Prayers of the Faithful - including unborn niece/nephew

cleanslate

Hi, my sister is my bridesmaid and will be 6 months pregnant - I would like to include part of a prayer of the faithful for our first niece/nephew ( very exciting time!).... something like below, but along with something else so as not to embarrass her by making a huge thing out if it, has anyone any suggestions? Thanks!

For all unborn children: that our love and care will help to keep them safe until the day of their birth. Lord, hear us.

Just my opinion - if I was at your wedding and didn't know it was aimed at your sister, that to me sounds like it's a comment about protecting the unborn from abortion. Might not be the case with anyone but it's the first thing I thought of given the wording.

pooch90

Have you asked your sister about this?
I'd be mortified!

micknail

I wouldn't include it, primarily due to the attitude of the church in Ireland regarding unbaptised babies who passed away.

lazygal

I wouldn't do this. It has the potential to upset a lot of people for myriad reasons. A wedding is not the time for a shout out to the unborn.

Shybride2016

Have to agree with the others. I understand the loving sentiment behind it but I wouldn't do it either.

Don't mean to sound morbid but speaking from experience, anything can happen between now and the baby's birth, you just don't know what's going on so would leave it out and keep the excitement of the impending arrival separate to your wedding day.

HIB

Shybride2016 wrote: »

Have to agree with the others. I understand the loving sentiment behind it but I wouldn't do it either.

Don't mean to sound morbid but speaking from experience, anything can happen between now and the baby's birth, you just don't know what's going on so would leave it out and keep the excitement of the impending arrival separate to your wedding day.

The wording you gave sounds odd, but I was at a mass recently where the priest prayed for a pregnant lady. Something about 'a special blessing for X'. It sounded nice whatever way he said it. Maybe ask the priest what he'd suggest.

Faith

Yeah, it reads like a pro-life outburst and has no apparent place at a wedding. I'd get specific if it was being included, because "all babies" is too broad and possibly contentious. I can't see how you'd include it without singling out your sister and possibly making her uncomfortable.

It's a lovely sentiment, but it might not be the best in practice.

eviltwin

I wouldn't do anything specific for the child, if you are having a prayer for your families in general that would include any future children. It does sound like a pro life statement and could be seen as political. I'd err on the side of caution and leave it out.

LynnGrace

I agree with others. I'd go with praying for both families, or something like that, rather than any reference to the unborn.

tinkerbell

Good god no. That is a terrible idea and I find it a little unsettling rather than being a nice idea. It is completely inappropriate and has the potential to cause massive upset to a lot of people for various reasons.

pwurple

Skip it, or make it much more vague, like for everyone's family, past, present and future.

I was at a funeral when someone did something similar, naming me and my unborn baby. I had not told most of the people there at the time, it was extremely awkward, especially as I had lost a pregnancy at 14 weeks only a few months earlier, so I was a pile of nerves anyway.

Please don't do it. I was at a wedding 25 years ago, where 3 of us were pregnant. Only one of us went on to live birth (It wasn't me) I still cannot look at photos of that wedding without getting upset. A general prayer for families would be better.

cleanslate

Thank you everyone for your answers. I have decided to leave it out. The wording I had in the original post was not what I was going to use, I had something much nicer and personal but it was a general idea of whether it was something that would be nice or something that wouldn't be appropriate that I was looking for really.
Thanks all for taking the time to reply