Traditional prayer
Prayer for My Children
O my God, to how many and to what great dangers are my children not exposed, and how insufficient is the protection that I can afford them!
Yes, O Lord, I watch in vain over them if Thou dost not watch with me.
But when they abide under Thy protection, how secure may I not be!
I recommend, therefore, my children to Thy powerful and loving care.
Keep graciously far from them all that may prove hurtful and dangerous to their life; let them enjoy the blessing of health; but, above all, protect them in the dangers of their souls.
Drive away from them with Thy powerful hand whatever may have an injurious influence upon their yet tender and youthful hearts and become for them an occasion of wickedness and sin!
Send Thy holy angels, that they may “bear them up in their hands, lest they should dash their feet against a stone.”
Almighty Father, lead my children through the dangers and storms of this life, so that they may arrive one day at the haven of salvation. Amen.
About this prayer
This is a mother’s prayer in a mother’s voice. It comes from The Christian Mother, a book of instruction and prayers for Catholic mothers translated from the German of Fr. Wilhelm Cramer and published by Benziger Brothers in 1880, where it stands among the prayers “for the children.”
Its turning point is one honest sentence: “I watch in vain over them if Thou dost not watch with me.” That is Psalm 126 in a mother’s mouth: “Unless the Lord keep the city, he watcheth in vain that keepeth it” (Psalm 126:1, Douay-Rheims; Psalm 127 in modern Bibles). The same psalm says whose children they are first: “Behold the inheritance of the Lord are children” (126:3). The angels it asks for come from Psalm 90: “In their hands they shall bear thee up: lest thou dash thy foot against a stone” (Psalm 90:12, Douay-Rheims; Psalm 91 in modern Bibles).
Notice the order of the petitions. It asks plainly for their safety and their health, and then, “above all,” for their souls, and it ends at the only harbour that lasts, “the haven of salvation.” A mother is allowed to ask for both. The prayer simply keeps them in the right order.
Godmothers, grandmothers, aunts and teachers can pray it for the children in their care just as it stands.
When to pray it
- In the morning, as they leave the house.
- At night, standing over them while they sleep.
- Before a journey, a new school, or a first time away from home.
- On the anniversary of each child’s baptism.
- Whenever fear for them wakes you, and you cannot do anything else.