Spiritual
Adoption
of
Unborn Baby
” A nation that kills its own children has no future.” John Paul II
St. John Paul II
In late 1919, a gynaecologist and obstetrician in Wadowice (Poland) told Emilia Wojtyła that her pregnancy was in danger and that the baby could be born at the cost to her life. In this case, the doctor suggested an abortion because, in his opinion, this mother could not survive childbirth. Emilia who was 36-years old felt very sad, because three years prior her baby girl died. Now the doctor was recommending the death of the second child. Emilia decided that even if she would die, the baby would be born.
The baby was born on the 18th of May in 1920 and his mother survived the birth of her child, then lived for about nine years after his birth. The baby was baptized and given the name of Karol Józef Wojtyła, who later became the Holy Father John Paul II.
The Gospel of Life (Evangelium Vitae)
In 1975, Pope John Paul II wrote: “The Gospel of Life is at the heart of the message of Jesus Christ. The Church receives it daily and is to proclaim it faithfully and boldly as good news to people of every generation and culture. The news of the birth of the baby was announced as good news: ‘Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people: this very day, in the city of David, the Son of God is born’ (Luke 2: 10-11). Because of the mystery of God’s incarnate Word (cf. John 1:14), everyone has been entrusted with the ministry of The Mother Church. For this reason, every threat to human dignity and life shakes the heart of the Church, touches the essence of her faith in the body of the Son of God and Redeemer and urges the Church to fulfill its mission of proclaiming the Gospel of the Messiah to the whole world and to all creation ( Mk 16:15). This proclamation is especially relevant today and urgent because of the extraordinary increaseand gravity of threats to the lives of individuals and nations, especially the weak and defenseless” (Evangelium Vitae paragraph 1 and 3).
INVITATION
We do not want to keep silent in this very difficult situation. Each year, throughout the world, more than 50 million people are killed. We will never know what talents they had or how they would have helped us in our earthly life. We see what would have been Holy Mother Church’s and the world’s great loss in the example St. John Paul II and the proposal to abort him. Babies who are still in their mother’s womb cannot say anything. We have the opportunity, however, to defend them so that they can be born and continue living as members of the Human Family.
What should you do? You should spiritually adopt one unborn child. What does this mean? Pray for the child daily for nine months with the prayer suggested below and one mystery of the Holy Rosary of your choice. Is that enough? Yes. In this way you will become a spiritual parent of a child, who does not know his own nation or tribe or language.
The Patrons of this exercise are the Apostles of Mercy: St. John Paul II, St. Faustina and Blessed Fr. Michael Sopoćko. it Spiritual adoption is an act of mercy and compassion. These three Apostles of Mercy will help you if you are sincerely committed to the spiritual arrival of the child. You are welcome to build unity and perhaps help avoid the suffering and sorrow of abortion.
What is Spiritual Adoption?
It is a vow, a prayerful commitment, undertaken by a particular person for the purpose of saving a child’s life in the womb. The prayer also is for the intention that the child, whose name is known only to God, will live a righteous and just life after birth.
The essence of Spiritual Adoption is a daily prayer for nine months and includes a special prayer for the child and child’s parents. The prayer also consists of one of the mysteries of the Rosary and voluntary religious practices such as Holy Communion, fasting, active support of charitable work (single mothers, large families, the elderly, the sick, etc.). One also can commit to win new followers of Spiritual Adoption and the apostolate in defense of life.
The Spiritual Adoption Program has three goals:
Encourage prayer for parents who are expecting a child; that they will respond to God’s grace and welcome their child into the family
Educate adults and children about the development of the pre-born child
Provide mothers in need with donated baby gifts at the conclusion of the program
The Essence of the Vows
In a religious and theological sense, vows are the promises made to God to do, or to voluntarily forego doing something otherwise permissible. The object of these promises is a higher good beyond what we are bound to by the law itself, natural or positive. For example, the subject of the vows could not be foregoing participation in Sunday Mass or Mass on solemnities because we are obliged to do so by divine and ecclesiastical law. We may, however, vow an additional participation in the Eucharist or other devotions. Vows also can be made to voluntarily abstain from doing something otherwise permissible; what we often refer to as making a sacrifice or what we also call voluntary good resolutions. Examples of such vows, voluntary good resolutions, would be to abstain from consuming beverages, partaking in decent entertainment, reducing food intake (fasting) or not eating certain foods that are enjoyable.
In the case of Spiritual Adoption, the basic purpose of the vows is prayer for the conceived child and its parents (one mystery of the Rosary each day for nine months) and the sacrifice (in whatever form) to make reparation to God for the sins of abortion and infanticide.
The vow is valid when it is made as a free and conscious decision. Everyone is required to carefully consider the decision to be made because failure to keep the promise, neglecting and disregarding the obligations resulting from the vows, is a moral disorder and, as such, a sin.The vows of Spiritual Adoption last nine months, which is the average period from the moment of conception to the baby’s birth.
The vows, promises made to God, also have a great religious value for the person making them. They strengthen the moral stance of the person making the vows, motivate him or her more for the earnest Christian life, and deepen the bond between man and God. While some people criticize the vows, considering them to be a limitation of man and his freedom, it must be stressed that such “restriction” is made by a free human choice, a personal decision to exercise one’s freedom in selfless sacrifice to God.
Who Can Adopt?
The person who undertakes Spiritual Adoption fulfills the honorable act of sacrifice. Although such person will never see or hug the child, will not press the child to his or her heart, she or he still defends its life. Speaking the words of the prayer, the person also asks Jesus to change the attitude of parents of the child endangered by abortion, to renew, correct their mentality so that they will understand that the family is an indispensable community, which fulfills its role only when it is built on mutual love.
It is especially important that young people, schoolchildren, students, young couples undertake the Spiritual Adoption. If they make a sacrifice to pray for the salvation of one unknown child, they will never allow the death of their own conceived child.
Professing the vows of Spiritual Adoption, as a prayerful individual commitment, can be made by a group of people in the church during a solemn Mass or Vespers, or on one of the feasts (e.g, Solemnity of the Mother of God, preferably on the Feast of the Annunciation). The ceremony itself should be given a rich setting. It also is possible to make vows outside the church, for example, in the case of the elderly, sick, disabled, then, at a later time commit them privately to a priest.
Holy Mother of God, Mother of Good Counsel, we promise you, with our eyes fixed on the Bethlehem Crib, that from now on we will defend the nascent life. We will fight in defense of every child and every cradle as fervently as our fathers fought for the existence and freedom of the nation by giving their own blood in abundance. We would rather die than to cause the death of the defenseless Little Ones. We consider the gift of life to be the greatest grace of the Father of All Life and the most valuable Treasure of the Nation.
Formula for the Promise of Spiritual Adoption
I praise you, Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to the simple. Yes, Father, because it was your pleasure.
Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, all Angels and Saints, being aware of the desire to help in the defense of the unborn, I ………… strongly undertake and promise that from the day of the feast / celebration ………… I make the Spiritual Adoption of a child whose name is known only to God. I promise to pray every day for nine months that this baby will be saved, and for the baby’s just and righteous life after birth. These prayers will be: the Prayer of Spiritual Adoption, one mystery of the Rosary and my voluntary resolutions, my sacrfice(s),s which will consist of:
The following prayer I will pray for the first time today and everyday for nine months:
Daily Prayer
Lord Jesus, through the intercession of your Mother Mary, who gave you birth with love, and with the intercession of St. Joseph, the guardian who took care of you after birth, I ask for the unborn child, whom I have spiritually adopted and who is in danger of being killed. Please give its parents the love and courage to keep alive their child, which you have given them. Amen
When you start a Spiritual Adoption, please fill the form