Welcome: prayers for new and pregnant parents is a collection of inpirational prayers that will enable parents and family members to invite the God of surprises into the journey of childbirth and will be an invaluable resourse for those who ministers to parents and families.

Kathleen Finley along with her husband Mitch is deeply committed to developing an awareness of the sacredness of family life and has written extensively on it. In this book she provides a series of prayers for every occasion in the journey of coming to birth.

I was reminded in reading through the prayers of an event in our own family many years ago. It was after the evening meal and my mother and I were in the company of my sister who was experiening difficulty feeding her new first-born son. My sister-in-law arrived to visit who a short time previously had experienced the death of her first-born shortly after birth. My sister was sheding tears of frustration which turned to tears of guilt as my sister-in-law attempted to comfort her. Soon all three woman were in an embrace of pain and compassion while the child and his uncle got on with the business of feeding from the bottle. It was sacred moment, one deserving of prayer if any of us could find the words to express that sense of worry, loss and thanksgiving.

Finley provides parents and family members with words with which to express their fears, worries, hopes, joys, disapointments and thankfullness to the God who creates life. The book of prayers is divided into five sections: before pregnancy; during pregnancy; during labour and delivery; adoption; at home. Some of the prayer titles include:

Trying to become pregnant; after a miscarriage; blessing for an expectant father; on feeling the baby move; thanksgiving for a safe delivery; waiting for approval for an adoption; while nursing or feeding the newborn; on going to the doctor's office.

Welcome is a wonderful resource for parents who would like to pray during the time of pregnancy and birth but wish they could find the words. The words to fit all occasions are provided and of course can be adapted to fit the particular situation of a parent or family. Throughout the book there are quotations from scripture that can norish the faith of those who read them.

It is also a tremendously useful treasure for those who minister to families around the time of pregnancy and birth. There are blessing prayers for expectant parents, prayers of thansgiving and prayers that can be used in the presence of miscarriage and infant death.

As I fed my nephew, with Kathleen Finley's help I might have prayed someting like this:

Nourishing God, thank you for the privelage of this time to feed my nephew. Although I am the one feeding him, when I pause to think about it, he is also "nourishing" me - by giving me the opportunity to give to him and to realise all that I am able to give. And he can also teach me about your love because my realionship to you is much like his relationship to me: you delight to "feed" me whenever I ask, and you want me to know your love through all that you give me. As I fed my nephew help me to be grateful for all we have. Thank you for the gift of life and nourishment that my mother has given to me and that my sister has given to my nephew. Thank you for my sister-in-law who comforts even in her pain. Be with all parents who are grieving and with those parents throughout the world who aren't able to give their children all that they need, even though they want to. Amen.

Andrew McNally

Welcome: prayers for new and pregnant parents by Kathleen Finley is published by Liguori Press, Missouri, 2004. ISBN 07648-1154-1