Rite includes blessing for parents, family

BELLINGHAMBy John Wolcott

Blessing expectant parents during Mass around significant feasts honoring Mary — the Assumption, the Immaculate Conception and the Annunciation — is becoming a new tradition at Sacred Heart Parish.

 

Father Joseph Altenhofen, Sacred Heart’s pastor, said in an email that he was inspired by a staff member who suggested a public “blessing of wombs” might be a good idea, “especially in our culture, to recognize the sanctity and blessing of life starting with conception.”

After six expectant mothers were blessed at the first rite in August, “we received some positive verbal feedback from parishioners,” Father Altenhofen wrote. “The women appeared very honored to be recognized. It also helped foster a spirit of parish unity.” Two more mothers were blessed on Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Before August, Father Altenhofen had never done a public blessing of expectant parents, “but I have done the blessing upon the request of the mother,” he wrote.

The Rite for the Blessing of a Child in the Womb can be done during Mass or outside of Mass. The mother, father and other family members are invited to come forward. The blessing over the mother asks for protection of her unborn child, a healthy birth and determination for her to “lead her child along the ways of salvation.”

The blessing for the father asks for “courage in his new responsibility” and for him to be “an example of justice and truth for this child.” The family blessing asks God to endow them with love and to fill their parish community with “faithfulness to the teachings of the Gospel and new resolve to share in the spiritual formation of this child in Christ.”

Sacred Heart’s next blessing ceremony will be on March 25, the feast of the Annunciation.

PRAYER OF BLESSINGGod, author of all life,bless, we pray, this unborn child;give constant protectionand grant a healthy birththat is the sign of our rebirth one dayinto the eternal rejoicing of heaven.Lord, who have brought to this womanthe wondrous joy of motherhood,grant her comfort in all anxietyand make her determinedto lead her child along the ways of salvation. Source: Rite for the Blessing of a Child in the Womb

December 18, 2013