Prayers for Pregnancy

Icon of The Visitation

I was fortunate enough to have a smooth pregnancy with Leo and thoroughly enjoyed being pregnant. As I enter the second trimester with Littlest, it appears as if things are unfolding in a similar way. 

While my day-to-day life looks the same (except for some very minor morning sickness) one practise that is a constant reminder that I am pregnant are the prayers for pregnancy. Upon finding out we were pregnant with Leo, and now with Littlest, we began praying these words during Evening Prayers:

"O Sovereign Lord Jesus Christ our God, the Source of life and immortality, I thank Thee, for in my marriage Thou has blest me to be a recipient of Thy blessing and gift; for Thou, O Master, didst say: Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. I thank Thee and pray: Bless this fruit of my body that was given to me by Thee; favor it and animate it by Thy Holy Spirit, and let it grow a healthy and pure body, with well-formed limbs. Sanctify its body, mind, heart, and vitals, and grant this infant that is to be born an intelligent soul; establish him in the fear of Thee. A faithful angel, a guardian of soul and body, do thou vouchsafe him. Protect, keep, strengthen, and shelter the child in my womb until the hour of his birth. But conceal him not in his mother's womb; Thou gavest him life and health. O Lord Jesus Christ, into Thine almighty and paternal hands do I entrust my child. Place him upon the right hand of Thy grace, and through Thy Holy Spirit sanctify him and renew him unto life everlasting, that he may be a communicant of Thy Heavenly Kingdom. Amen."

These words say better than Joel and I ever could, all we hope for our child during my pregnancy, labour and delivery. These words mark a season of great anticipation and joy in our lives and it is the sweetest reminder of the gift I carry, the child I am growing and will, God willing, meet at the years' end. I absolutely cannot wait.