A prayer for childless couples

I have been swamped with letters and text messages from here and abroad all requesting for a copy of the prayer to the Bambino de Aracoeli – the same one Richard and I religiously recited when we were asking God to bless us with a baby. In the malls as well as in church, complete strangers would come up to me with the very same request. Thus, I am running the prayer in full as it appears in my stampita. As you pray, may your life be soon blessed and enriched with the laughter of a child and the pitter-patter of little toes. Ask on and believe!

Most lovable Lord Jesus, who didst

become a little Child for us and willed to be

born in a stable to deliver us from the darkness

of sin, to draw us to Thee and to inflame us

with Thy holy love, we adore thee as our

Creator and Redeemer, we bow down before

Thee and desire Thee to be our King and

Sovereign Lord, and we offer Thee, as a tribute,

all the affections of our poor hearts. Dear

Jesus, our Lord and our God, vouchsafe to

accept this offering, and that it may be less

unworthy of Thee, pardon our sins, enlighten

and inflame us with that holy fire which Thou

didst bring upon earth to kindle in our hearts.

May our souls thus become an altar on which

to offer to Thee the sacrifice of our mortifications

and may we ever seek Thy greater glory here

below so that one day we may come to enjoy Thy

infinite beauty in Heaven. Amen.

(say your petitions)

The celebrated statue of the Divine Infant was carved in Jerusalem from the olive trees of Gethsemani in the 15th century by a member of the Franciscan Order who brought it to Rome and placed it in the Church of the Friars Minor of Ara Coeli on the Capitol for public veneration. Here it is now known, visited and honored by the whole Catholic world on account of the innumerable favors which the Divine Infant bestows on those who venerate it. It was solemnly crowned by the Vatican Chapter on May 2, 1897.