by Chris Kania. Chris is an alumni rider of Biking for Babies who coordinates an annual local ride in the greater Chicago area to spread the Culture of Life in America!
Most of the stories my grandpa told were about his time in the Marines during WWII. He would also quote the “quality of mercy” speech from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice when he gave me his spare change to donate to the poor, saying that he was blessed by the giving and I was twice blessed because I received the money from him and then gave it away. He was a man of few words, a patient listener, always very present to his family. I didn’t realize how little I knew about him until he got dementia. I mostly know my grandpa by putting together bits and pieces from my grandma, my aunts and uncles, and my early childhood memories.
But there is one thing that I regret not conversing with him about, and that was the prayer card of Our Lady of Guadalupe that he had taped on the bathroom mirror. The card had a simple prayer on the back, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I love you very much. I beg you to spare the life of the unborn child I have adopted who is in danger of an abortion.” My grandma tells me that he said the prayer daily and kept that card on the mirror as a reminder of his commitment.
Although this prayer card was my earliest exposure to the idea of spiritual adoption, I did not take it to heart until many years later. First a friend prayed the prayer with me outside of an abortion facility on a cold January Roe v. Wade anniversary day. Then I attended a 40 Days for Life celebration where a priest formally introduced me to the devotion. He encouraged us to pray the prayer daily from March 25th to December 25th, in remembrance of the 9 months that Jesus spent in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Most recently, my parish had a spiritual adoption campaign in conjunction with the parish school, starting in September and ending this month with a baby items collection for our local pregnancy center.
Every March, I take great delight in naming the unborn baby for whom I will pray during the next nine months. My first baby girl is named Lucy, and this past December, I finished my daily prayers for baby Charles, who is named after my grandpa. The spiritual adoption prayer, and more importantly, the attitude of spiritual adoption, reminds me that often in the midst of the greatest evils, all we can do is pray.
To learn more about the practice of spiritual adoption visit: http://www.spiritualadoption.org
