Prayers for a Child

Source: Australian Catholics Magazine - Fatima Measham

A feeling of vulnerability often leads us to prayer, and there's never been
a more vulnerable experience for me than being a mother. So much desire and
so little control. From the time we found out we were pregnant, through the
prenatal checks and ultrasounds, from labour to discharge from the hospital,
until now, with Jack at nine months old, I often find myself muttering
incantations to God, usually starting with the word, 'Please'.

'Please let the baby be okay', I prayed as I lay awake early one morning,
seven or eight months pregnant, thinking that I hadn't felt him move
overnight. It is one of the oddest things about being pregnant, being so
intimately connected with your unborn child, without knowing for certain
whether he's fine in there. You live in hope, expectant in more than one
way, having random conversations with God about the future.

Sometimes, being a mother makes me keenly aware of my mortality, an emotion
caught up with the desire to see Jack grow to adulthood. This was starkly
brought home only a few hours after giving birth, when I found myself
surrounded by an emergency team trying to manage my plummeting blood
pressure. 'Please let me be okay', I prayed. I made it pretty clear that
after 14 hours of labour on just gas and pethidine, I wasn't going to knock
off without getting to know my beautiful baby.

It is a recurring prayer, the appeal for it all to be okay. I prayed it as I
rocked Jack in the early hours of each morning for the first eight weeks of
his life. I prayed it as he went through an inexplicable hunger strike for a
couple of weeks. I prayed it when I heard him coughing through his sleep
during a long bout with cold.

I even pray it when I read the news and worry about the kind of world in
which he will grow.

My baby has in a sense become my place of prayer. When I hold him and watch
him, there is an acute sense of wonder that he is here rather than not here.
I am also intensely aware that he is not entirely mine, despite having
brought him into being. I feel vulnerable because I cannot predict nor
prevent the bad things that will come his way in life, although I do hope
that he will overcome them.

These, to me, are conditions for prayer: wonder, humility, and trust.

Reflection questions:
1. How does parenthood change a person's outlook?
2. What are your prayers for your children?
3. Does prayer help you deal with fear in your life?

Useful link: www.australiancatholics.com.au/