jesus, Mother’s Day is here again. For so many people, today is flowers, cards, breakfast in bed, handmade pictures, little arms around a mother’s neck, and voices calling: “Mommy.” For me, those things may be exactly what makes today hurt. I want to be a mother. I have wanted it for so long. Perhaps I thought I would be one by now. Maybe I imagined a baby on my hip at Mass this morning. Maybe I pictured my husband…

Lord Jesus, Christmas is coming again. The season that celebrates the birth of a Child can be one of the most beautiful times of the year. And when you are longing for a child, it can also hurt terribly. Everywhere we look there are children. Children waiting to see Santa. Children singing in Christmas programs. Children dressed for Christmas Mass. Children decorating cookies. Children opening presents. Children falling asleep beneath blankets while parents quietly prepare Christmas morning. Families gather. Grandparents…

Lord Jesus, our son is grown now. There was a time when we could pick him up, feed him, comfort him, tuck him into bed, and make so many of his hurts better simply by being his parents. Now he is a man. He has given his heart and his life to the woman he loves, and together they are building their own family. We love watching that. We love seeing the husband he has become. And because we love…

Lord Jesus, our child is gone. There are sentences a parent should never have to say. This is one of them. We knew that children could die. We knew, somewhere in our minds, that terrible things happen in this world. But knowing that such suffering exists is completely different from discovering that it has entered our own home. This was not supposed to be our story. Parents are supposed to watch their children grow. We were supposed to count birthdays.…

Lord Jesus, we prayed so hard for this baby. Perhaps we waited months. Perhaps years. Perhaps we had almost stopped believing we would ever see a positive pregnancy test. And then, suddenly, there were two lines. For a little while, everything changed. There was a baby. Our baby. Maybe we immediately began calculating a due date. Maybe we told no one. Maybe we told everyone. Maybe we whispered the news only to each other because we were afraid to believe…

Lord Jesus, we are still waiting. We thought perhaps by now there would be a child. When we began this journey, we knew adoption could take time. We understood that there would be paperwork, interviews, background checks, home studies, profiles, decisions, and waiting. But understanding that something may take a long time is different from actually living through it. Days became weeks. Weeks became months. Months became years. And we are still waiting. Lord, sometimes it feels as though everyone…

Lord Jesus, You created us as man and woman, body and soul, and called what You created good. Yet infertility can make it very difficult to believe that our bodies are good. A body that does not do what we expected can begin to feel like an enemy. We may look at ourselves through numbers and measurements—hormone levels, cycles, laboratory results, diagnoses, procedures, medications, semen analyses, ultrasounds, surgeries, and pregnancy tests. Little by little, we can begin to think of…

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, before this day begins, I give it to you. I give you everything I know this day will contain and everything I cannot yet see. My work. My marriage. My home. My body. My plans. My interruptions. My joys. My disappointments. My waiting. My longing for a child. And every ordinary moment between them. Lord Jesus, I unite this day to You and to the offering of Your Sacred Heart. Through the Immaculate Heart of Mary…