Spiritual adoption of a conceived child – a prayer commitment

73 million induced abortions annually – according to the WHO report.

Formula of the Promise of the Spiritual Adoption of the Conceived Child

Blessed Virgin, Mary, Mother of God, all Angels and Saints, driven by the desire to help in the defense of the unborn, (I, …) firmly resolve and promise that from the day of … (on a Feast Day / Solemnity …) I take one child into spiritual adoption, whose name is known to God, in order to pray for 9 months every day for the salvation of his life and for a just and righteous life after birth.

I decide:

• say a daily prayer every day for the intention of the unborn child
• pray one mystery of the Rosary every day
• moreover, adopt (optionally) the following provisions: …

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Daily Prayer

Lord Jesus, through the intercession of your Mother, Mary, who gave birth to you with love, and through the intercession of St. Joseph, a man of entrustment, who took care of you after your birth, I ask you for this unborn child, whom I have spiritually adopted, and who is in danger of destruction. Please give parents the love and courage to leave their child alive as You Yourself have destined for him. Amen.

One mystery of the Holy Rosary.

How to join spiritual adoption

What you need to know

Prepared on the basis of texts by Wiesława Kowalska

What is the Spiritual Adoption of the Conceived Child?

Spiritual Adoption of a conceived child is a prayer commitment undertaken in the intention of a child endangered with killing in the mother’s womb. It is also a personal fulfillment of the Jasna Góra Vows of the Polish Nation. Joining the work of the Spiritual Adoption of the Conceived Child makes us spiritual parents of a child whose name is known only to God.

What is the essence of this prayer?

The essence of the Spiritual Adoption is the protection of conceived life – a gift of God himself. It is also thanksgiving for one’s own life, and at the same time the completion of the gift of parenthood for those who cannot have their own children. It is also a chance of expiation – remuneration – for women who killed their unborn child. In the heart of such women there is a desire for purification and penance, because they are created to love and give life. The sin of abortion causes great havoc in their psyche, which medicine calls the post-abortion syndrome. Spiritual Adoption is a very effective remedy for the wounded hearts of mothers and fathers because it restores peace in families. It also brings great fruits among young people, who thanks to it prepare for the sacrament of marriage in a more mature way.

How to undertake Spiritual Adoption?

Spiritual Adoption can be undertaken privately or publicly – in a church, in a community or during a pilgrimage. The formula of the promise of Spiritual Adoption should be said. From the day of taking the oath, for 9 consecutive months, i.e. as long as the child grows under the mother’s heart, every day you should:

• meditate on and pray one mystery of the Rosary (Our Father and 10 Hail Marys),
• say the following prayer for the child and his parents:

Additional resolutions can be added to the prayer. These can be, for example: frequent confession and Holy Communion, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, reading the Holy Scripture, fasting on bread and water, fasting from television, alcohol, cigarettes, concrete help for families with many children, the sick, the disabled, single mothers, etc. Realistic resolutions should be made, taking into account the individual possibilities of fulfilling them.

Frequently Asked Questions

When can/should you start praying?

Children are conceived every day, so every day is a good day to start it privately, taking a new life under spiritual care. It is advisable to make promises of Spiritual Adoption in a solemn way, during important events and church holidays in which the largest possible number of believers participate (Advent retreats, Lenten retreats, pilgrimages, Marian feasts).

Who can undertake Spiritual Adoption?

Spiritual Adoption can be undertaken by everyone – laymen, consecrated people, men, women, people of all ages. Also people living in a non-sacramental relationship and divorced. Only children take it under the care of their parents.

Are “additional resolutions” necessary to undertake Spiritual Adoption?

Additional provisions are not obligatory, although adopters are willing to take them.

How many times can you pray?

It can be undertaken repeatedly, provided that previous obligations are fulfilled. If the prayer is interrupted for a few days due to forgetfulness, we do not interrupt the Spiritual Adoption, but only extend it by the number of days missed. When the break is longer (a month or two), you should renew your promise and try to keep them.

Do you have to make promises every time?

Yes.

How can I be sure that God will hear my prayer?

We base our certainty on faith in the Omnipotence and unlimited Divine Mercy. God is the Giver of Life and His will is that every conceived child should live and be surrounded by the love of its parents. But we also base this certainty on testimonies: many people say that when they decided to kill their child, God gave them a special grace that they decided to give birth to it. These people are convinced that someone prayed for this grace for them. God also gives other signs: many people, praying for an unknown child, have received the gift of motherhood, despite the fact that they have been diagnosed with infertility. Many testimonies indicate that it was prayer for the unborn child that changed the lives of people who undertook it, causing a return to the practice of faith or to unity in marriage. The testimonies of people freed from the pro-abortion syndrome are of particular importance. They often emphasize that many years of psychiatric treatment or frequent confession did not give such blessed results. These are the people who most often become apostles of the work of Spiritual Adoption.

Is it a sin if one forgets to say a prayer on a given day?

Forgetting is not a sin. A sin is a conscious and voluntary disregard of a promise made to God.

Is Spiritual Adoption interrupted when prayer has been neglected for a long time?

A long break (a month or two) interrupts the Spiritual Adoption. Then you should renew the promise and try to keep it. In the event of a short break, the Spiritual Adoption should be continued, prolonging the prayer for the missed days.

How can you make promises privately?

Read the formula of the promise (preferably in front of the Cross or a picture) and from that moment for the next nine months pray one freely chosen mystery of the Rosary and a prayer in the intention of the child and parents. To remember, it is good to write down the date of the beginning and end of the prayer.

Permission of the Church | Blessing of the Holy Father

Permission of the Church / Imprimatur

The prayer was issued with the permission of the Warsaw Metropolitan Curia (March 31, 1987, No. 1687/K/87).

Blessing of the Holy Father

Spiritual Adoption received a blessing:

• of the Holy Father John Paul II (Letter of the Secretariat of State of 25.04.1994 sent to the Prior of the Jasna Góra Monastery, Father Szczepan Kosnik).
• Pope Francis (Letter of the Secretariat of State of 19.08.2016 addressed to the authors of the mobile application for young people Powerbank for Life). In this letter we read: The Holy Father (…) receives with gratitude the news about the Spiritual Adoption of the Conceived Child and encourages to perseverance to continue this beautiful work of support for mothers and children whom they carry under their hearts. He surrounds with his prayers all who are engaged in this work and sends them his apostolic blessing.”

The History of Spiritual Adoption

The beginnings of the work The beginnings of the Spiritual Adoption of the Conceived Child are connected with the apparitions of Our Lady in Fatima. The prayer was created after the Fatima apparitions, becoming an answer to Our Lady’s call to pray the rosary, penance and reparation for sins which hurt Her Immaculate Heart the most. An unknown author from the Blue Army Movement of Our Lady of Fatima, acting in Western Europe and in the United States, expressed the idea of prayer in the intention of the life of a child endangered by abortion in the prayer ‘Lord Jesus…‘. A leaflet with this prayer was found in the porch of the Catholic cathedral in London by Dr. Paweł Milcarek, a lecturer of Christian philosophy at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. The text of the prayer together with a personal commentary, short ideological principles of the new initiative and his commitment to undertake it was published in 1987 in the January issue of ‘The Knight of the Immaculate’.

At the Pauline Fathers, the Pauline Fathers together with academic youth gathered in the community of the Guard of Generations at the Pauline Church of the Holy Spirit in Warsaw, which was presided over by Fr. Sebastian Matecki, Eliza Pyrkosz and Jerzy Zieliński, organized the first retreats and promises of Spiritual Adoption on February 2, 1987. The place where the first promises were made was not a coincidence. It was here, after the Swedish invasion, in gratitude for the defence of Jasna Góra, that king Jan Kazimierz gave the Pauline Fathers the ruins of the destroyed church and in this way began the work of moral renewal of the nation. In this church, Fr. Krzysztof Kotnis, starting from the post-war years, organized penitential vigils in reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the sins of infanticide. In his sermons, he courageously took up topics related to respect for life – standing up for it. For this activity, he was repeatedly persecuted by the communist authorities. This suffering resulted in the idea of the Guard of Generations, which continued his work.

In March 1987, with the consent of the Metropolitan Curia of Warsaw, a folder with a prayer was published and basic prints concerning the Spiritual Adoption were prepared. At that time, the promotion of Spiritual Adoption as their special vocation was discovered by: Fr. Stanislaw Jarosz OSPPE, Wiesława Kowalska and Fr. Krzysztof Kowalski OSPPE. The beginnings were difficult. A very small group of people was involved in Spiritual Adoption, but through perseverance and commitment, the idea spread more and more. Undoubtedly, it was God’s work – without money, advertising, completely from the bottom-up, from the Church of the Holy Spirit, the idea of Spiritual Adoption began to radiate all over Poland. In the years 1990-92, on the initiative of Wiesława Kowalska, the prayer spread in many parishes of the diocese of Sandomierz-Radom. In 1992, a permanent centre of Spiritual Adoption was established in Kałków-Godów under the leadership of the custodian of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Sorrows, Fr. Czesław Wala, where promises were made from the entire diocese. The idea of Spiritual Adoption was brought to Gdańsk by Krystyna and Zdzisław Arkuszyński, who made pilgrimages in the intention of defending the life of conceived children to the sanctuaries of Our Lady in Poland. Thanks to the support of the metropolitan archbishop of Gdańsk Tadeusz Gocłowski, with the involvement of Gdańsk defenders of life, the initiative of the Spiritual Adoption was undertaken in several parish centres in the Tri-City. The central centre of the Spiritual Adoption on the Gdańsk Coast became the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Pregnancy in Gdańsk-Matemblewo, under the leadership of the custodian prelate Kazimierz Krucz. On March 25, 1992, on the fifth anniversary of the first Spiritual Adoption, a solemn Holy Mass was celebrated by Bishop Zbigniew Kraszewski. On November 12-13, 1993, at the inspiration of the National Pastor of Families, Rev. Dr. Kazimierz Kurek, a nationwide consultation session was organized in Gdynia for diocesan pastoral ministries of families from the territory of Poland on the dissemination of the idea of Spiritual Adoption. The fruit of this meeting was the transplantation of the Spiritual Adoption by Teresa Wiszowata to the area of the diocese of Bialystok, the collection of instructions and auxiliary materials by diocesan instructors of family counseling from many dioceses and lively correspondence on the dissemination of the Spiritual Adoption, coming from all over the country.

Blessing of the Holy Father John Paul II A particularly intensive development of the work took place after the year 1994, when the prayer received the blessing of the Holy Father John Paul II, included in a letter addressed to the prior of Jasna Góra, Father Szczepan Kośnik. In the same year, a book-instruction entitled ‘Spiritual Adoption of the Conceived Child’ was published, prepared by pro-life activists from Warsaw and Gdańsk under the supervision of the Pauline Father Sebastian Matecki. Since then, the Spiritual Adoption, carried from mouth to mouth, began to penetrate into numerous environments and pastoral ministries throughout Poland. In 1994, the Metropolitan Curia in Krakow published information about the Spiritual Adoption in the Pastoral Bulletin. The work of the DA spread in the dioceses of Krakow, Tarnów and many others.

On the pilgrimage route, Spiritual Adoption also became a permanent point of walking pilgrimages to Jasna Góra from Warsaw and other cities. On August 15, 1994, on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Mother of God, 3500 pilgrims from the 283rd Warsaw Walking Pilgrimage, led by the Prior of Jasna Góra, Father Szczepan Kośnik, made promises of Spiritual Adoption. At the same time, promises of Spiritual Adoption were made by many pilgrims of the Divine Pilgrimage of Krakow. In Vilnius, in front of the Image of Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn, 900 people from the Suwałki – Vilnius Walking Pilgrimage took their vows. Since then, thousands of young people undertaking the prayer of Spiritual Adoption on the pilgrimage route have entrusted their lives to Our Lady and made a commitment to live in premarital chastity. In 2017, for the first time, a group of Little Helpers of God – families and children undertaking Spiritual Adoption – went to the Pauline ‘Blue Ten’.

On 25 and 26 March 1994 at Jasna Góra in Częstochowa the first promises of Spiritual Adoption were made in front of the Miraculous Image of Our Lady Queen of Polish. The nationwide Movement of Promoting Spiritual Adoption was established, under the patronage of the Prior of Jasna Góra. In 1995 the Central Centre of Spiritual Adoption was established at Jasna Góra as the main point of information about this prayer, formation of animators and propagation of prayer for unborn children in Poland and abroad.

To the ends of the earth Since 1996, foreign trips have begun, the mission of which was to give the Spiritual Adoption to the inviting parishes. Thanks to the commitment and apostolic zeal of the animators of the Spiritual Adoption, this prayer reached Polish pastoral and missionary centers in many places in the world. It has been translated into many languages and has become an international movement. Today it is known in many countries in Europe and on other continents: in America, Asia, Australia…

New forms, new technologies In 2016, reflections for children for spiritual adoption by Katarzyna Pazdan were published: “Little Helpers of God. A guide for children to spiritual adoption” and two mobile applications were created: “Adopt Life” – developed by the Little Feet Foundation and “Powerbank for Life” – developed by a team of over 40 authors and translated into many languages. Since 2019, the reflections for children Little Helpers of God are also available in a smartphone version.

Blessing of the Holy Father Francis In 2016, in a letter addressed to the authors of the Powerbank for Life application, we read: “The Holy Father (…) with gratitude she receives the news about the Spiritual Adoption of the Conceived Child and encourages to persevere continuation of this beautiful work of support for mothers and children whom they carry under their hearts. He surrounds all who are engaged in this work with his prayers and sends them his apostolic blessing.”

Testimony

I have been involved in the defense of life since 1984. My great adventure began many years ago in Fatima. A monk gave me two figurines: a statue of Our Lady of Fatima and a statue of Our Lady Nursing Little Jesus. Soon after this event, I began to attend prayer meetings of the Renewal in the Holy Spirit group. During the intercessory prayer for the outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Jesus touched my heart very strongly. The sign that particularly “spoke” to me at that time was a photograph of an unborn child hidden in a human hand, given to me by someone, with the caption “I am safe”. Since then, the desire to save my life has never left me. I believed that God would create such circumstances in which my desires would come true. And so it happened. Soon after, I was asked to meet with young people in one of Warsaw’s high schools. Other meetings were born from this meeting – in schools, communities, on pilgrimages. I came across Spiritual Adoption through a group of young people involved in the defense of life gathered in the “Guard of Generations”, operating at the Pauline Church in Warsaw. In 1989 I made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In Bethlehem – the place of Jesus’ birth – I laid down the tiny figure of a ten-week-old baby and prayed that this prayer work would reach all places in the world. Exactly 9 months later I was invited with the prayer of Spiritual Adoption to the first parish. From that time on, my continuous apostolic journey began. To date, I have had thousands of meetings, sharing my personal testimony and promoting Spiritual Adoption during pilgrimages, priestly and youth retreats, in schools, seminaries, prisons, Catholic media and Polish and foreign parishes (m.in.: Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Germany, England, France, Croatia, Hungary, Israel). I have witnessed the healing power of God from this humble prayer and the many graces and miracles that I have collected in extensive documentation. Thousands of young people, undertaking the prayer of Spiritual Adoption during walking pilgrimages to Jasna Góra, entrusted their lives to Our Lady and undertook a commitment to live in premarital chastity. The power of this prayer is really great. From the prayer of the Spiritual Adoption there were 9 apostolic initiatives in defence of life and family, promoted by animators of the Central Centre of Spiritual Adoption with the headquarters at Jasna Góra in Częstochowa. The moderator of the work of the Spiritual Adoption of the Conceived Child is Father Stanisław Jarosz – a Pauline monk from Jasna Góra.

Wiesława Kowalska | Animator of the Central Centre of Spiritual Adoption at Jasna Góra