Prayers Relating To
Down Syndrome
The Virgin of Peace with Worldwide Children, Shim Soon-hwa Catherine, c. 2014
Down Syndrome
Down syndrome (also known as trisomy 21) is a naturally occurring condition caused by the presence of an extra copy of all or part of the 21st chromosome at conception.
Babies with Down syndrome are unique individuals, although they share some common characteristics, including an upward slant to the eyes, lower muscle tone, smaller stature, an increased incidence of certain medical conditions, and varying degrees of intellectual and developmental disabilities.
They are just as human as babies without an extra chromosome.
They are just as much made in the image and likeness of their Creator as other human beings, and for the same purpose: to know, love, and serve God in this world and the next.
Their path is different. But that is true of all human beings.
When it comes to the issue of life, there are two competing cultures in our world: the culture of life that says every human being has value and deserves protection; and the culture of death that says the only human beings who have value are the ones who are wanted, convenient, desirable, and who can have a quality of life subjectively determined by others.
For the last 50 years, the culture of death has overtaken most of our society. With the help of the multi-billion-dollar abortion industry peddling their destructive messaging abortion has not only become accepted but celebrated. This has especially been true when preborn children are diagnosed with Down syndrome.With increased access to prenatal testing, Down syndrome abortions are skyrocketing worldwide. In the United States, the best estimate is that 67% of pregnancies end in abortion when the preborn child is diagnosed with Down syndrome.
In other countries, the situation is even worse. In France, 77% of preborn children diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted. In Denmark, it’s 98%, and in Iceland it's 99%. The idea of “eradicating Down syndrome” has even become a source of national pride in some countries. These abortions are only a small part of the worldwide genocide of children with or without any disabilities - at least 44 million abortions worldwide in 2023, possibly 56 million worldwide
Despite abortion messaging and practice spreading around the world, as Christians, we know that a diagnosis of Down syndrome – or any other medical or chromosomal condition – doesn’t change the value of life in the womb. Every human being was made in the image of God with intrinsic value from the moment of conception.
We should imagine what our world would look like if the culture of death was pushed out by a culture of life.
This would be a culture where all parents are encouraged, empowered, and supported, instead of told that they don’t have what it takes to bring a child into the world. We would celebrate all life, instead of only celebrating some lives. All children would know how special and valuable they are, instead of telling some that the world doesn’t want them.
- The above acknowledges Kimberly Begg of Catholic School Playbook and Jason Law 'God Doesn't Make Mistakes: Raising a Child with Down Syndrome' in Human Coalition.
Beautiful Wonderful People
Prayers
The following five prayers are from SaintforDownSyndrome.org, founded by Andrea Schanne who has adopted Saint Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) as a patron saint for those with Down Syndrome.
Prayer to The Blessed Virgin Mary for Her Children with Down Syndrome
Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy, you were given to us as a mother and teacher. Come and teach us through the Lord's grace to be the best mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and friends that we can for your children with Down syndrome. Help us to accept these children as children so special to you, with gratitude as a beautiful gift from God. Make us faithful to God's will. Guide us with your motherly wisdom, fortitude, gentleness, and most of all, love, so as to help nurture your beautiful children. Place your mantle around them as a protection from all harm and evil. We ask this through Jesus Christ, Your Son, Our Lord, in whom we place all our trust. Amen.
Prayer For Down Syndrome
O Holy St. Robert Bellarmine, I pray for your loving intercession for the needs of those with Down syndrome.
May you be at the side of every mother with child, that she will have the faith to overcome worldly thoughts and fears that could distract her from recognizing the precious gift of life growing within her.
May you be at the side of the parents, families, friends, teachers, and caregivers that they will have the grace to know the Lord's merciful hand is guiding them through life's joys and struggles. May they place their hope and complete trust in Jesus.
St. Robert Bellarmine, help me to keep my eyes open for the opportunity to show my love like Jesus and not to let fear of the unknown prevent me from doing the Divine Will. I ask you to entrust these intentions to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary that she may place them before the altar of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. Amen.
Prayer for an Expectant Mother of a Baby with Down Syndrome
O Holy and merciful Lord who made my soul and the soul of my baby in Your image, I beg You, increase my wisdom to understand, my justice to love and my courage and strength to overcome my fears. Hide my soul within You Lord that worldly thoughts shall not consume me nor distract me from the precious gift of life growing within my womb.
O sweet Lord who so loves, so protects, and so nurtures, help me to place my trust in You. Give me the humility and grace to carry my beautiful baby until birth, so I may raise my baby to know and love you.
O Most Holy St. Robert Bellarmine who was inspired by the Holy Spirit, I implore your miraculous intercession before the Lord to answer my prayer and to be with me while I am pregnant with my baby. Amen.
The Adoration of the Christ Child, Follower of Jan Joest of Kalkar (Netherlandish) c. 1515
The angel next to the Blessed Virgin Mary is depicted as having Down Syndrome, and possibly also the shepherd in the middle. This painting is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Prayer for Raising a Child with Down Syndrome
O Sweet Lord through the intercession of St. Robert Bellarmine, I ask for your merciful hand to guide me with sacrificial love to raise my beautiful child of light, your perfect creation. Lord, help me to know that Your burden is light and Your yoke is easy as I care for my precious child whose humble soul shines with purity, beauty and the Love of God.
O Lord, what is easier, gentler and sweeter than to know the goodness, beauty and love which is my child and You O Lord. Amen.
Prayer Before Surgery
O loving Father, I pour out my heart to you and ask for the intercession of St. Robert Bellarmine that (name of person) with Down syndrome will have a successful surgery. Take the worries and fears away and replace them with Your thoughts of love, mercy, and generosity. Help us to trust in divine providence that all will be according to Your plan.
Give the doctors, nurses, and medical staff, patience, gentleness, wisdom, and clarity so as to know exactly what is needed for surgery. Guide the surgeon's hands for accurate precision. May there be no complications and a speedy recovery so that (name of person) may continue to know, love and serve the Lord in this world and continue to fulfill his/her mission on this earth. Amen.
Sisters of the Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb
The Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb
The Institute of the Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb (Les Petite Soeurs Disciples de l'Agneau) is a French female religious order devoted to a life of contemplation and which allows young women affected by Down Syndrome to fulfill their religious vocation.
The community was founded in 1985 and was officially established as a Religious Institute of contemplative life in 1999, by the Archbishop of Bourges, Monsignor Pierre Plateau. On 15th December 2011 Monsignor Maillard, Archbishop of Bourges, officially approved their Constitutions.
William McGurn has written an article "Down Syndrome and the Gift of Innocence" (Christmas 2019) about these sisters.
Ven. Jerome Lejeune (1926-1994)
Venerable Jerome Lejeune
The Venerable Jerome Jean Louis Lejeune (1926-1994) was a French pediatrician and geneticist who discovered the cause of Down Syndrome, being the presence of three copies of chromosome 21 in most or all the cells of the body. In 1962, this extraordinary discovery was recognized by the awarding of the Kennedy Prize to Jérôme Lejeune, who received this award from the hands of President John F. Kennedy himself. Subsequently, working with a number of collaborators, including Professor Marie-Odile Rethoré, Jérôme Lejeune discovered the underlying mechanisms of other chromosomal diseases, thereby founding the discipline of cytogenetics.
Ven. Jerome Lejeune dedicated his scientific genius to serving children with Down Syndrome and their families. His scientific mind was combined with a fervent Catholic faith and a stubborn refusal to accept the logic and rewards of the Culture of Death. He was a dedicated family man with five children, and a practicing physician who saw patients every day in his clinic.
From the time of his discovery in 1958 to this 1969 “To Kill or Not to Kill” speech in San Francisco, he had spoken at fifty scientific conferences in the US, but in the 5 years following, he only received five invitations. Instead of being asked to join scientific conferences, he was increasingly asked to participate in pro-life events, including in 1989 when he was asked at a moment’s notice to fly from Paris to Maryville, Tennessee to testify in the first legal challenge to the personhood of frozen embryos.
In addition to numerous awards and honours from around the world, he became a great friend of Pope St. John Paul II (1920-2005), who supported his effort to have science serve and defend life, and who named him president of a newly created Pontifical Academy for Life. Lejeune was able to serve as president only for a few weeks before he died on Easter day in 1994.
After extensive investigation into every aspect of his life, he has was declared Venerable on 21 January 2021 as a public affirmation that he lived a life of heroic virtue. This proclamation is a step towards canonization. The Church now places him before us as a witness to Christ and as an intercessor in our times of need.
- The above acknowledges (1) the website of the Institut Jerome Lejeune which was founded in 1997 and is today one of the leading medical centers worldwide specializing in Down Syndrome (trisomy 21) and other genetic diseases, and (2) Mark Bradford's 'The Venerable Father of Modern Genetics' (2023) at wordonfire.org articles, and (3) Dr Joseph's 'A Model of Catholic Bioethics' (The National Catholic Bioethics Centre 2021).
Prayer for the Intercession of Venerable Jérôme Lejeune
Heavenly Father, we come before you to seek the intercession of Your servant, Jerome Lejeune. We thank You for the gift of his life and for the many contributions he made to the field of genetics and to the pro-life movement. We ask that You grant us the grace to follow his example of dedication to science and faith, and his commitment to defending the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death.
We pray that You may grant us the favour we seek through his intercession, [mention your intention], if it is in accordance with Your holy will. We trust in Your infinite mercy and goodness, and we ask for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints in heaven, including Jerome Lejeune.
We ask this through Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
- With ecclesiastical approval:Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris.
Prayer
Venerable Jerome Lejeune, pray for us, that we might always desire the same light that drew the three wise magi in humility to the infant Lord. May we seek the same wisdom that formed you in God’s truth and the same strength you embodied in standing strong in defence of life and against the culture of death.
The Holy Family, Gerhardt Wilhelm von Reutern, 1858
This Webpage first posted on
The Feast Day of the Apparition of the Immaculate Virgin Mary at Lourdes, 11 February 2025.
Our Lady of Lourdes Prayer for Healing
O ever-Immaculate Virgin, Mother of Mercy, health of the sick, refuge of sinners, comforter of the afflicted, you know my wants, my troubles, my sufferings; look with mercy on me.
By appearing in the Grotto of Lourdes, you were pleased to make it a privileged sanctuary, whence you dispense your favours; and already many sufferers have obtained the cure of their infirmities, both spiritual and corporal.
I come, therefore, with complete confidence to implore your maternal intercession. Obtain, O loving Mother, the grant of my requests. (mention your petition) Through gratitude for your favours, I will endeavour to imitate your virtues, that I may one day share your glory, and bless you in eternity. Amen.
Litany of Our Lady of Lourdes
Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy. Christ hear us. Christ, graciously hear us.
God, the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us. God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us. God the Holy Ghost, dwelling in the souls of the just, have mercy on us. Holy Trinity, One God, have mercy on us.
Exalted model of mothers, Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us. Mother who didst suffer so much, pray for us. Mother, poor and without shelter, pray for us. Mother who didst bear the fruit of thy womb along forgotten roads, pray for us. Mother who didst find for thy divine Son no other shelter than a wild cave and no other cradle than a manger, pray for us. Mother who didst declare, “I am the Immaculate Conception”, pray for us. Mother who didst appear to a humble peasant girl so as to teach us humility, pray for us. Mother who wast clad in a white robe to encourage purity, pray for us. Mother who didst wear a girdle of blue to remind us of Heaven, pray for us. Mother who didst tread on a rosebush to remind us of the sufferings we must endure to merit Heaven, pray for us. Mother who didst bear a rosary to inspire us to pray, pray for us. Mother whose hands were joined and whose eyes were raised to Heaven to draw us to penance, pray for us. Mother who is the star of hope, pray for us. Mother who prays for us to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us. Mother who gives strength to the clergy, pray for us. Mother who, by thine intercession, heals the sick, pray for us. Mother who is the health of the weak, pray for us. Mother who comforts the afflicted, pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord. Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord. Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the word, have mercy on us.
℣. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, Our Lady of Lourdes, ℟. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray.
Our Lady of Lourdes, so fruitful in miracles, protect, with that hand which nothing can resist, our holy father, the Pope. Infuse into us the spirit of faith, hope and charity. We all trust in the truth of thine apparitions and the superabundant power with which thy divine Son hath invested thee. Therefore, we fly to thee now in all our necessities. Amen.
More Beautiful Wonderful People
Immaculate Queen of Peace, pray for us.
