Day Of Prayer For The Legal Protection Of Unborn Children | 2017
(Note: Due to January 22nd falling on a Sunday this year, the designated observance for the 2017 Day Of Prayer for the Protection Of the Unborn is Monday, January 23rd.)
A great prayer for life is urgently needed, a prayer which will rise up throughout the world. Through special initiatives and in daily prayer, may an impassioned plea rise to God, the Creator and lover of life, from every Christian community, from every group and association, from every family and from the heart of every believer.
— St. John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, no. 100
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal designates January 22 as a particular day of prayer and penance, called the "Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children”: “In all the Dioceses of the United States of America, January 22 (or January 23, when January 22 falls on a Sunday) shall be observed as a particular day of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life and of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion.”
Prayer of Blessing Upon the Unborn Child
God, author of all life,
bless, we pray, this unborn child;
give constant protection
and grant a healthy birth
that is the sign of our rebirth one day
into the eternal rejoicing of heaven.
While our efforts to change hearts, minds and laws through courageous public witness are essential to ending abortion, our most powerful weapon is prayer. Pope Benedict XVI explains the responsibility of lawmakers: "Children truly are the family's greatest treasure and most precious good. Consequently, everyone must be helped to become aware of the intrinsic evil of the crime of abortion. In attacking human life in its very first stages, it is also an aggression against society itself. Politicians and legislators, therefore, as servants of the common good, are duty bound to defend the fundamental right to life, the fruit of God's love." We pray that our fellow citizens, and our leaders, may one day be moved to protect the pre-born, the weak, the sick, the vulnerable and the unwanted.
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