Every year, Day for Life falls on Father’s Day. Today we remember with gratitude the loving care and direction our parents gave to us, whether they are still with us or have gone to the Lord.
Parenthood is a vocation of joys and hopes, of griefs and anxieties. On this year’s Day for Life, we acknowledge the particular grief of mothers and fathers who have lost a child before birth or in infancy. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day can be especially difficult for parents who have experienced the loss of a infant.
The Church wants to be especially close to parents who have suffered the loss of an infant. We have the Lord’s promise from the Scriptures that: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you” (Jer 1:5).
The Word of God reveals the sacred humanity of the unborn child and perhaps helps us understand why we feel such profound grief at the loss of a baby. Parents instinctively grasp how precious and unique the child is whom they have lost and whom they may already have called by name. They know how no other child can ever replace them.
This Day for Life 2026, we reflect on the wonder of human life from the moment of fertilisation. We remember how the Lord Jesus Christ Himself sanctified and experienced the beginning of life in the world as an unborn child, hidden in the womb of Mary. Mary knew that she was carrying the Son of God – God and man – as soon as He was conceived. John the Baptist leapt in his mother Elizabeth’s womb when Mary greeted her. Our Lady treasured Our Lord in her heart and womb until His birth.
You can read more about this year’s Day for Life on the website of the Bishop’s Conference of England and Wales here.
As an older people’s charity, we particularly think about all older people who are or who have been parents, including those whose children have died before them, including those who suffered miscarriages.
Day for Life Fund
We are very grateful as a charity to have received funding from the Day for Life fund which has been crucial in enabling is to do our work.
The Day for Life Fund provides financial assistance each year to organisations working to support the Church’s mission to protect human life from conception to natural death. Each year, the money donated by the faithful on the Day for Life is dispersed to these organisations to assist them in undertaking specific projects relating to life issues. These can range from educational workshops to advocacy campaigns, practical support services to commissioning research.
We encourage people to donate to the Day for Life fund to support its work. You can donate to it here.