9 Days for Life Prayer Challenge

9 Days for Life: Pro-Life Prayer Challenge

9 Days for Life is a virtual pilgrimage of prayer and action focused on cherishing the gift of every person’s life. Below is a unique 9-day novena. We challenge YOU to pray for life each and every day throughout this pilgrimage. Below are prayers for each day to ask the Holy Spirit to intercede in the lives of those who are considering abortion or taking someone’s life in another way. May God be with you this week as we pray for life together.

 

Day 1

For expectant mothers
placing their children for adoption:
May they receive loving support
as they walk this journey;
We pray to the Lord.

For parents placing their children for adoption:
May they encounter the Father’s love
through our words and actions;
We pray to the Lord.

For children awaiting adoption:
May they be welcomed
into loving families;
We pray to the Lord.

For all of God’s children:
May they recognize their dignity as
adopted sons and daughters of God;
We pray to the Lord.

 

Day 2

For all whose hearts ache from the sin of abortion:
that God will soothe and heal us with the balm of his mercy;
We pray to the Lord.

For mothers broken by the memory of a child lost to abortion:
that through the intercession of the Mother of God,
the gentle and merciful love of God may heal their innermost being;
We pray to the Lord.

For everyone who is haunted by the memory of abortion:
that they might know repentance, mercy, and peace;
We pray to the Lord.

 

Day 3

All human beings have worth

That all human beings are made in the image of God is the basis of human dignity and of human rights. The unborn cannot speak for themselves. Our text teaches that the Lord would have us speak and act on their behalf for to do so is one of the important ways in which we exercise the dominion God has given us over the earth and all the living things upon it, including our fellow human beings, including the unborn. This responsibility is given as a command, and calls for obedience and faithfulness. It is a truth not merely to be accepted and believed, but to be put into practice.

From the earliest days of the Christian Church the unborn child was considered a neighbor; made in the image of God and worthy of the respect and compassion we owe all neighbors. Thomas Jefferson

drew on this truth in the Declaration of Independence affirming, “all men are created equal.” More recently, in his Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II upheld this fundamental affirmation of human dignity. Until all human beings, and the unborn in particular, are recognized as being made in God’s image, the struggle for universal human rights will go on.

To de-legitimize abortion and to elevate the unborn into full acceptance among the human family will be a long and arduous struggle, not unlike the struggle against slavery and racism. As Christians, we are committed for as long as the struggle may take. It is a matter of truth; for the dignity of the unborn, and of every other human being regardless of race or condition, is apparent to anyone with eyes to see.

O Lord, open the eyes of the blind to the reality and the worth of the unborn. Give to your faithful people the courage and wisdom to endure in this ongoing struggle to bring them fully into the acceptance of the whole human family. We pray this in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

 

Day 4

For those struggling with terrible diseases:
that each day might be a new revelation
of God’s love for them;
We pray to the Lord.

For those tempted to despair by constant pain:
that they might join their suffering
to the Cross of Christ;
We pray to the Lord.

For every little child who is ill or in pain:
that the beauty of their lives
might bring patience and hope;
We pray to the Lord.

 

Day 5

For the men and women who sit on death row,
awaiting the end of their life:
that we might pray for them

with compassion and care;
We pray to the Lord.

 

For those who have lost hope,
and especially for those condemned to die:
that we might work to save their lives;
We pray to the Lord.

For those condemned to die,
and especially for men and women on death row:
that their plight might move the hearts of the people of this nation;
We pray to the Lord.

 

For guards on death row,
and all who touch the lives of those condemned to die:
for compassion, respect,
and an appreciation of the dignity of all human life;
We pray to the Lord.

 

 

Day 6

Silent reflection. Pray for the unborn, pray for the aborted children of the world. Silence is powerful.

 

 

Day 7

At death, the spirit of man returns to the giver of life.

God is giver of life, human life, all human lives. Short lived or long lived, human lives are lived out in this world. Sooner or later, all people will reach their end. The knock of death is inevitable. All will die. The metaphors for death, even in the above passage from the Old Testament — the silver cord loosed, the golden bowl broken, the pitcher shattered, the wheel broken, the dust returning to the earth — are many. But their meaning is clear and singular: all will die. Even so, death is not the absolute end. It is not the end of the story. For life, at its best, does not end in a dark nothingness. We are not forced into existentialism with its crippling angst.

For as certainly as God gave life, at death the life or spirit that God gave returns to God. The Church, thanks to the ancient Greeks and Hebrews, believes that the departed’s return to God is in two movements. First, the soul of the departed goes to be with God. Then, in God’s perfect time, the soul of the departed will be reunited with the resurrected body of the departed for eternity.

These truths of the Christian faith cover the end story of our earthly lives. By God, we are created. For God, we live our given days. To God, we return at the end of our earthly days. And with God, we live through eternity. Clearly, all along the way, this gracious, loving God is with us. No human life is random or alone. No human life was created without purpose. Not one human life is without destiny. All human lives, acknowledged or not, are related to God — from beginning, to end, throughout eternity. Therefore, in this world, all human lives are to be respected and protected, for their lives are signs of God’s sovereignty.

O God, we too often try to live in ways that ignore our coming death. We forget that our days are numbered by you, that at the end of our days your judgment awaits, that You are the Lord of our destiny. Help us to repent daily, and then to live each day in joyful obedience. Lead us to live in the light and promise of eternity. Prepare us to live fully and sacrificially. Prepare us to die faithfully and hopefully, so that we might live forever with you. Through Jesus Christ, who has gone before us, we trust and hope and love and pray. Amen.

 

Day 8

Prayer for Expectant Mothers

Lord Jesus, I lovingly pray for this sweet hope
that I keep within my womb.
You have granted me the immense gift
of a tiny little life,
living in my own life,
and I humbly thank you for choosing me
as an instrument of your love.
In this sweet waiting,
help me to live in a constant attitude
of self-surrender to your will.

Grant me a motherly heart that is pure,
steadfast and generous.
I hand over to you my own concerns;
any anxious fears that may come,
my own wishes for the little person
that I still have no knowledge of.
Grant that it may be born healthy in body,
keep far from it every peril to its soul.

Mary, you have known
the ineffable joy of a holy motherhood;
give me a heart that can transmit an ardent, living
faith.
Sanctify my waiting,
bless this joyful hope that is in me,
grant that the fruit of my womb
may open out in virtue
and in holiness through your working
with that of your divine Son. Amen.

 

Day 9

Come Holy Spirit, Creator of all things. You who breathed over the waters at the dawn of creation and brought forth all living beings. You who filled the apostles when the Risen Lord breathed on them on the first Easter night, giving them the power to restore life to those dead in sin. You who, on the last day, will breathe again over all the dead and raise them from the grave, come! Come and breathe on our world again, immersed as it is in the Culture of Death! Come, O Lord and Giver of Life! Defeat the works of death in our midst, that abortion may no longer stain our land.

We worship You, O Holy Spirit, and we rejoice in You. We know that no matter how strong the forces of death may be, we can still find in You the endless source of life. Renew that life in each of us, and make us worthy apostles of the Culture of Life in our day! Amen.

 

 

Click here to learn about the Annual March for Life or to read other Pro-Life Prayers.