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Join us in this litany to acknowledge and address the neglect of the health of mothers and children in poverty. Together, let's equip ourselves to improve their health and well-being through prayer, solidarity, and action.
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For the Health of Mother & Child: A Responsive Litany Leader: Life is a good and precious gift from God. With great love, God breathed life into Adam and Eve. With great love, He gave mankind dominion over every living thing. With great love, He called us “to fill the earth and subdue it” and to work for the flourishing of others.
People: Forgive us, Father, for taking your gift of life for granted by neglecting the health of our sisters and brothers. Leader: In poor communities throughout our world, pregnant women and their young children are suffering and even dying from preventable conditions and disease.
People: Forgive us, Father, for taking your gift of life for granted by neglecting the health of our sisters and brothers. Leader: We remember pregnant mothers in poverty who do not have access to skilled health care workers and so face great risks as they carry and deliver their children.
Leader continued: We pray for the parents who do not know where to turn, and who long to give their children the best nutrition possible, but lack the resources and information to do so. People: Forgive us, Father, for taking your gift of life for granted by neglecting the health of our sisters and brothers.
Leader: We remember vulnerable babies and young children born in poor communities where they do not have what they need to survive and thrive. A third of babies who are born into these circumstances each year will succumb to under-nutrition before they are five years old. Since this tragic pattern of loss is so common in these places, some children remain unnamed until their fifth birthday.
People: Forgive us, Father, for taking your gift of life for granted by neglecting the health of our sisters and brothers. Leader: We acknowledge that children are a heritage from the Lord, and offspring a reward from Him. Every child of God is loved and known at every stage.
Leader continued: Before we draw our first breath, our names are written in His book and it is He who knit us together in our mother’s womb. Our Father has called us to proclaim this beautiful truth! We are fearfully and wonderfully made. People: Equip us, Father, to proclaim your love by improving the health of mothers and children in poverty.
Leader: We stand with doctors, midwives, and other health care workers who are promoting health, education, and nutrition programs to make possible safer births and healthier futures for both mothers and children. People: Equip us, Father, to proclaim your love by improving the health of mothers and children in poverty.
Leader: We celebrate with the families who are experiencing new strength and hope as a result of work to improve maternal, newborn, and child health. We share in this “joy that a human being has been born into the world!” People: Equip us, Father, to proclaim your love by improving the health of mothers and children in poverty.
Leader: We look forward to the day when there will never again be an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years. Until this day, we commit ourselves to the work of praying for and standing in solidarity with mothers, fathers and children in need, and equipping them to thrive as God’s children—uniquely gifted and deeply loved.
