Are you a new parent? Congratulations! You have been blessed by God with such a beautiful gift!
Now comes the most difficult part about being a parent: raising that child to be a good person!
You are going to need all the help you can get and to start, you should ask God for help. Typically the most authentic prayers are those that you pray from your heart, but sometimes we might need some assistance and so here is a adapted prayer from a family prayer book from 1845. It is honest in its petitions and lays before God all that a new parent needs, especially the reality that children so often learn good (and bad) habits from their parents.
Whatever you do, don’t try to be a parent on your own!
O God, whose holy prophets have declared children to be a blessing, grant that your grace may never be obstructed through any defect on my part. May the children you have bestowed upon me be a blessing and a comfort to my life. May I be enabled to bring them up in virtue and godliness: and, Lord, please bestow upon them such dispositions and such tempers as may lead them to profit by every good and to shun every evil that may come near them.Bestow upon them, out of the abundance of your mercy, health, strength, and ability; give them the will to improve themselves, and the power to make the most of all those means which may lead to the of advancing their own good and your honor.Teach me, Almighty God, to give them an example of the way in which they should walk. Teach me to train their minds in the fear and love of you: and never, oh never let them fall into sin by following any bad habit or any evil inclination which they may have learned from me. Oh let them not be brought to sorrow and suffering through my means: let them not incur guilt through any negligence or indulgence on my part. From all sin, keep them, O Lord; and especially from all sin which I might have taught them to shun. Let them live innocently and holily; let them remember the object for which their life is bestowed: let them remember the bliss which you have prepared for us all in your kingdom. Grant this my prayer, I beseech you, through Jesus, your beloved Son, in whom you were always well pleased. Amen.
Read more:
A prayer to the Holy Spirit on how to become a better parent
Read more:
Pregnant and discouraged? St. Francis de Sales has beautiful words for you
And today we celebrate...