Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us

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Advent, as in, the preparation for Christmas, can be difficult at best. With the passing of Thanksgiving, Christmas is in my face everywhere, and I have a difficult time convincing the children that we do not celebrate the birth of Jesus four weeks before His birthday. "Do you celebrate your birthday four weeks before your birthday?" I ask.  "No," they say, "but every one else does it."

Sigh. It is so very hard to keep the secularist celebration out of my domestic church.

We are not ready yet, I tell my children, and it has nothing to do with colored lights and presents. You must prepare for Jesus. You must clean yourself...prepare Him a perfect home.

Yesterday I was looking through a special prayer book for an Advent prayer. Instead I found this novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help which I began to help my preparation. I thought you might like to join me. What better way to prepare for the coming of Our Lord than to ask His own mother for help? These prayers bring me to tears just to read them.

Mother of Mercy, have pity on me.

FIRST NOVENA PRAYER IN HONOR OF OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP
(First, Fourth and Seventh Day)

Behold at thy feet, O Mother of Perpetual Help, a wretched sinner who has recourse to thee and confides in thee. O Mother of mercy, have pity on me.

I hear thee called by all the refuge and the hope of sinners: be then, my refuge and my hope. Assist me, for the love of Jesus Christ; stretch forth thy hand to a miserable fallen creature who recommends himself to thee, and who devotes himself to thy service for ever.

I bless and thank Almighty God, who in His mercy has given me this confidence in thee, which I hold to be a pledge of my eternal salvation.

It is true that in the past I have miserably fallen into sin, because I had not recourse to thee. I know that, with thy help, I shall conquer.

I know, too, that thou wilt assist me, if I recommend myself to thee; but I fear that, in time of danger, I may neglect to call on thee, and thus lose my soul.

This grace, then, I ask of thee, and this I beg, with all the fervor of my soul, that in all the attacks of hell I may ever have recourse to thee. O Mary, help me. O Mother of Perpetual Help, never suffer me to lose my God.  

Nine Hail Marys


O Lord Jesus Christ, who gave us your Mother Mary, whose renowned image we venerate, to be a Mother ever ready to help us; grant we beseech You, that we who constantly implore her motherly aid, may merit to enjoy perpetually the fruits of Your redemption, Who lives and reigns forever and ever.    Amen.

REMEMBER, O MOST GRACIOUS VIRGIN MARY, THAT NEVER WAS IT KNOWN THAT ANYONE WHO FLED TO THY PROTECTION OR SOUGHT THY AID WAS LEFT UNAIDED......

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SECOND NOVENA PRAYER TO OUR MOTHER OF PERPETUAL HELP
(Second, Fifth and Eighth Day)

O Mother of Perpetual Help, grant that I may ever invoke thy most powerful name, which is the safeguard of the living and the salvation of the dying. O purest Mary, O sweetest Mary, let thy name henceforth be ever on my lips. Delay not, O Blessed Lady, to help me, whenever I call on thee; for, in all my temptations, in all my needs, I shall never cease to call on thee, ever repeating thy sacred name, Mary, Mary.

O what consolation, what sweetness, what confidence, what emotion, fill my soul when I utter thy sacred name, or even only think of thee. I thank the Lord for having given thee, for my good so sweet, so powerful, so lovely a name. But I will not be content with merely uttering thy name. Let my love for thee prompt me ever to hail thee, Mother of Perpetual Help.


Nine Hail Marys
O Lord Jesus Christ, who gave us your Mother Mary, whose renowned image we venerate, to be a Mother ever ready to help us; grant we beseech You, that we who constantly implore her motherly aid, may merit to enjoy perpetually the fruits of Your redemption, Who lives and reigns forever and ever.    Amen.

REMEMBER, O MOST GRACIOUS VIRGIN MARY, THAT NEVER WAS IT KNOWN THAT ANYONE WHO FLED TO THY PROTECTION OR SOUGHT THY AID WAS LEFT UNAIDED......


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THIRD NOVENA PRAYER TO OUR MOTHER OF PERPETUAL HELP

(Third, Sixth and Ninth Day)

O Mother of Perpetual Help, thou art the dispenser of all the gifts which God grants to us miserable sinners; and for this end He has made thee so powerful, so rich, and so bountiful, in order that thou mayest help us in our misery. Thou art the advocate of the most wretched and abandoned sinners
who have recourse to thee: come to my aid, for I recommend myself to thee.

In thy hands I place my eternal salvation, and to thee I entrust my soul. Count me among thy most devoted servants; take me under thy protection, and it is enough for me. For, if thou protect me, I fear nothing; not from my sins, because thou wilt obtain for me the pardon of them; nor from the
devils, because thou art more powerful than all hell together; nor even from Jesus, my judge, because by one prayer from thee He will be appeased.

But one thing I fear: that in the hour of temptation I may through negligence fail to have recourse to thee and thus perish miserably. Obtain for me, therefore, the pardon of my sins, love for Jesus, final
perseverance, and the grace ever to have recourse to thee, O Mother of Perpetual Help.


Nine Hail Marys

O Lord Jesus Christ, who gave us your Mother Mary, whose renowned image we venerate, to be a Mother ever ready to help us; grant we beseech You, that we who constantly implore her motherly aid, may merit to enjoy perpetually the fruits of Your redemption, Who lives and reigns forever and ever.    Amen.

REMEMBER, O MOST GRACIOUS VIRGIN MARY, THAT NEVER WAS IT KNOWN THAT ANYONE WHO FLED TO THY PROTECTION OR SOUGHT THY AID WAS LEFT UNAIDED......

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