Novena Prayers for Marriages In Preparation for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception November 27th - December 8th
About this Novena e Novena for Marraiges begins on November 27th, the day which commemorates the second of three apparitions of Our Lady to St. Catherine Laboure in Paris in 1830. On this day Our Lady appeared to St. Catherine as if standing on a globe. On her hands she had what appeared to be rings set with precious stones, and from these stones and from her fingers emitted dazzling rays of light. She told St. Catherine that these rays of light represetned the graces that would be bestowed on all souls who asked for them. Surrounding her was an oval frame emblazened with the words in gold, O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. On the back of this frame appeared the letter M surmounted by a cross with a crossbar beneath it. Below the M appeared the Sacred and Immacualte Hearts of Jesus and Mary and surrounding the entire image was a circle of twelve stars. In this second apparition, and in the third, Our Lady gave instructions to St. Catherine that she desired for this image to be struck into a medal. She promised great graces for all those who wear this medal around their neck in faith. e first medals were made in 1832 and devotion spread rapidly as they were distributed. e mystery contained in these apparitions is of Mary s Immaculate Concpetion. rough these twelve days we seek to enter more deeply into the mystery of Our Lady s Immacualte Conception, which is the mystery of God s superabundant mercy. When Christ s lifeless body was pieced by a sword as He hung on the cross, blood and water flowed forth. Christ gave completely, to the very last drop, and this grace was received by Our Lady to preserve her from original sin. Christ s mercy is present radically for each of us, and for our marriages and familes. Let us abadon ourselves to Christ s mercy, Jesus, we trust in You! Each day of the novena reflects on a line from the consecration prayer to Our Lady, written especially for marriages and the family. On the final day is the entire consection prayer, as we give to Our Lady our hearts and ask for her intercession in our marriages and families, that we may find and adore God in the home as she did. e novena prayers are written especially for spouses, and it would be wonderful if husband and wife were able to pray them together each day. DAY ONE November 27th Heavenly Mother, Spotless Bride of the Spotless Lamb, Your children stand gathered together before you. Heavenly Mother, it is your love and the love of Christ that bids us here. We gather as husband and wife in your mantle of love and protection, knowing you desire our communion with God more than we. Mother, in your Holy Family, with St. Joseph and Jesus, a reflection of the Trinity was made present for the benefit of all. We implore you to attain for us the graces we need to transform our lives and our families, that we would be a reflection of God's presence in our world. As you were made spotless by Christ s Sacrifice, pray that we daily lay down our own lives for our spouses and our children that they may become purified. My soul magnifies the Lord, And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden, For behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm: He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree. He has filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He has sent empty away. He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy; As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to His posterity forever. 1
DAY TWO November 28th With St. Joseph and the Apostle John we wish to bring you into our home, so that you may open to us the treasures of your Immaculate Heart. Heavenly Mother, John Paul II has asked us to contemplate the face of Christ and to contemplate his face with Mary. We open our homes and our hearts to you, our Mother. As you entered the home of Elizabeth, she was filled with the Holy Spirit and it penetrated her so deeply that the baby in her womb, John the Baptist, leaped for joy. rough your presence, the Holy Spirit filled the home and Jesus sanctified the infant John. Before John was ever born, he was sanctified by Christ alive in your womb. Mother of the Savior, your only desire is to bring your Son to us. Just as you brought him to the home of Elizabeth and John the Baptist, please bring him into our homes and our hearts. As you did for your spouse St. Joseph and the Apostle John, open to us the treasures of your Immaculate Heart. May the Holy Spirit, which overshadowed you from the moment of your Immaculate Conception, overshadow our home. O Lord, mystery of life and love, how sweet the path of those who find you abiding in their homes, who gaze upon the beauty of your face and hear the sweet sound of your voice. Praise to you, Lord of Heaven and Earth, for you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and have revealed them to the pure of heart. DAY THREE November 29th Reveal to us the hidden face of your Son, present in our midst. Heavenly Mother, no one understood and experienced God s presence in our midst more than you did. Each day as you beheld the face of your child, you beheld the face of God Incarnate. Teach us to find the Hidden Face of Christ present all day, every day in our midst. Teach us especially to find this Hidden Face in our spouse and our children. For when we discover Christ s presence in our homes, our homes become a true temple where Christ dwells. Paradise was lost when sin entered the world, but by the blood and water flowing from the side of Christ paradise was opened wide once again. e Holy Family was truly a paradise. Mother Mary, help us rediscover this paradise of God (Paradisus Dei) in our homes just as you did. May we become contemplatives in our homes seeing Christ in each encounter. O Lord of hosts, how lovely is your dwelling place! One day within your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the tents of the wicked. Blessed are those who dwell in your house, forever singing your praises. 2
DAY FOUR November 30th Teach us to trust in the abundance of the Father s mercy. Heavenly Mother, no one trusted the Father more than you did. Your very existence is the masterpiece of the Father s mercy. Teach us to trust as you trusted. Help us open ourselves daily and expand our hearts to receive the depths of the Father s mercy. e birds of the air neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet our Heavenly Father feeds them. Help us understand our dignity. Help us enter into this wonderful mystery of the Father s Mercy. May we first receive his abundant mercy and then become an instrument of his mercy to the world, especially to my spouse and children. Mother Mary, teach us to say with complete confidence, Jesus, I trust in You. O merciful Father, what is man that you should be mindful of him, mortal man that you should care for him? Yet to ransom a sinner you gave away your only beloved Son. How great is your name, O Lord our God, through all the earth! DAY FIVE December 1st Make us docile to the voice of the Spirit echoing in our depths. Heavenly Mother, you, more than any creature, were attuned to the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit echoing within the depths of your Immaculate soul. e union that you experience with your spouse, the Holy Spirit, is so profound that together you live but one sole life. Indeed, St. Maximilian Kolbe said of you that, e union between Mary and the Holy Spirit is so inexpressible, yet so perfect, that the Holy Spirit acts only by the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. Dear Mother, we ask that you will give us the grace to remove from our lives the noise and distractions that make it impossible to hear God speak. We pray that you will help us to grow in love of silence and make our souls sensitive and attuned to the voice of the Spirit dwelling within. Teach us Mother to ponder the events of life in our hearts as you did (Luke 2:19, 51), for the ways of God are mysterious but not incomprehensible to the sensitive soul. Pray for us, that we may respond with a faithful yes to the promptings of the Spirit. Lord, we thank You and we praise You. You are infinitely above all of creation, yet, in your merciful love you delight in dwelling within the human soul. I dwell in a high and holy place, but also with the contrite and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, to revive the heart of the crushed (Isaiah 57:15). Help us to grow daily in humility so that our souls may image that of the Blessed Virgin, and be a worthy dwelling place for You. Grant us the joy of a life lived in union with You, and prepare us to enter swiftly into our heavenly home. Amen. 3
DAY SIX December 2nd Grant that the seeds of grace sown in us would not be lost, but blossom forth into life everlasting. Mary, Conceived without Sin, from your outstretched arms, mediate to us the living water that first flowed from the Heart of Christ. We pray that this water would soften our hearts that it would be fertile soil to receive these seeds of grace. Mother, you who knew no sin, pray that the soil of our hearts and minds would not be infested by sin. As we root ourselves in Christ, the Tree of Life, mother pray that our lives and marriages would bare fruit a hundredfold. May we one day experience everlasting life together with each member of our family (name each member). No eye has seen nor ear has heard, nor has it entered the human heart what God has prepared for those who love him. Father, we fix our eyes to Heaven trusting that your grace will guide us all the days of our lives. Help me us that our daily words and actions may be always be instrument of grace to others, especially my spouse and my children. DAY SEVEN December 3rd Dawn of Salvation, Star of the New Evangelization, Grant that the darkness may not prevail over the light. Heavenly Mother, Our Lady of Sorrows, you understand the darkness of our time and the pain and tears of your children. You also understand that where sin abounds, grace abounds. Help us to have the courage to open our minds and hearts to God s grace that we may become the light in the darkness. You are the Star of the New Evangelization guiding the way. On a dark night, the stars shine bright. Intercede on our behalf that we may become stars, and radiate the light of Christ to each other and to our children. e world cannot comprehend the light any longer. Give us wisdom to understand and enter more deeply intune with the ways of God and his actions in our lives. Help each member of my family, (call them by name), enter into the light and be light for others. Everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it for fear his actions will be exposed. But the man who lives by the truth comes out into the light so that it may be plainly see that what is done is done in God. Father of Light, every good and perfect gift comes from you. Son of the Father, in your light we see light. I come before you at this time as your child, sinful and sorrowful, asking for protection over my family. Cast out all darkness. Cast out the evil one. May we live as children of the light. 4
DAY EIGHT December 4th Together with Pope John Paul II, we consecrate ourselves to you in the mystery of your Immaculate Conception, Totus Tuus. Dear Mother, your Immaculate Conception is a grace given to you out of the superabundance of the Father s mercy. You were preserved from the stain of original sin and in your humility you received fully all of the mercy that God showered upon you. Without ceasing, praise and thanksgiving for the gift of God s mercy rose from your heart. At a young age Blessed John Paul II consecrated himself to you Mother all of his works, merits, joys, and sufferings. Calling on you as his mother he listened to the voice of God and said, Yes, to God s call. Today we take for ourselves the motto of Blessed John Paul: Totus Tuus, Totally Yours Mary. We prepare to consecrate to you, dear Mother, our lives, our works, merits, joys, and sufferings. Heavenly Father, mercy is your greatest attribute. Help us to know better Your mercy that is present every day of our lives. Send your Holy Spirit so that we may know, in the depths of our hearts, that no sin of ours is greater than your mercy. DAY NINE December 5th Send us into the great mission field of the family, so that among all the nations, the praise of God may resound on the lips of infants and of babes. Heavenly Mother, as we each personally receive a mission on behalf of the Church and the world, aid us in discovering and fulfilling our personal calls. As we recall the teaching of John Paul II that the future of the Church and society pass by way of the family, convict our hearts with the even greater call to rebuild the Domestic Church. Help us understand that the family is indeed a great mission field and in great need. O Emmanuel! How great your love for us! How near your presence to those who love you! You dwell with those gathered in your name. O Emmanuel, be ever near to us! DAY TEN December 6th By the grace of God, in the Power of the Holy Spirit, help us to build a civilization worthy of the human person. Heavenly Mother, you show us more perfectly than anyone that our great dignity as human beings it to be in relationship with God. e all-powerful and mighty God who created the universe is who is Love itself, desires a deep and profound relationship with each of us personally. ere are many voices in our world today that seek to distort and obscure the deepest truth about the human person. Dear Mother, by the 5
grace of the Incarnation you bore God within your very body for nine months. Help us to know the incredible dignity that we have to be in relationship with God and to receive Him into our bodies in the Eucharist. Strengthened by our communion with Christ, we can work to build a world that respects the great dignity of the human person. Heavenly Father, in your mercy help us never to forget that our dignity lies in saying yes to you. e more that we say yes the more human we become. In being faithful to our vocation to marriage, we build a civilization of love within our homes. In loving our spouse and children, and in adoring Your presence within the home, we uphold the true dignity of the human person. DAY ELEVEN December 7th Created us male and female, created to the image and likeness of the Triune God who is love. Heavenly Father, your plan for humanity is beautifully revealed in the love between man and wife. What incredible dignity you have bestowed upon us so that man and woman together as a union are created in your image and likeness. Indeed, the union between man, women, and God in the Sacrament of Marriage is so profound that together they form an image of the inner life of God in the Blessed Trinity. Our marriage is an image of the perfect love of God. is is the love the our hearts yearn for and desire. "Should we think of a perfect union with an order but no domination? A union in which total selfsurrender is identical to total self-possession? A union in which each exists totally from the other and for the other, and yet remains absolutely free? Such a triune God is too incomprehensible as to be conceived according to the ideal desires of human projection, but at the same time, he is the epitome of everything human yearning longs for in terms of community, oneness, and love, so much so that it seems only reasonable to look on man as created after the image and likeness of precisely this God." DAY TWELVE December 8th Consecration to Our Lady Consecration Prayer Heavenly Mother, Spotless Bride of the Spotless Lamb, Your children stand gathered together before you. With St. Joseph and the Apostle John we wish to bring you into our home, so that you may open to us the treasures of your Immaculate Heart. Reveal to us the hidden face of your Son, present in our midst. Teach us to trust in the abundance of the Father s mercy. Make us docile to the voice of the Spirit echoing in our depths. Grant that the seeds of grace sown in us would not be lost, but blossom forth into life everlasting. Dawn of Salvation, Star of the New Evangelization, Grant that the darkness may not prevail over the light. Together with Pope John Paul II, we consecrate ourselves to you in the mystery of your Immaculate Conception, Totus Tuus. Send us into the great mission field of the family, so that among all the nations, the praise of God may resound on the lips of infants and of babes. By the grace of God, in the Power of the Holy Spirit, help us to build a civilization worthy of the human person, created male and female, created to the image and likeness of the Triune God who is love. Amen. 6