St. Bernard’s Catholic Church will have an outdoor nondenominational prayer vigil Friday as part of Baby Loss Awareness Week 2021 (Oct. 9-15).
Baby Loss Awareness Week, now in its 19th year, is an opportunity for bereaved parents, families and their friends, to commemorate babies’ lives, raise awareness of pregnancy and baby loss, and to drive for improvements in both care and support for those affected and to save babies’ lives in the future.
The Global Wave of Light will take place 7-8 p.m. Friday at St. Bernard’s Catholic Church, 1306 E. Main St., with a public candle-lighting ceremony and prayer vigil held in memoriam of infants who have passed.
Organizers hope the prayer vigil and ceremony will spark conversations about baby loss and give local bereaved parents and families an opportunity to talk about their precious babies. Holy Families Ministry, a new ministry of St. Bernard’s focused on foster care, adoption, infertility and pregnancy loss, invites the public to the event.
Please arrive about 10 minutes early to prepare for the ceremony; candles will be provided for the bereaved, as supplies are available. If you can’t join us in person, simply light a candle at 7 p.m. and leave it burning for at least one hour to join us in remembering all the babies who have died too soon. Wherever you do this, you will be joining a global Wave of Light‚ in memory of all the babies who lit up our lives for such a short time.
“Baby Loss Awareness Week is a unique opportunity for parents, grandparents, siblings and wider family and friends to come together and remember their babies who have died, however long ago,” said Clea Harmer, chief executive of Sands (a stillbirth and neonatal death charity based in the UK). “For anyone whose baby has died, however recent or long ago, the world is changed forever, and there is no simple answer to grief. Finding ways to cope and look after yourself or your partner is different for everyone.
“I hope that the Global Wave of Light will help start more conversations about pregnancy and baby loss, and by doing so help bereaved parents and families feel more able to talk about their babies and find ways to look after themselves and others.”
Anyone in Crawfordsville can share their photos of the Global Wave of Light on social media with the hashtags #WaveOfLight and #BabyLoss.
For further information about Baby Loss Awareness Week visit online at www.babyloss-awareness.org
For further information about Holy Families Ministry, visit online at www.stbernardcville.org/holy-families-ministry.
