NV-Sacred Heart & Perpetual Help

NOVENA IN PREPARATION FOR THE FEASTS OF THE
SACRED HEART OF JESUS and OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP
Consecrations below. Ninth Day after the Consecrations.

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, to Thee I consecrate and offer up my person and my life, my actions, trials, and sufferings, that my entire being may henceforth only be employed in loving, honoring and glorifying Thee. This is my irrevocable will, to belong entirely to Thee, and to do all for Thy love, renouncing with my whole heart all that can displease Thee.

I take Thee, O Sacred Heart, for the sole object of my love, the protection of my life, the pledge of my salvation, the remedy of my frailty and inconstancy, the reparation for all the defects of my life, and my secure refuge at the hour of my death. Be Thou, O Most Merciful Heart, my justification before God Thy Father, and screen me from His anger which I have so justly merited. I fear all from my own weakness and malice, but placing my entire confidence in Thee, O Heart of Love, I hope all from Thine infinite Goodness. Annihilate in me all that can displease or resist Thee. Imprint Thy pure love so deeply in my heart that I may never forget Thee or be separated from Thee.
I beseech Thee, through Thine infinite Goodness, grant that my name be engraved upon Thy Heart, for in this I place all my happiness and all my glory, to live and to die as one of Thy devoted servants. Amen.

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Act of Consecration to Our Lady of Perpetual Help

Most Holy Virgin Mary who, to inspire me with the fullest confidence, hast been willing to take the sweet name of Mother of Perpetual Help, I. N. N. (say your name) acknowledge that my sins render me unworthy to be admitted among the number of thy privileged children. Nevertheless, desirous of enjoying thy merciful favor, I cast myself at thy feet and humbly prostrate before thee, I consecrate to thee my understanding, that I may always think of consecrate to thee my heart in order that, after God, I may love thee above all things.

O my Sovereign Lady, deign to receive me among the number of thy favored children, take me under thy protection, help me in all my spiritual and temporal wants, but especially at the hour of my death.

O Mother of Perpetual Help, I know that thou lovest me more than I can love myself, I entrust all my interests to thy care: dispose of me, and all that belongs to me, according to thy good pleasure.

O Mother, bless me, and by thy powerful intercession support my weakness, so that having been faithful in serving thee during this life, I may praise thee during this life, I may praise thee, love thee and thank thee eternally in the next. Amen.

What is a Novena?
A novena is a traditional devotion consisting of specific prayers recited on nine successive days. Besides being a form of praise, a novena is frequently offered for a particular intention. The first novena took place in the Cenacle, during the nine days preceding Pentecost, or the coming of the Holy Ghost. As a regular popular custom, this practice began in 12th century Christianity and continues to be beneficial today as a way of praying for healing, protection or other blessings for ourselves or others.

Since June 27th of 2014 happens to be both the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as well as that of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, we will be running a double novena, that will focus on the HELP that we can receive from both the Sacred Heart and Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Our Lord and Our Lady are the Two Pillars that St. John Bosco saw in his vision of the Church, which were the two helps that aided the Pope, who was sailing the Ark of the Church through a terrible storm, to save the Church by chaining the ship to these Two Pillars.

In praying this Novena, as in the case of all prayer, it is good to begin by opening ourselves wholeheartedly to God's will, offering a simple act of trust in God's wisdom and in His providential love for us all, that disposes all things for the ultimate benefit of our souls and their salvation.

How to Pray This Novena
This novena will be largely based upon Holy Scripture, the writings of the saints and the works and sermons of various theologians. Each day of the novena is divided into the following parts: (1) a relevant quote from Holy Scripture; (2) quotes concerning the Two Pillars, Jesus and Mary; (3) an occasional quote from a saint or a pope; (4) a Meditation; (5) a Resolution; (6) a Prayer; (7) after mentioning your intention, pray the Our Father and the Hail Mary; (8) a Closing Prayer.

NINTH DAY OF THE NOVENA (new meditations posted each day)
Topic to Contemplate: Giving All to the Sacred Heart

Holy Scripture
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5).
“if a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing" (Canticles 8:7).

Meditation
Consecration is the chief exercise, the fundamental act of effective love towards the Heart of Jesus. Pope Pius XI states in his Encyclical Miserentissimus (no. 8): "Among all these practices of the cult of the Sacred Heart there stands out and is to be pointed out the pious consecration, by which, giving back to God's eternal love all that we are and have received, we devote ourselves to the Divine Heart of Jesus"

The consecration is indeed an act by which we devote and give ourselves up to the Sacred Heart, in order to belong entirely to Him and to live no longer but for Him.

Love gives itself. In proportion as it gives itself, it proves to be great, strong and deep. True love gives itself entirely, unreservedly. In this way we are to give ourselves up to the Heart of Jesus if we wish to love It with our whole heart. It is in this that the consecration consists. Jesus is our Master and Lord. He has then a strict right to all that we have and all that we are. But out of love we wish to give it all to Him, as though it belonged to us as our own property. If we have made the True Devotion Consecration to Mary, then we have essentially doe the same thing, for the true title of that consecration is “Consecration to the Jesus Christ, the Eternal Wisdom, through the Hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” Thus, we don’t give ourselves over to Mary, but we give ourselves over to Jesus through Mary.

In many passages of her writings the Saint sets forth the significance and import of the consecration. To Mother de Saumaise she writes: “You should offer to Him the sacrifice of yourself by consecrating to Him all your being to be used in His service, to procure for Him all the glory, love and praise that lies in your power to give Him. This is what I think the Divine Heart asks, in order to perfect and achieve the work of your sanctification!”

And to one of her novices, St. Margaret Mary writes: “Our Lord wishes you to offer Him the entire sacrifice of yourself, of all your bodily and mental being, to be used only to render and procure for Him all the honor, love and glory in your power, by making a complete donation and unreserved gift of all the good which till now you may have done by His grace, that He may dispose of it according to His will!”

The consecration is a fully conscious act of our will, a maturely deliberate resolution from which there results a true engagement and hence which involves real obligations. It is not a vow, however, binding under penalty of sin but rather an explicit promise, an engagement of honor.

It is a true donation of ourselves to the Sacred Heart, and hence an act by which we become in truth the property of the Sacred Heart. We no longer belong to ourselves but to the Sacred Heart, which becomes in a strict sense our Proprietor.

It is a total donation; total, firstly, in respect of its object; we give ourselves up entirely with all that we are and have, with all that we do and all that we suffer; we give our person, our understanding, our heart, our will, our senses, our health, our strength, our affections, our words and our actions; in short, our whole lives. We except nothing; it becomes all the property of the Sacred Heart. Total, too, relative to the consequences of our donation, i.e. as regards the rights which it confers on the Sacred Heart and which, out of love, we promise to respect to the best of our ability in all our ways of acting.

Resolution
Of myself, I can do nothing. Yet with the grace of God, nothing is impossible. If the above saints managed to do these things, I must be able to manage it also--with the aid of the grace of God. For it is only saints that go to Heaven. Therefore, if I wish to go to Heaven, I must become a saint. All the Sacred Heart wants is my sincere wish to do so, and a sincere readiness to cooperate with His grace and Providence, once He begins to arrange all things for my sanctification.

Our Prayer
O Heart of Jesus pierced for our sins and giving us your Mother on Calvary! O Heart of Mary pierced by sorrow and sharing in the sufferings of your divine Son for our redemption! O sacred union of these Two Hearts! Praised be the God of Love who united them together!

May we unite our hearts and every heart, so that all hearts may live in unity, in imitation of that sacred unity which exists in these Two Hearts. Triumph, O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary! Reign, O Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! – in our hearts, in our homes and families, in the hearts of those who as yet do not know Thee, and in all nations of the world. Establish in the hearts of all mankind the sovereign triumph and reign of Thy Two Hearts so that the earth may resound from pole to pole with one cry: Blessed forever be the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary!

Obtain for me a greater purity of heart and a fervent love of the spiritual life. May all my actions be done for the greater glory of God in unions with the divine Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Hear and answer our prayers and intentions according to Thy most merciful will. Amen.

[Mention Intention]

Let us pray:
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. Help me grow in love and devotion to the Sacred Heart of thy beloved Son. Delay not, O Blessed Lady, to help me whenever I call on thee, for, in all my needs, in all my temptations I shall never cease to call on thee, ever repeating thy sacred name, Mary, Mary.

Say the Our Father and the Hail Mary.

Final Invocation:
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! Have mercy on us!
Our Lady of Perpetual Help! Pray for us!

EIGHTH DAY OF THE NOVENA (new meditations posted each day)
Topic to Contemplate: Imitating the Sacred Heart

Holy Scripture
“Learn of Me, because I am meek, and humble of heart” (Matthew 11:298).
“A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you" (John 13:34).

Meditation
Jesus wishes us to imitate Him. "I have given you an example," He said to His Apostles, after He had washed their feet, "that as I have done to you so you do also" ( John 13:15). At each action of His mortal life He seems to say to us too: "If I set you this example, it is that you may imitate it. If I have been humble, poor, obedient, and meek; if I have disdained human glory and earthly joys and preferred sufferings and scorn; if I have pardoned My enemies, it is in order to urge you to do the same."

And one of the reasons why He chose to become man and to be like unto us, was to show us the way to Heaven; to teach us, to encourage and strengthen us by His example, and thus to facilitate for us the practice of all virtues. He wishes us to imitate Him because it is the will of His Father that we should resemble Him.

He also desires it because He loves us. When we love anyone, it is a pleasure for us to discover in him some points of resemblance; to see that he thinks, desires and feels as we do; and we wish him to endeavor to resemble us more and more. Jesus loves us, and hence He necessarily desires us to apply ourselves to imitating Him as perfectly as possible.

If then we love Jesus, we shall comply with His wish. Besides, for him who loves, it is a necessity to make himself as conformable as possible to the person loved. Attracted by his qualities, he wishes to reproduce them in himself. He feels that true friendship could not exist without uniformity in thoughts, sentiments and aspirations, and he imitates them, as it were, instinctively. It is the same with our love for Jesus. If this love is real, it will of necessity induce us to be eager to resemble Him as perfectly as possible; we shall exert ourselves to the utmost to imitate Him.Thus without imitation, there is no true love, and without imitation of the Heart of Jesus there is no true devotion to the Sacred Heart.

It is in this way that this devotion was understood by St. Margaret Mary. "When I spoke to you of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus," she wrote to a Sister, "I meant a devotion of perfect conformity to His holy virtues rather than of prayer only!" This is, sadly, how we limit our devotion to the Sacred Heart, by reducing it to prayer alone. To another sister, St. Margaret Mary wrote: "Don't waste time on always looking out for new means to your perfection. Remember that yours entirely consists in conforming your life and your actions to the holy maxims of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, especially His meekness, His humility and charity ... Since love conforms lovers, if we love, let us conform our lives to the pattern of His life."

Its Practice
If, then, we wish to practice devotion to the Sacred Heart properly, and in accordance with Our Lord's desire, we shall exert ourselves to make our hearts as conformable as possible to His Heart.

1. His Sentiments
We will first of all make ours the sentiments of His Heart. We will love what He loves: His Heavenly Father, His Blessed Mother, the Angels, the Saints, His Church, the souls in Purgatory, and all men, especially children, the poor and the distressed; we will also love all that is good, noble and pure. We will detest whatever He abhors: that is every sin; every vice, and especially pride and haughtiness, the world and its spirit, its maxims, its allurements and its scandals. We will appreciate whatever He esteems: the supernatural treasures, graces, virtues and sanctity; we will despise whatever He despises: that is to say earthly goods, worldly glory, honors and sensual pleasures. We will desire all that He desires: which is all that may promote the glory of God, the extension of His reign, and the salvation of souls.

Finally, we will be grieved at whatever afflicts Him, or at least would afflict Him if He were still accessible to sorrow: namely, sin, the loss of souls, all that is inconsistent with His wishes, and, hence, whatever might hinder the glorification of His Heavenly Father, the extension of His reign, and the salvation of souls.

2. His Virtues
We will also cultivate in our hearts the virtues of His Heart. Jesus possessed all virtues in the highest degree, and practised them to perfection. Some of them, however, shone forth in Him with a peculiar splendour. Such are love for His Heavenly Father, conformity to the will of God, the spirit of prayer, humility, obedience, love for men, kindness, meekness, zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Yet as there is no lack of books which treat of these virtues, we think it is pointless to enter into all the particulars, of the example of them which Jesus set, and of our way of imitating them, since we have so little space available. But, in general, a true love of the Sacred Heart will not just be content with avoiding all mortal sins and venial sins, but will seek to learn from and practice His virtues in addition to that.

3. The Conditions in Which He was Willing to Live
But if we really love Jesus, we shall not content ourselves with sharing His sentiments and imitating the virtues of His Heart; we shall want to live, in so far as we can, among the conditions in which He Himself was pleased to live. What were these conditions? His life was, as we know, a life of poverty and privation, trouble and suffering, humiliation and scorn. Nor does the author of the Imitation of Christ exaggerate when he writes: "Not even Our Lord was ever one hour without suffering, so long as He lived. His whole life was a cross and a martyrdom" (Book 2, chapter 12). And those privations, humiliations and sufferings He loved, not for themselves it is true, as they were not lovable in themselves, but because they glorified His Father and saved us.

There have been countless generous souls who, prompted by their love for Jesus, wished to resemble Him and passionately loved and even eagerly sought poverty, sufferings and humiliations.
►So was St. Francis of Assisi, who took Poverty for his 'spouse', and remained heroically faithful to her even to his death.
►So was St. Ignatius of Loyola who, whilst imprisoned in the dungeon of the Inquisition under suspicion of heresy, assured those who commiserated him, that all the affronts and outrages inflicted on him, would not slake his thirst for suffering for the sake of Jesus.
►So was St. Francis Xavier who, when a moment's respite was given him in his suffering, used to say: "O my Jesus, I find it hard not to suffer!"
►So was St. John of the Cross who, asked by Jesus what reward he wished on earth for all that he had done for His glory, answered: "To be allowed to suffer, O Lord, and to be despised for Thee!"
►So was St. Angela of Foligno, to whom Jesus offered two crowns, one of roses and the other of thorns, and who eagerly took from His hands the crown of thorns and pressed it on her head.
►So was St. Teresa of Avila, who could not resign herself to live without sufferings and incessantly repeated: "Either to suffer or to die!"
►So was St. Magdalen of Pazzi, who wanted to live on in order to be able to suffer, and said over and over again: "Not to die, but to suffer!"
►And so also St. Margaret Mary, was prompted by her love for Jesus and her eager desire of resembling Him, passionately to love poverty, sufferings and humiliations. There are many passages in her writings in which she shows this love.

Resolution
Of myself, I can do nothing. Yet with the grace of God, nothing is impossible. If the above saints managed to do these things, I must be able to manage it also--with the aid of the grace of God. For it is only saints that go to Heaven. Therefore, if I wish to go to Heaven, I must become a saint. All the Sacred Heart wants is my sincere wish to do so, and a sincere readiness to cooperate with His grace and Providence, once He begins to arrange all things for my sancitification.

Our Prayer
O Heart of Jesus pierced for our sins and giving us your Mother on Calvary! O Heart of Mary pierced by sorrow and sharing in the sufferings of your divine Son for our redemption! O sacred union of these Two Hearts! Praised be the God of Love who united them together!

May we unite our hearts and every heart, so that all hearts may live in unity, in imitation of that sacred unity which exists in these Two Hearts. Triumph, O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary! Reign, O Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! – in our hearts, in our homes and families, in the hearts of those who as yet do not know Thee, and in all nations of the world. Establish in the hearts of all mankind the sovereign triumph and reign of Thy Two Hearts so that the earth may resound from pole to pole with one cry: Blessed forever be the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary!

Obtain for me a greater purity of heart and a fervent love of the spiritual life. May all my actions be done for the greater glory of God in unions with the divine Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Hear and answer our prayers and intentions according to Thy most merciful will. Amen.

[Mention Intention]

Let us pray:
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. Help me grow in love and devotion to the Sacred Heart of thy beloved Son. Delay not, O Blessed Lady, to help me whenever I call on thee, for, in all my needs, in all my temptations I shall never cease to call on thee, ever repeating thy sacred name, Mary, Mary.

Say the Our Father and the Hail Mary.

Final Invocation:
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! Have mercy on us!
Our Lady of Perpetual Help! Pray for us!

SEVENTH DAY OF THE NOVENA (new meditations posted each day)
Topic to Contemplate: Our Prayer Reflects Our Beliefs

Holy Scripture
“This people honoureth Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:8).
“And the Lord said: ‘Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips glorify Me, but their heart is far from Me!'" (Isaias 29:13).

Meditation
You may have heard of the ancient liturgical expression, "Lex orandi, lex credendi" (Latin: literally translated as “the law of praying [is] the law of believing”). Or, to paraphrase it more clearly: "the manner of our prayer reflects what we really believe." This axiom refers to the relationship between worship and belief, and is an ancient Christian principle

It is sometimes expanded to as, “lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi”, which in simple terms means "what we really believe will manifest itself in our prayers and our manner of living." Worship reveals what we truly believe and how we view ourselves in relationship to God. You will see many varied examples of this at church each Sunday: ranging from the sincerely pious, and going downhill through superficiality, indifference and finally impiety. Our Faith (or lack of it) can influence our actions (as to how we pray and live). But how live can also influence our Faith and our prayer life. And, finally, how we pray reflects what we believe and determines how we will live. The secular phrases that somewhat link to this Christian principle, is the axiom: “Actions speak louder than words”; "We are what we think"; "We end up acting in the way that we have been thinking"; "We will end up thinking as we act" and "Ideas end up having consequences." All this goes to show the intrinsic and inescapable connection between belief, prayer and action.

There are many who profess to be Catholic (in theory), but who leave us scratching our heads when we see them in practice. They seem to have split-religious-personalities: one personality in the theoretical domain, another personality in the practical domain—of course, this is nothing else than a greater or lesser degree of Liberalism and/or Modernism.

It is so strange and perhaps even shocking to see that some Protestants are searching for a deeper encounter with the beauty of the God in formal liturgical worship; searching for signs, symbols and mystery, for a connection with the ancient Church in her divine worship! Yet some parts of the Catholic Church have discarded the very treasures that made her formal liturgical worship so beautiful, full of mystery and so compelling and attractive to those seeking a deeper experience of worship and Christian life. What may have begun as an effort to simplify, has often ended up with throwing out the baby with the bathwater!

The absence or diminution of liturgical beauty, decoration and symbols, has led directly or indirectly to the diminution and absence of sincere prayer and holy living. Once again the principle applies: “lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi.” There is such a close connection between the way we pray, the setting we pray in, what we believe and how we live.

Has the simplification and radical change brought much fruit? By their fruits you shall know them, said Our Lord. The fruits of the present day predominance of Liberalism and Modernism are catastrophic (see Easter Thoughts, Articles 14 to 25). Increasing numbers of Catholics are either rejecting several or even many key beliefs of the Catholic Faith (lex credendi or the law of belief), or they rarely worship by refusing to pray and attend Sunday Mass on a regular basis (lex orandi, or the law of worship); or abandoning the Catholic Faith altogether and living a life separated form God (lex vivendi, or the way we live).

This comes about because of a lack of harmony or agreement within the three key spheres of Catholic life: belief, prayer and living life. The Catechism itself is divided into these three key parts: (1) The Creed, or what we must believe; (2) The Commandments, or the way in which must live our life; (3) Prayer and the Sacraments, or the sources of grace to help us live as we ought to live. All these three areas must work together in harmony if we are to save our souls.

All thing being equal, and giving some leeway for the axiom: "the exception proves the rule”, we can duly say that we pray better in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament than in the absence of the Blessed Sacrament; that we can focus better upon our prayers when surrounded with images that lift the mind and heart to Heaven than in the absence of such images; that our mind is more easily God-centered when stimulated by good religious background music than when modern music is being played.

Changing the perspective a little, and now looking at the exterior comportment of the Catholic, we can identify or guess the level of spirituality and Faith by the exterior actions of the Catholic.

A Catholic who rarely or never genuflects to the Blessed Sacrament (barring physical disability of course) can usually be thought to have little or no respect, or even little or no belief in the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. Today, sadly, statistics show that the majority of Catholics no longer believe in the Real Presence—and this can often be seen by watching their exterior mannerisms when they are in church.

In a lesser degree, the same can be said of the way in which a priest will offer the Sacrifice of the Mass, or in the way the faithful assist at Mass—by their posture, attention (or lack of it), the way they receive Holy Communion, their manner and length of thanksgiving after Holy Communion,, etc.

Similarly, we can use the same criteria in observing how we and others make the Sign of the Cross; the manner in which we pray; the speed with which we pray; the frequency of our prayers, etc. All these things reflect our Faith and show, in a practical way, if we really believe or how much we believe of what we theoretically profess to believe. In other words, it shows if the practice agrees with the theory, or whether there is an opposition or contradiction between theory and practice.

This leads us to the third element, the “lex vivendi” or the “law of living.” The way we live reflects what we believe. It is the next step from praying. We cannot love God and mammon (the world) — either the world will try to take over our spiritual life, or our spiritual life will try overcome the worldly life. The Church will either invade and overcome the world, or the world will invade and overcome the Church. The same applies to each person’s soul. Where do I stand?

The ideal to be reached is to have agreement and harmony all across the board — in what we believe; in how we pray; and in the manner we live. It is like a Holy Trinity, where all are different, but all possess the same Spirit — that has to be the Spirit of God and not the spirit of the world, and not a compromise or hybrid mix of the two.

Resolution
Despite my sins, or the sins of my beloved family and friends, I will never despair of the help of Mary, the Mother of God, the Comforter of the afflicted, the Mother of Mercy and the Refuge of sinners. I will ceaselessly pray for myself and for others until that comfort, mercy and refuge has been obtained.

Our Prayer
O Heart of Jesus pierced for our sins and giving us your Mother on Calvary! O Heart of Mary pierced by sorrow and sharing in the sufferings of your divine Son for our redemption! O sacred union of these Two Hearts! Praised be the God of Love who united them together!

May we unite our hearts and every heart, so that all hearts may live in unity, in imitation of that sacred unity which exists in these Two Hearts. Triumph, O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary! Reign, O Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! – in our hearts, in our homes and families, in the hearts of those who as yet do not know Thee, and in all nations of the world. Establish in the hearts of all mankind the sovereign triumph and reign of Thy Two Hearts so that the earth may resound from pole to pole with one cry: Blessed forever be the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary!

Obtain for me a greater purity of heart and a fervent love of the spiritual life. May all my actions be done for the greater glory of God in unions with the divine Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Hear and answer our prayers and intentions according to Thy most merciful will. Amen.

[Mention Intention]

Let us pray:
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. Help me grow in love and devotion to the Sacred Heart of thy beloved Son. Delay not, O Blessed Lady, to help me whenever I call on thee, for, in all my needs, in all my temptations I shall never cease to call on thee, ever repeating thy sacred name, Mary, Mary.

Say the Our Father and the Hail Mary.

Final Invocation:
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! Have mercy on us!
Our Lady of Perpetual Help! Pray for us!

SIXTH DAY OF THE NOVENA (new meditations posted each day)
Topic to Contemplate: Mary Wants to Help

Holy Scripture
“Showing mercy unto thousands to them that love me” (Exodus 20:6).
“I will have mercy on whom I will, and I will be merciful to whom it shall please me” (Exodus 33:19).

Meditation
“The Blessed Virgin herself revealed this to St. Bridget, saying: ‘As a mother who sees her son exposed to the sword of the enemy, makes every effort to save him, thus do I, and will I ever do for my children, sinful though they be, if they come to me for help’” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Glories of Mary).

“This Mother of Mercy is all kindness and all sweetness, not only with the just, but also with sinners and those who are in despair; so that when she beholds them turning towards her, and sees that they are with sincerity seeking her help, she at once welcomes them, aids them, and obtains their pardon from her Son. She neglects none, however unworthy they may be, and refuses to none her protection; she consoles all; and no sooner do they call upon her, than she hastens to their help. With her gentleness she often wins their devotion, and raises those sinners who are most averse to God and who are the most deeply plunged in the lethargy of their vices, so that she may dispose them to receive divine grace, and at last render them selves worthy of eternal glory. God has created this his beloved daughter with a disposition so kind and compassionate, that no one can hesitate to have recourse to her intercession” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Glories of Mary).

The Blessed Virgin herself revealed to St. Bridget: “I am the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of Mercy; I am the joy of the just, and the gate of entrance for sinners to God; neither is there living on earth a sinner who is so accursed that he is deprived of my compassion; for everyone, if he receives nothing else through my intercession, receives the grace of being less tempted by evil spirits than he otherwise would be. No one, therefore, who is not entirely accursed [by which is meant the final and irrevocable malediction pronounced against the damned], is so entirely cast-off by God, that he may not return and enjoy His mercy, if he invokes my aid. I am called by all the Mother of Mercy, and truly the mercy of God towards men has made me so merciful towards them.” And then she concluded by saying: “Therefore, he shall be miserable, and for ever miserable in another life, who in this life, being able to do so, does not have recourse to me, who am so compassionate to all, and so earnestly desire to aid sinners.” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Glories of Mary).

“St. Bernard says: ‘O Lady, thou dost abhor no sinner, however abandoned and vile he may be, when he has recourse to thee; if he asks thy help, thou wilt extend thy kind hand to draw him from the depths of despair.’ O ever blessed and thanked be our God, O most amiable Mary, Who made thee so merciful and kind towards the most miserable sinners. O, wretched are those who do not love thee, and who, having it in their power to seek help of thee, do not trust in thee! He who does not implore the aid of Mary is lost: but who has ever been lost that had recourse to her?” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Glories of Mary).

Resolution
Despite my sins, or the sins of my beloved family and friends, I will never despair of the help of Mary, the Mother of God, the Comforter of the afflicted, the Mother of Mercy and the Refuge of sinners. I will ceaselessly pray for myself and for others until that comfort, mercy and refuge has been obtained.

Our Prayer
O Heart of Jesus pierced for our sins and giving us your Mother on Calvary! O Heart of Mary pierced by sorrow and sharing in the sufferings of your divine Son for our redemption! O sacred union of these Two Hearts! Praised be the God of Love who united them together!

May we unite our hearts and every heart, so that all hearts may live in unity, in imitation of that sacred unity which exists in these Two Hearts. Triumph, O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary! Reign, O Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! – in our hearts, in our homes and families, in the hearts of those who as yet do not know Thee, and in all nations of the world. Establish in the hearts of all mankind the sovereign triumph and reign of Thy Two Hearts so that the earth may resound from pole to pole with one cry: Blessed forever be the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary!

Obtain for me a greater purity of heart and a fervent love of the spiritual life. May all my actions be done for the greater glory of God in unions with the divine Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Hear and answer our prayers and intentions according to Thy most merciful will. Amen.

[Mention Intention]

Let us pray:
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. Help me grow in love and devotion to the Sacred Heart of thy beloved Son. Delay not, O Blessed Lady, to help me whenever I call on thee, for, in all my needs, in all my temptations I shall never cease to call on thee, ever repeating thy sacred name, Mary, Mary.

Say the Our Father and the Hail Mary.

Final Invocation:
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! Have mercy on us!
Our Lady of Perpetual Help! Pray for us!

FIFTH DAY OF THE NOVENA (new meditations posted each day)
Topic to Contemplate: A New Heart

Holy Scripture
“Create a clean heart in me, O God” (Psalms 50:12).
“I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh” (Ezechiel 36:26).

Meditation
People say that they believe in God, and that they do not wish to offend Him, and will even say that they want to do His will and so save their souls; but, when pushed, they may honestly admit that despite all that, they do not really love Him. They may simply mean that they do not see how they can love the Invisible—and St. John indeed says much the same thing—but, on the whole, they mean that they cannot feel the same sort of love for God as that which they feel for some human person dear to them.

Nor will they be much helped by being told that love exists in the will and not in the emotions or feelings. Even less, perhaps, do they understand how God can possibly love them, sinners that they are, and this, not out of false humility but because they simply cannot see how one God can really love the myriads and myriads of individuals who have lived, or even one of them, so tiny is each one.

But it was because God does love the world that the Incarnation took place; and we, as Christians, are taught to seek and find God in His Son, Jesus Christ. And so urgent and powerful is His love for us, that He has sought every way of assuring us that He does love us—the supreme among such 'ways' being the institution of the Blessed Sacrament, and, among less authoritative means, 'private Revelations' like those given to St. Margaret Mary.

If, then, in spite of everything, we are not sure how truly we love God, or love Him in the person of His Son, our fellow-man, Jesus Christ, but if we are quite sure and convinced that we should love Him very much better, we must remember that we cannot be holier than God's actual gift of Grace enables us to be, and we must learn the Psalmist's constantly repeated doctrine of waiting. Yet we wait in hope. True, only God can give us the 'new heart', but He really wishes and He has promised to do so: “I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put My spirit in the midst of you” (Ezechiel 36:26-27). Such is the change that a deeper love for Our Lord will, please God, bring about in us.

But so great a gift is that love of God, that He expects us to treasure it, desire it and beg for it. As Our Lord Himself says in Holy Scripture: “Give not that which is holy to dogs; neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turning upon you, they tear you” (Matthew 7:6). We have to cry out all the louder, like the two blind men on the road to Jericho, to prove that we truly desire this great gift of love.

Onoe way in which we prove our desire is by turning away from the world and the allurements of the world—for we cannot love both the Sacred Heart and the world. The world hates Christ:

“Wonder not, brethren, if the world hate you” (1 John 3:13). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God” (James 4:4). “No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19).

The new heart, that we all need, has to be purged of the world: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). “Put off the old man, who is corrupted according to the desire of error, and put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth” (Ephesians 4:22-24). “Stripping yourselves of the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new, him who is renewed according to the image of Him that created him” (Colossians 3:9-10). “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer” (Romans 6:6). “Therefore, if you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above. Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth. For you are dead; and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1-3).

So let us cry out: “Create a clean heart in me, O God” (Psalms 50:12).

And the Sacred Heart will reply: “Behold, I make all things new” (Apocalypse 21:5). “And I will give them one heart, and will put a new spirit in their bowels: and I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh” (Ezechiel 11:19). “I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh” (Ezechiel 36:26).

Resolution
No matter how lukewarm or cold my heart may be, God is still willing to give me a new heart! However, that heart must be withdrawn from from the world and its ways. God can read my mind and He knows if I truly want to give up the world or not. Let us not be like the rich young man, who, even though he was loved by Jesus, could not give up his possessions to follow Jesus.

Our Prayer
O Heart of Jesus pierced for our sins and giving us your Mother on Calvary! O Heart of Mary pierced by sorrow and sharing in the sufferings of your divine Son for our redemption! O sacred union of these Two Hearts! Praised be the God of Love who united them together!

May we unite our hearts and every heart, so that all hearts may live in unity, in imitation of that sacred unity which exists in these Two Hearts. Triumph, O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary! Reign, O Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! – in our hearts, in our homes and families, in the hearts of those who as yet do not know Thee, and in all nations of the world. Establish in the hearts of all mankind the sovereign triumph and reign of Thy Two Hearts so that the earth may resound from pole to pole with one cry: Blessed forever be the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary!

Obtain for me a greater purity of heart and a fervent love of the spiritual life. May all my actions be done for the greater glory of God in unions with the divine Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Hear and answer our prayers and intentions according to Thy most merciful will. Amen.

[Mention Intention]

Let us pray:
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. Help me grow in love and devotion to the Sacred Heart of thy beloved Son. Delay not, O Blessed Lady, to help me whenever I call on thee, for, in all my needs, in all my temptations I shall never cease to call on thee, ever repeating thy sacred name, Mary, Mary.

Say the Our Father and the Hail Mary.

Final Invocation:
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! Have mercy on us!
Our Lady of Perpetual Help! Pray for us!

FOURTH DAY OF THE NOVENA (new meditations posted each day)
Topic to Contemplate: Help for the Sinner

Holy Scripture
“O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me” (Psalms 69:2).
“Give us help from trouble: for vain is the salvation of man” (Psalms 59:13).
“Help me, O Lord my God; save me according to Thy mercy” (Psalms 108:26).
“O God, be not Thou far from me: O my God, make haste to my help” (Psalms 70:12).

Meditation
The Blessed Virgin herself revealed this to St. Bridget, saying: “As a mother who sees her son exposed to the sword of the enemy, makes every effort to save him, thus do I, and will I ever do for my children, sinful though they be, if they come to me for help” (Glories of Mary, St. Alphonsus Liguori).

St. Bonaventure “intends to say that the sinner, who remains in sin, is hated and rejected by all men; even insensible creatures, fire, air, the earth would punish him, and inflict vengeance upon him, in order to repair the honor of their insulted Lord. But if this wretch has recourse to Mary, does she banish him from her presence? No! If he comes asking for help, and intending to amend, she embraces him with the affection of a mother, and does not leave him, until she has reconciled him to God by her powerful intercession, and re-established him in God’s grace” (Glories of Mary, St. Alphonsus Liguori).

In the prayer or collect that follows the Antiphon “Ave Regina Coelorum,” the Church prays: “Grant us, O merciful God, strength against all our weakness; that we who celebrate the memory of the Holy Mother of God, may, by the help of her intercession, arise again from our iniquities.” St. Bernard rightly names her “the ladder of sinners”, “Peccatorum scala,” since she, this compassionate queen, offers her hand to poor fallen mortals, leads them from the precipice of sin, and helps them to ascend to God. (Glories of Mary, St. Alphonsus Liguori).

In the celebrated history of St. Mary of Egypt, which we find in the first volume of the Lives of the Fathers, we read that, at twelve years of age she fled from her parents, and went to Alexandria, where she led an infamous life, and became the scandal of the city. After sixteen years spent in sin, she wandered off to Jerusalem; when, on the festival of the Holy Cross, she was led to enter the church, more from curiosity than devotion. On the threshold she was thrust back, as if by some invisible power; she attempted a second time to enter, and again was repelled, and a third and a fourth time the same thing happened. The wretched creature withdrew then into a corner of the portico, and there she was interiorly enlightened, and saw that God had refused her entrance into the church on account of her wicked life.

By chance she raised her eyes, and saw a picture of Mary which was painted in the vestibule. She turned to it, weeping, and said: “O mother of God, have pity on this poor sinner! I know that, on account of my sins, I do not deserve that thou shouldst regard me; but thou art the refuge of sinners: for the love of Jesus, thy Son, help me. Obtain for me that I may enter the church, for I desire to change my life, and go and do penance wherever thou shalt direct.” Then she heard an interior voice, as if the blessed Virgin answered her: “Come, since thou hast invoked me, and wishest to change thy life, enter the church, for the door will no longer be closed against thee.”

The sinner entered, adored the cross, and wept. She returned to the picture and said: “O Lady, I am ready; where shall I retire to do penance?” “Go,” said the Virgin, “beyond the Jordan, and thou wilt find the place of thy repose.” She made her confession, received Holy Communion, passed the river, reached the desert, and understood that there was her place of penance.

During the first seventeen years that she lived in the desert, the evil spirits fiercely assailed her, to make her fall again. What did she then do? She recommended herself to Mary, and Mary obtained for her strength to resist for seventeen years, after which the conflict ceased. Finally, after fifty-seven years spent in the desert, in the eighty-seventh of her age, through Divine Providence, she was found by the abbot St. Zosimus. To him she related the story of her whole life, and begged him to return there the following year, and bring her Holy Communion. The holy abbot returned, and gave her Communion. Then she implored him again to do the same thing.

He returned the second time, and found her dead, her body surrounded with light, and at her head these words written in the sand: “Bury in this place the body of me, a miserable sinner, and pray God for me.” A lion came and dug her grave, the abbot buried her, and, returning to the monastery, he related the wonders of divine mercy towards this happy penitent. Another sinner had climbed Mary’s ladder to Heaven. (Glories of Mary, St. Alphonsus Liguori).

St. Ephrem thus salutes the divine mother: “Hail, hope of the soul! Hail, secure salvation of Christians! Hail, helper of sinners! Hail, defense of the faithful, and salvation of the world!” Elsewhere St. Ephrem says: “Thou art the only advocate of sinners, and of those who are deprived of every help!” and he thus salutes her: “Hail, refuge and retreat of sinners, to whom alone they can flee with confidence!”

St. Basil teaches us that, next to God, we have no other hope than Mary, and for this reason he calls her: “After God our only hope” and St. Ephrem, reflecting on the order of Providence in this life, by which God has ordained (as St. Bernard says) that all those who are saved, must be saved by means of Mary, says to her: “O Lady, do not cease to receive and shelter us under the mantle of thy protection, since, after God, we have no hope but thee.” St. Thomas of Villanova says the same thing, calling her our only refuge, help, and protection. (Glories of Mary, St. Alphonsus Liguori).

The holy Abbot of Celles, Raymond Jordan, who through humility called himself the Idiot, remarks, that every blessing, every help, every grace that men have received or will receive from God, to the end of the world, has come to them, and will come to them, through the intercession and by means of Mary. (Glories of Mary, St. Alphonsus Liguori).

Bernardine de Bustis writes, that Mary more earnestly desires to do us good than we desire to receive it from her. To such a degree, that St. Bonaventure says, she considers herself injured by those who do not ask favors of her; for this is the desire of Mary, to enrich all with her graces; for, indeed, according to the assertion of the Idiot, she superabundantly enriches her servants. (Glories of Mary, St. Alphonsus Liguori).

The holy Abbot of Celles, Raymond Jordan, who, through humility called himself "The Idiot", says, that she cannot reject any sinner, but as soon as he has recourse to her, Mary receives him. Hence St. John Damascene calls Mary not only the refuge of the innocent, but also of the bad who implore her protection. And St. Anselm also says: “Thou dost embrace with maternal love the sinner who is despised by the whole world, neither dost thou leave the wretched until thou has reconciled them to their God.” By which he gives us to understand that the sinner, being hated by God, is rendered odious and abominable in the eyes of all creatures; but if he has recourse to the refuge of sinners, Mary not only does not despise him, but affectionately embraces him, and does not abandon him until he is pardoned by her Son and our Judge, Jesus Christ. (Glories of Mary, St. Alphonsus Liguori).

Those happy lovers of Mary, as the Idiot asserts, are not only loved, but served by her. Rightly, then did the devout Blosius exclaim: “O Mary, who art so amiable, and so grateful to him who loves thee, who will be so stupid and unhappy as not to love thee! In doubt and perplexity thou dost enlighten the minds of those who have recourse to thee in their troubles. Thou art the comfort of those who trust in thee, in time of danger. Thou dost help those who invoke thee. Thou art, continues Blosius, next to thy divine Son, the secure salvation of thy servants. Hail then, oh hope of the despairing. Hail helper of the destitute!” (Glories of Mary, St. Alphonsus Liguori).

Resolution
No matter how great my sins may be, I will not lose hope in the help of the Mother of God, the Mother of Mercy. Yet, I must always remember that her help will only come if I truly desire to leave my sins behind and reform my life!

Our Prayer
O Heart of Jesus pierced for our sins and giving us your Mother on Calvary! O Heart of Mary pierced by sorrow and sharing in the sufferings of your divine Son for our redemption! O sacred union of these Two Hearts! Praised be the God of Love who united them together!

May we unite our hearts and every heart, so that all hearts may live in unity, in imitation of that sacred unity which exists in these Two Hearts. Triumph, O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary! Reign, O Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! – in our hearts, in our homes and families, in the hearts of those who as yet do not know Thee, and in all nations of the world. Establish in the hearts of all mankind the sovereign triumph and reign of Thy Two Hearts so that the earth may resound from pole to pole with one cry: Blessed forever be the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary!

Obtain for me a greater purity of heart and a fervent love of the spiritual life. May all my actions be done for the greater glory of God in unions with the divine Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Hear and answer our prayers and intentions according to Thy most merciful will. Amen.

[Mention Intention]

Let us pray:
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. Help me grow in love and devotion to the Sacred Heart of thy beloved Son. Delay not, O Blessed Lady, to help me whenever I call on thee, for, in all my needs, in all my temptations I shall never cease to call on thee, ever repeating thy sacred name, Mary, Mary.

Say the Our Father and the Hail Mary.

Final Invocation:
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! Have mercy on us!
Our Lady of Perpetual Help! Pray for us!

THIRD DAY OF THE NOVENA (new meditations posted each day)
Topic to Contemplate: The Combined Help of Jesus and Mary

Holy Scripture
“O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me” (Psalms 69:2).
“Give us help from trouble: for vain is the salvation of man” (Psalms 59:13).
“Help me, O Lord my God; save me according to Thy mercy” (Psalms 108:26).
“O God, be not Thou far from me: O my God, make haste to my help” (Psalms 70:12).

Meditation
Help! Help! A double cry for help that will be met by a twofold intercession—one by Our Lady and the other by Our Lord: Our Lady of Perpetual Help and the Helpful Sacred Heart.

We read, in the Glories of Mary, by St. Alphonsus Liguori—the founder of the Redemptorists in whose church in Rome is kept the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help—the following account of the life of Sister Catherine, an Augustinian nun, that in the place where that servant of God lived, there lived also a woman named Mary, who, in her youth, was a sinner, and obstinately persevered in her evil courses, even to extreme old age. For this she was banished by her fellow-citizens, forced to live in a cave beyond the limits of the place, and died in a state of loathsome corruption, abandoned by all, and without the sacraments; and on this account was buried in a field, like a beast. Now Sister Catherine, who was accustomed to recommend very affectionately to God the souls of those who had departed this life, after learning the miserable death o/ this poor old woman, did not think of praying for her, as she and everyone else believed her already among the damned. Four years having past, a soul from purgatory one day appeared to her, and said:

“Sister Catherine, how unhappy is my fate! You commend to God the souls of all those who die, and for my soul alone you have had no pity.”
“And who are you?” said the servant of God.
“I am,” answered she, “that poor Mary who died in the cave.”
“How can that be? Are you saved?” exclaimed Sister Catherine.

“Yes, I am saved,” she said, “by the mercy of the Virgin Mary? When I saw death drawing near, finding myself laden with sins, and abandoned by all, I turned to the Mother of God and said to her, 'Lady, thou art the refuge of the abandoned, behold me at this hour deserted by all; thou art my only hope, thou alone canst help me; have pity on me!' The Holy Virgin obtained for me the grace of making an act of contrition; I died and am saved, and my Queen has also obtained for me the grace that my pains should be abridged, and that I should, by suffering intensely for a short time, pass through that purification which otherwise would have lasted many years. A few Masses only are needed to obtain my release from Purgatory. I pray thee cause them to be offered for me, and I promise to pray God and Mary for thee.”

Sister Catherine immediately caused those Masses to be said for her, and that soul, after a few days, appeared to her again, more brilliant than the sun, and said to her, “I thank thee, Sister Catherine: behold I am now going to paradise to sing the mercy of God and pray for thee.”

Here Jesus and Mary working in tandem to help the poor sinner. Our Lady intercedes on behalf of the sinner—then the sinner requires the intercession of Jesus in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. As we have seen, the Eucharist is tantamount to being the Sacred Heart of Jesus—Our Lord has shown that on so many occasions. Our Lady begins helping the sinner; Our Lord completes the work of helping the sinner. Our Lady of Perpetual Help and Sacred Heart working together.

Let us have a great hope in the help of Mary and Jesus—the Immaculate Heart and the Sacred Heart; the Helpful Heart and the Merciful Heart! Hope leads to help—we see in Scripture how the blind men, full of hope, cried out all the louder for help from Jesus when the crowds tried to silence them—and their hope brought the help they sought. We see how Mary Magdalen, the woman caught in adultery, was full of hope in Jesus while the crowd was ready to stone her to death—and her hope brought help. We see how the Apostles cried out to the sleeping Jesus in hope, while the waves battered and overwhelmed their little boat on the lake—and their hope brought help. We see how the hope of the Canaanite women, who, though the Apostles ignored her and tried to drive her away, still pushed through everyone to get into the presence of Our Lord to get help for her daughter and “she came and adored Him, saying: ‘Lord, help me!’” (Matthew 15:25). Her hope brought the help she sought!

Let us then be full of hope and help will come our way! Let us say, with the words of Holy Scripture: “O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me” (Psalms 69:2). “Arise, O Lord, help us!” (Psalms 43:26). “Give us help from trouble: for vain is the salvation of man” (Psalms 59:13). “Help me, and I shall be saved” (Psalms 118:117). “Help me, O Lord my God; save me according to Thy mercy” (Psalms 108:26). “My help is from the Lord, Who made Heaven and earth” (Psalms 120:2). “O God, be not Thou far from me: O my God, make haste to my help” (Psalms 70:12).

And if we are not far from the Holy Eucharist (which is the Sacred Heart) and Our Lady, then they will be not far from us! But if we distance ourselves from the Holy Eucharist and Our Lady and find little or no time for them, then we might find that we have distanced ourselves from their help and they may not have time for us!

Resolution
I will condition myself to always lean on these Two Pillars of Jesus and Mary in all my needs and enterprises. They will like two crutches that will enable me to find strength in weakness to walk that narrow path that leads to Heaven and safety.

Our Prayer
O Heart of Jesus pierced for our sins and giving us your Mother on Calvary! O Heart of Mary pierced by sorrow and sharing in the sufferings of your divine Son for our redemption! O sacred union of these Two Hearts! Praised be the God of Love who united them together!

May we unite our hearts and every heart, so that all hearts may live in unity, in imitation of that sacred unity which exists in these Two Hearts. Triumph, O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary! Reign, O Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! – in our hearts, in our homes and families, in the hearts of those who as yet do not know Thee, and in all nations of the world. Establish in the hearts of all mankind the sovereign triumph and reign of Thy Two Hearts so that the earth may resound from pole to pole with one cry: Blessed forever be the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary!

Obtain for me a greater purity of heart and a fervent love of the spiritual life. May all my actions be done for the greater glory of God in unions with the divine Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Hear and answer our prayers and intentions according to Thy most merciful will. Amen.

[Mention Intention]

Let us pray:
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. Help me grow in love and devotion to the Sacred Heart of thy beloved Son. Delay not, O Blessed Lady, to help me whenever I call on thee, for, in all my needs, in all my temptations I shall never cease to call on thee, ever repeating thy sacred name, Mary, Mary.

Say the Our Father and the Hail Mary.

Final Invocation:
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! Have mercy on us!
Our Lady of Perpetual Help! Pray for us!

St. John Bosco (1815-1888)

The ship of the church attacked by pirate ships

The Pope sails the ship of the Church to safety between the two pillars that emerged from the sea: one with the Holy Eucharist, the other with Our Lady Help of Christians.

SECOND DAY OF THE NOVENA (new meditations posted each day)
Topic to Contemplate: The Two Pillars - Jesus and Mary

Holy Scripture
"He cried to the Lord desiring help" (Judges 6:7).
“Deliver us by thy hand, and help me, who have no other helper, but thee” (Esther 14:14)

Meditation
The Church Under Attack
The Church has always been under attack, but never has she faltered and reeled as much as she does today. The hull of the ship has been pierced on all sides and She is taking on water and listing to one side. Humanly speaking, all would seem lost--especially when you take into account the somber prophecies of Our Lady and the Saints for our times.

John Bosco's Vision of 1862
St. John Bosco paints no lighter a picture in describing his vision: "On the whole of that vast sheet of water you see an innumerable fleet of ships in battle array. The prows of the ships are formed into sharp, spearlike points so that wherever they are thrust they pierce and completely destroy. These ships are armed with cannons, with lots of rifles, with incendiary materials, with other arms of all kinds, and also with books, and they advance against a ship very much bigger and higher than themselves and try to dash against it with the prows, or to burn it, or in some way to do it every possible harm. As escorts to that majestic fully equipped ship (the Church), there are many smaller ships, which receive commands by signal from it and carry out movements to defend themselves from the opposing fleet."

La Salette Prophecy of 1846
At La Salette, which occurred just 16 years before the vision given to St. John Bosco, Our Lady said: "What I am about to tell you now will not always be a secret. You may make it public in 1858. The priests, ministers of my Son, the priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the holy mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door...

“Woe to the inhabitants of the earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together. The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish. God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other for more than thirty-five years. The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God."

France Warned Before the Revolution
The Sacred Heart of Jesus would have prevented the 1789 French Revolution if only the King of France would have obeyed the Sacred Heart in consecrating France to the Sacred Heart in 1689. He refused to do so; and so, 100 years after that refusal, France fell to the Revolution, that has since spread its errors throughout the world.

Modern Day Refusal of Heaven's Help
In 1689 it was consecration to the Sacred Heart that was demanded. Today Heaven demands consecration to the Immaculate Heart. Just as the King of France refused in 1689, the Popes have repeatedly refused to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart. We are fast approaching the 100-year-deadline that hit France in 1789. 2017 is 100 years after the request date, which was at Fatima in 1917.

The Battle Begins
What St. John Bosco saw in 1860 started to happen in the 1960's--again 100 years after the warning date. Since the 1960's the Church has progressively collapsed throughout the world. See our Daily Thoughts section for Easter, on the statistics of the collapse since that time (Articles 14 to 25).. "All the enemy ships move to attack it, and they try in every way to stop it and to sink it: some with writings or books or inflammable materials, of which they are full; others with guns, with rifles and with rams. The battle rages ever more relentlessly."

Defeat of the Enemy
"Then a great convulsion takes place. All the ships that until then had fought against the Pope's ship are scattered; they flee away, collide and break to pieces one against another. Some sink and try to sink others. Several small ships that had fought gallantly for the Pope race to be the first to bind themselves to those two columns. Many other ships, having retreated through fear of the battle, cautiously watch from far away; the wrecks of the broken ships having been scattered in the whirlpools of the sea, they in their turn sail in good earnest to those two columns, and, having reached them, they make themselves fast to the hooks hanging down from them and there they remain safe, together with the principal ship, on which is the Pope. Over the sea there reigns a great calm."

Our two columns of salvation are to be devotion to Mary and to the Blessed Sacrament or the Holy Eucharist: Jesus and Mary, the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart, the Mass and the Rosary. As St. John Bosco said: "Only two means are left to save her amidst so much confusion: DEVOTION TO MARY MOST HOLY and FREQUENT COMMUNION, making use of every means and doing our best to practice them and having them practiced everywhere and by everybody."

Resolution
I will condition myself to always lean on these Two Pillars of Jesus and Mary in all my needs and enterprises. They will like two crutches that will enable me to find strength in weakness to walk that narrow path that leads to Heaven and safety.

Our Prayer
O Heart of Jesus pierced for our sins and giving us your Mother on Calvary! O Heart of Mary pierced by sorrow and sharing in the sufferings of your divine Son for our redemption! O sacred union of these Two Hearts! Praised be the God of Love who united them together!

May we unite our hearts and every heart, so that all hearts may live in unity, in imitation of that sacred unity which exists in these Two Hearts. Triumph, O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary! Reign, O Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! – in our hearts, in our homes and families, in the hearts of those who as yet do not know Thee, and in all nations of the world. Establish in the hearts of all mankind the sovereign triumph and reign of Thy Two Hearts so that the earth may resound from pole to pole with one cry: Blessed forever be the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary!

Obtain for me a greater purity of heart and a fervent love of the spiritual life. May all my actions be done for the greater glory of God in unions with the divine Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Hear and answer our prayers and intentions according to Thy most merciful will. Amen.

[Mention Intention]

Let us pray:
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. Help me grow in love and devotion to the Sacred Heart of thy beloved Son. Delay not, O Blessed Lady, to help me whenever I call on thee, for, in all my needs, in all my temptations I shall never cease to call on thee, ever repeating thy sacred name, Mary, Mary.

Say the Our Father and the Hail Mary.

Final Invocation:
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! Have mercy on us!
Our Lady of Perpetual Help! Pray for us!

St. John Bosco (1815-1888)

The ship of the church attacked by pirate ships

The Pope sails the ship of the Church to safety between the two pillars that emerged from the sea: one with the Holy Eucharist, the other with Our Lady Help of Christians.

FIRST DAY OF THE NOVENA (new meditations posted each day)
Topic to Contemplate: The Two Pillars - Jesus and Mary

Holy Scripture
"He cried to the Lord desiring help" (Judges 6:7).
“Deliver us by thy hand, and help me, who have no other helper, but thee” (Esther 14:14)

Meditation
On May 30, 1862, Don Bosco narrated the following dream. It concerns the battles of the Church against many adversaries, the sufferings of the Pope and the final triumph through devotion to the Holy Eucharist and to Our Lady, Help of Christians.

The Dream
"I want to tell you a dream. It is true that he who is dreaming is not reasoning; anyway I, who would even tell you my sins if I were not afraid that they would make you all run away and make the house tumble down, tell you this for your spiritual profit. I had the dream some days ago.

The Ship of the Church
"Imagine yourselves to be with me on the seashore, or better, on an isolated rock and not to see any patch of land other than what is under your feet. On the whole of that vast sheet of water you see an innumerable fleet of ships in battle array. The prows of the ships are formed into sharp, spearlike points so that wherever they are thrust they pierce and completely destroy. These ships are armed with cannons, with lots of rifles, with incendiary materials, with other arms of all kinds, and also with books, and they advance against a ship very much bigger and higher than themselves and try to dash against it with the prows or to burn it or in some way to do it every possible harm. As escorts to that majestic fully equipped ship, there are many smaller ships, which receive commands by signal from it and carry out movements to defend themselves from the opposing fleet.

The Two Pillars
"In the midst of the immense expanse of sea, two mighty columns of great height arise a little distance the one from the other. On the top of one, there is the statue of the Immaculate Virgin, from whose feet hangs a large placard with this inscription: Auxilium Christianorum—"Help of Christians"; on the other, which is much higher and bigger, stands a Host of great size proportionate to the column and beneath is another placard with the words: Salus Credentium—"Salvation of the Faithful."

The Holy Father
"The supreme commander on the big ship is the Sovereign Pontiff. He, on seeing the fury of the enemies and the evils among which his faithful find themselves, determines to summon around himself the captains of the smaller ships to hold a council and decide on what is to be done. All the captains come aboard and gather around the Pope. They hold a meeting, but meanwhile the wind and the waves gather in storm, so they are sent back to control their own ships. There comes a short lull; for a second time the Pope gathers the captains together around him, while the flag-ship goes on its course. But the frightful storm returns. The Pope stands at the helm and all his energies are directed to steering the ship towards those two columns, from the top of which and from every side of which are hanging numerous anchors and big hooks, fastened to chains.

The Battle
"All the enemy ships move to attack it, and they try in every way to stop it and to sink it: some with writings or books or inflammable materials, of which they are full; others with guns, with rifles and with rams. The battle rages ever more relentlessly. The enemy prows (battering rams on the front of the ships) thrust violently, but their efforts and impact prove useless. They make attempts in vain and waste all their labor and ammunition; the big ship goes safely and smoothly on its way. Sometimes it happens that, struck by formidable blows, it gets large, deep gaps in its sides; but no sooner is the harm done than a gentle breeze blows from the two columns and the cracks close up and the gaps are stopped immediately.

Destruction of the Enemy
"Meanwhile, the guns of the assailants are blown up, the rifles and other arms and prows are broken; many ships are shattered and sink into the sea. Then, the frenzied enemies strive to fight hand to hand, with fists, with blows, with blasphemy and with curses. All at once the Pope falls gravely wounded. Immediately, those who are with him run to help him and they lift him up. A second time the Pope is struck, he falls again and dies. A shout of victory and of joy rings out amongst the enemies; from their ships an unspeakable mockery arises.

A New Pope
"But hardly is the Pontiff dead than another Pope takes his place. The pilots, having met together, have elected the Pope so promptly that the news of the death of the Pope coincides with the news of the election of the successor. The adversaries begin to lose courage.

Haven of Rest
"The new Pope, putting the enemy to rout and overcoming every obstacle, guides the ship right up to the two columns and comes to rest between them; he makes it fast with a light chain that hangs from the bow to an anchor of the column on which stands the Host; and with another light chain which hangs from the stern, he fastens it at the opposite end to another anchor hanging from the column on which stands the Immaculate Virgin.

Defeat of the Enemy
"Then a great convulsion takes place. All the ships that until then had fought against the Pope's ship are scattered; they flee away, collide and break to pieces one against another. Some sink and try to sink others. Several small ships that had fought gallantly for the Pope race to be the first to bind themselves to those two columns. Many other ships, having retreated through fear of the battle, cautiously watch from far away; the wrecks of the broken ships having been scattered in the whirlpools of the sea, they in their turn sail in good earnest to those two columns, and, having reached them, they make themselves fast to the hooks hanging down from them and there they remain safe, together with the principal ship, on which is the Pope. Over the sea there reigns a great calm.

Don Bosco Explains
"At this point Don Bosco asked Don Rua: "What do you think of the story?" Don Rua answered: "It seems to me that the Pope's ship might mean the Church, of which he is the head: the ships, men; the sea, this world. Those who defend the big ship are the good, lovingly attached to the Holy See; the others are her enemies, who try with every kind of weapon to annihilate her. The two columns of salvation seem to be devotion to Mary Most Holy and to the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist." Don Rua did not speak of the Pope who fell and died, and Don Bosco also was silent about him. He simply added: "You are right! Only I ought to correct one expression. The enemy ships are persecutions. The most serious trials for the Church are near at hand. That which has been so far is almost nothing in the face of that which must befall. Her enemies are represented by the ships that tried to sink the principal ship if they could.

"Only two means are left to save her amidst so much confusion: DEVOTION TO MARY MOST HOLY and FREQUENT COMMUNION, making use of every means and doing our best to practice them and having them practiced everywhere and by everybody."

Resolution
I will condition myself to always lean on these Two Pillars of Jesus and Mary in all my needs and enterprises. They will like two crutches that will enable me to find strength in weakness to walk that narrow path that leads to Heaven and safety.

Our Prayer
O Heart of Jesus pierced for our sins and giving us your Mother on Calvary! O Heart of Mary pierced by sorrow and sharing in the sufferings of your divine Son for our redemption! O sacred union of these Two Hearts! Praised be the God of Love who united them together!

May we unite our hearts and every heart, so that all hearts may live in unity, in imitation of that sacred unity which exists in these Two Hearts. Triumph, O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary! Reign, O Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! – in our hearts, in our homes and families, in the hearts of those who as yet do not know Thee, and in all nations of the world. Establish in the hearts of all mankind the sovereign triumph and reign of Thy Two Hearts so that the earth may resound from pole to pole with one cry: Blessed forever be the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary!

Obtain for me a greater purity of heart and a fervent love of the spiritual life. May all my actions be done for the greater glory of God in unions with the divine Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Hear and answer our prayers and intentions according to Thy most merciful will. Amen.

[Mention Intention]

Let us pray:
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. Help me grow in love and devotion to the Sacred Heart of thy beloved Son. Delay not, O Blessed Lady, to help me whenever I call on thee, for, in all my needs, in all my temptations I shall never cease to call on thee, ever repeating thy sacred name, Mary, Mary.

Say the Our Father and the Hail Mary.

Final Invocation:
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! Have mercy on us!
Our Lady of Perpetual Help! Pray for us!