Blessing for a pregnant woman
May our Mother God keep you safe until the time
of your deliverance
May you, and those eagerly awaiting your ‚hour’ be
enfoldete in peace.
May our God pf patient waiting be your strength
durching these days of anticipation.
May our Midwife God protect and comfort you
during your labor.
May our Got of love and life transform your
labour pains into joy, in the gift of a health
child.
May our Nurturing Mother Got provide you with
an abundance of milk, to nourish your
newborn infant.
And may the blessing of the God who conceived us with joy,
birthed us with pain, and transforms us in love,
to fullness of life and fruitfulness;
may this God bless you, and keep you in her womanly tenderness today and always. Amen
Maria Kersten, in: Celebrating Women, ed. by Hannah Ward, Jennifer Wild, Janet Morley. London 1995
When your child asks you…
Mum, what was it like when I was born?
And then your mother will say:
A holy moment it was,
when I pushed you
with all my strength and hurting like mad
into the light.
It was a holy act,
when the midwife
let you slide over her hands
and put you on my breast.
A holy silence filled the room,
as I was lying there,
exhausted and yet full of bliss,
when I looked at you and saw
this amazing miracle of creation:
You!
Hanna Strack, Translation Copyright: Natalie K. Watson
The Glorious Visitation. Mary and Elizabeth
by Lucy D`Souza-Krone
Who has seen the two vines planted in the field of the Lord,
From whose clusters the whole creation is refreshed?
The two vines are Mary and Elizabeth,
the clusters are Christ and John,
the Holy Bridegroom of the Church
and the friend of the Bridegroom.”
Prayer with the Harp of the Spirit. Fr. Francis Acharya
Mary and Elizabeth rejoice and dance singing the Magnificat.
Together they form a butterfly, with the child in the embryo in the centre, signifying that both are pregnant. The child is in the form of a coconut ( a coconut is broken and offered in the Holy places in India) also indicates the sacrifice of Jesus and St. John. The sun in the centre above points out to John`s saying, “he must increase, I must decrease”, John 3:30 where John, the Baptist, would like to disappear and let Jesus get all the attention and importance. John has been the one who prepared the way for Jesus:
Mary and Elizabeth are in the yellow orange form depicting them to BE with the child, and full of Grace and Light. In the child and due to the child this Glorious Visitation has taken place, the child brings them Joy, Hope, Light and Life.
Lucy D`Souza-Krone, Kirchgasse 5, 65529 Waldems-Esch
Tel: 06126 / 3116 Fax: /4659
Imagination back to the Womb
I would like to invite you now to a short meditation or what we call in German:
A Fantasiereise—travelling by imagine back to the roots of your birth.
I invite you to close your eyes and to listen to my voice and to try to see with your inner eyes.
I walk by my inner pictures
back to the womb of my mother
back on the way,
through which I came
with great power
and I turned in the light
My mothers womb,
my first home
in the amniotic fluid
I feel it now in my imagination:
from the placenta
are flowing into me
the power and the food
just like from my tree of life
I do feel it:
how my umbilical cord
my thread of life
is connecting me
with my source of power
Mother,
I live in you.
I am hearing
I am tasting,
I am feeling
I am trembling, when you are afraid
I am laughing, when you
are stroking me
through your womb
I am listening, when you are singing
and then, on time:
All around me in revolt,
it labours, it contracts
it works
it makes me angry
and – with one push
I enter in this strange world
The hands of the midwife,
the smile of my father,
the warmth of the skin and the bosom
of my mother receive me.
Sick Child In The Womb – Forgive Us!
Our child
we have seen you
on the ultrasound.
We felt you kicking
and felt you in the womb.
We expected you
in our life.
Child in the womb,
now we see.
We are in great fear and anguish
because you are ill.
Your life would be full of pain and hardship.
It would overwhelm the strength
of your parents and your brothers and sisters.
Child of our worries,
we cannot manage it,
we give you back to
where you came from.
Child sick in the womb –
forgive us!
The merciful Deity
may take you in her motherly womb!
Hanna Strack
Reflection on Motherhood
I am a woman created in the image of God
Created with value and dignity
Fashioned by God`s breath.
Im am a woman mother of lives
Mother of Presidents and Labourers
Mother of Servants and Ministers
Mother of Kings and Subjects
Mother of Queems amd Mates
Mother of Idiots and Geniuses.
I am a woman
Food producer, cook, home maker, nurse, night watch
I toil from dawn to dusk
Cultivating and harvesting in the scorching heat ot them.
Transporting heavy loads on sun-beaten tracks,
Journeying home to feed the family.
I am a woman, the key to the family
I am loved yet oppressed
Cherished yet subordinated
Caressed yet battered
Neede yet gorgotten.
I am a woman
Lord you created me and know me
You know me by name
You hear me when the world refuses to listen
you understand when the world refuses to
understand
You know all my troubles
You see my tears, you hear my sighs.
You are my all
With you Lord there is hope
I will continue to trust in you
I am your woman.
by Grace Eneme, Kamerun
Blessing for a stillbirth
You were a child of hope,
our love envrapped you,
our imagination beautified you.
You will remain our child,
but you are a child of desire
becoming a child of grief.
You haven`t seen the sun glitter
and the sikle moon.
You didn`t look in our sparkling eyes.
But now you see the light
the beaming, warming light
of God`s love.
You are blessed
you child of hope
and desire.
And with you is blessed
our grief about you,
you child with God.
Amen
Hanna Strack