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Summary
- Eleven short prayers cover a parent’s first days, silence, anger, guilt, a mother’s and a father’s grief, the marriage, surviving children, birthdays and anniversaries, the medical staff and remembering the child.
- The burial services for a child in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, the 1888 Catholic Manual of Prayers and Hapgood’s 1906 Orthodox service book each include prayers quoted in full.
- Catholics and Orthodox Christians pray for a son or daughter who has died, and the 1928 prayer book includes prayers for the departed; the Westminster Confession limits prayer to the living.
- David grieved his infant son with “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me” (2 Samuel 12:23), and “Jesus wept” at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:35).
- For children who die without baptism, the Catechism says the Church “can only entrust them to the mercy of God” and allows hope for their salvation (paragraph 1261).
- The Compassionate Friends supports bereaved parents through more than 500 US chapters and a UK helpline, 0345 123 2304.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (2 Samuel 12:23; 18:33; Psalm 13:1; 34:18; 56:8; 103:14; Isaiah 66:13; Jeremiah 31:15; Matthew 2:18; John 11:35; Romans 8:26; 1 Thessalonians 4:13; Revelation 21:4). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. At the Burial of a Child, pp. 338–342; Family Prayer, “For an Anniversary of One Departed,” p. 598. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared and published by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1888. The Burial of the Dead, p. 586; The Burial of Children, pp. 587–591; Various Prayers for the Dead, pp. 592–594. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. The Order for the Burial of a Child, pp. 426, 433–434. https://www.ponomar.net/data/hapgood.pdf
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997. Paragraph 1261. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P3M.HTM
- Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), chapter 21, “Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day,” section 4. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. https://www.ccel.org/ccel/anonymous/westminster3.i.xxiii.html
- The Compassionate Friends (US). https://www.compassionatefriends.org/ ; The Compassionate Friends (UK), helpline 0345 123 2304. https://www.tcf.org.uk/
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. https://988lifeline.org/
- Samaritans. “Contact Samaritans.” https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/
- Fund for the Support of Children in Difficult Life Situations. Helpline for children, teenagers and parents, 8 800 2000 122. https://fond-detyam.ru/
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