Memorial Mass held Oct. 14 for miscarriage and infant loss

By RENEE WEBB
Content and Design Coordinator

Parents and family members who have mourned the loss of an infant attended the Memorial Mass for Miscarriage and Infant Loss held Oct. 14 at Cathedral of the Epiphany in Sioux City.

Celebrated by Bishop John E. Keehner, the annual Mass was again held in October during the month that the Catholic Church observes as Respect Life Month. October is also Pregnancy, Infant and Child Loss Awareness Month. Bishop Emeritus Walker Nickless and Father Larry Burns and Father Mark Stoll concelebrated the liturgy.

In the Gospel referring to Matthew 8, the bishop said Jesus reminds the disciples and all of the faithful of the immensity of God’s love.

“Jesus reminds us that God loves us. He comes looking for us when we are lost even when we don’t want to be found,” said Bishop Keehner. “He reminds us that we are never too small or too insignificant for God to take notice of us.”

God takes notice, he stressed, not in judgement or scorn but out of love.

“God takes notice because despite our littleness, he sees in us what he sees in the face of his only begotten son – his own image and likeness,” said Bishop Keehner.
The bishop reminded the faithful that God calls us even from “our mother’s womb – inviting us to be loving sons and daughters offering to share with us the fullness of his life and love.”

Bishop Keehner shared a personal story that tied into the theme of the Mass.

A few days before his third birthday, he said his mother gave birth his brother Michael who died about six hours later. While details were hard for the bishop to remember, he remembered his mother’s grief.

“Because of that grief, she was changed just a bit.  All of our lives were changed just a bit,” he recalled, adding that even in the midst of great joys there was a part of his mother that forever grieved.

Even though the babies that have been lost through miscarriage, abortion or died shortly after birth could no longer be held physically, the bishop said they are remembered and are still sons and daughters of God.

After Mass, parents were invited to write their child’s name in a book of remembrance and were given a rose in memory of the child. 
 
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