Let the Earth be opened and bud forth a Savior! The Christmas Novena

Let us all pray the 

Solemn Christmas Novena

Spend five  minutes in daily prayer and contemplation to better recognize the Christ Child and more fully receive His boundless blessings. Based on the seven Great O Antiphons

Let the Earth be opened and bud forth a Savior!
O that you would rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking before you!

Benedictine monks arranged these antiphons with a definite purpose. If one starts with the last title and takes the first letter of each one — Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia — the Latin words ero cras are formed, meaning, “Tomorrow, I will come.” In these words, the Lord Jesus, for whose coming we prepare in Advent and to whom we address these seven Messianic titles, now speaks to us. 

The O Antiphons not only bring intensity to our Advent preparations, but they bring our preparations to a joyful conclusion. Each antiphon begins with “O” and include a different Scriptural image through the Old Testament, all imploring the Messiah to come. As Elsa Chaney in Twelve Days of Christmas states, “They seem to sum up all our Advent longing as they paint  with words the wretched condition of mankind and his need of a Savior.”

May the God of peace sanctify us completely and may our spirits souls and bodies be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ!

V:  The Lord is our Coming King,  

R:   Let us hasten to adore Him.

December 16    First Day of Christmas Novena

BEHOLD THE KING   The Lord of the earth who appeared to Moses in the flame of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai He  is drawing near! He will come and remove from us the Yoke of  our captivity of the House of Israel, and redeem us with outstretched arm.  
R: O Come, Let us adore Him!
Say The Daily Novena Prayer below: 
The Messianic Prophecies

Click here for video of  prayer and hymn

Say the daily novena prayer below: The Messianic Prophecies

December 17 
Today The Church begins the seven Great “O” Antiphons of the liturgy, that date back to the seventh or eighth century. These antiphons are chanted or recited at Vespers, or Evening Prayer, the Antiphon before the Magnificat. They are also the Alleluia verse at the Mass.

 O SAPIENTIA  O WISDOM,   Holy Word of God who came from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end and ordering all things mightily and sweetly with your strong and tender care  
R: Come, and teach us the way of prudence
 Sirach 24:2; Wisdom 8:1. 
Symbols: oil lamp, open book.
 Click here for video of Gregorian Chant

Say the daily novena prayer below: The Messianic Prophecies

  

 December 18  

O ADONAI  O LORD AND RULER    
O Sacred Lord of  the House of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the flame of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: 
R: Come, and redeem us with outstretched arm of your mighty hand.
 Exodus 3:2, 20:1. Symbols: burning bush, stone tablets.  
Click here for video of Gregorian Chant

Say the daily novena prayer below: The Messianic Prophecies

December 19                                  

O RADIX JESSE  O ROOT OF JESSE, 

O flower of Jesse's stem you have been raised up as a sign for all peoples and stand as a banner of the people, before whom kings shall keep silence and unto whom the Gentiles shall make supplication:  
R: Come to deliver us, and tarry not let nothing keep you from coming to our aid! 
Isaiah 11:1-3,10  Symbol: vine or plant in flower, especially a rose. 
 Click here for video of Gregorian Chant

Say the daily novena prayer below: The Messianic Prophecies

December 20                 

O CLAVIS DAVID  O KEY OF DAVID  O Key of David, Scepter of the House of Israel, controlling at your will the gate of Heaven who opens and no man shuts, who shuts and no man opens  
R :Come, and bring forth the captive from his prison, he who sits in darkness and in the shadow of death. Isaiah 22:22. Symbols: key; broken chains.

Click here for video of the Gregorian Chant

Say the daily novena prayer below: The Messianic Prophecies

December 21                     

O ORIENS  O DAWN OF THE EAST,   O Radiant Dawn, splendor of eternal light and brightness of eternity, sun of justice: 
R: Come, and enlighten those that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.  
Psalm 19:6-7.  

Symbol: rising sun.

Click here for video of the Gregorian Chant

Say the daily novena prayer below: The Messianic Prophecies

December 22                             

O REX GENTIUM  O KING OF THE GENTILEShttps://speramusposterous.wordpress.com/2016/12/22/dec-22-day-7-solemn-christmas-novena-o-rex-gentium-o-king-of-the-gentiles-2/    King of all the nations, the only joy of every human heart; their desired One, the Cornerstone that makes both one:

R: Come, and deliver man, whom You formed out of the dust of the earth.  Psalm 2:7-8, Ephesians 2:14-20. Symbols, Crown, scepter.

Click here for video of the Gregorian Chanthttps://speramusposterous.wordpress.com/2016/12/22/dec-22-day-7-solemn-christmas-novena-o-rex-gentium-o-king-of-the-gentiles-2/

Say the daily novena prayer below: The Messianic Prophecies

December 23                                  

O EMMANUEL  GOD WITH US,  Our King and Lawgiver, the expected of the nations and Savior: R: Come to save us, and set us free, O Lord our God. Isaiah 7:14; 33:22. Symbols: tablets of stone, Chalice and Host.

Click here for video of the Gregorian Chant

Say the daily novena prayer below: The Messianic Prophecies

December 24 

VENI VENI (O COME O COME EMANUEL)

V: Tomorrow He will wipe out the iniquities of the earth. 

R: And the Savior of the world will reign over us.
V: When the Sun will have arisen from the heavens in the morning sky
R: You shall see the King of kings coming forth from the Father like a radiant bridegroom from the bridal chamber!

Click here for video of the Gregorian Chant

Say the daily novena prayer below: The Messianic Prophecies

                                             

       The Messianic Prophecies

 

Daily Novena Prayer

V:  The Lord is our Coming King,  
R:  Let us hasten to adore Him.

V: Rejoice, O Daughter of Sion, and exult, O Daughter of Jerusalem.

R: Behold the Lord will come and there will be on that day a great light, and the mountains will drip with sweetness and the hills will flow with milk and honey, for the great prophet will come and he will renew Jerusalem.

V:  Behold, He who is God and man shall come forth from the house of Davis to sit upon his throne,and you shall see Him, and your heart shall rejoice.  
R: Behold, the Lord shall come, our Protector, the Holy One of Israel, bearing on His head the crown of the Kingdom.

V: And he will rule from sea unto sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the earth. 
R. Behold the Lord will appear, and He will not deceive: if he delay wait for him, for he will come and He will not tarry.

V:  The Lord will descend, as rain on the field. In his days  justice shall rise and an abundance of peace and all the kings of the earth shall adore Him, all nations shall serve Him.  
R: A Child is born to us, and He shall be called the God of strength; He will sit upon the throne of David his Father, and he shall rule whose dominion rests upon his shoulder.

V:  O Bethlehem, city of the the most High God, out from you shall go forth the ruler of Israel, and his going forth  will be as from the beginning of the days of eternity.   
R: And he will be glorified in the midst of all the earth and peace will be upon our land when He will have come.

V: O Lord, do not tarry; do away with the offenses of Your people

R : Be mindful of us, O Lord, and visit us in Your salvation.

V: Let the heavens rejoice and the earth exult. Praise the Lord, O mountains!

R: Let the mountains break forth into gladness, and the hills with justice!

V: Praise the Lord, you mountains, for the Lord shall come and to the poor He shall show us his mercy.

Blow ye the trumpet in Sion, for the day of the Lord is nigh; behold, He will come to save us, alleluia, alleluia.

V: For the Lord shall come and to the poor He will show mercy.

R: Drop down dew, you heavens, from above and let the clouds rain down the Just One.  Let the earth be opened and bud forth the Savior. 

V:  Send forth the lamb, O Lord the ruler of all the earth, from the rock of the desert to the mountain of the daughter of Zion!  V: Come, to free us O Lord God of Hosts, show your face to us and we shall be saved!

 V: Come, O Lord,  and visit us in peace that we may rejoice in you with a perfect heart!

 R: So that we may know O Lord your way upon the earth, among all the peoples your salvation.

V: Stir up your power O Lord and come to save us. 

R:Come O Lord do not delay do away with the offenses of your people! 

V: O that you would rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking before you!

R: Come and show to us Your face O Lord who are enthroned upon the Cherubim

 V: Stir up your power O Lord   R: Come to save us

  

LET US PRAY

Hasten we beseech you O Lord do not tarry, and grant us the help of your celestial power, so that we ho hope for your consolations may be lifted up by your mercy: who live and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever amen!

9

Our Lady of Lourdes Strengthen Us to Wait for Jesus at the foot of the Cross!

                   Que soy era               Immaculada Councepciou -I am the Immaculate Conception

        

Novena Prayer Our Lady of Lourdes

Oh ever immaculate Virgin, Mother of Mercy, Health of the Sick, Refuge of Sinners, Comforter of the Afflicted, you know my wants, my troubles, my sufferings. Look upon me with mercy. When you appeared in the grotto of Lourdes, you made it a privileged sanctuary where you dispense your favors, and where many sufferers have obtained the cure of their infirmities, both spiritual and corporal. I come, therefore, with unbounded confidence to implore your maternal intercession. My loving Mother, obtain my request. I will try to imitate your virtues so that I may one day share your company and bless you in eternity. Amen

Photo © Speramus-We Hope 

Click to Place Your Petitions  at the Grotto of Lourdes

Join in the Prayers and Devotions Live at the Grotto on Lourdes TV 24/7

Encyclical Pope Pius XII on Lourdes
 "LePelerinage de Lourdes"
 

Le Pelerinage de Lourdes is the only encyclical of Pope Pius XII issued in French and the only encyclical written on Lourdes. The pope recalled pleasant memories of his pilgrimage to Lourdes which he undertook as Papal delegate at the Eucharistic and Marian Celebrations in 1937. 

He  reminded the faithful of France, "that every Christian land is a Marian land and that there is not one nation redeemed in the blood of Christ which does not glory in proclaiming Mary its Mother and Patroness”  He then recalls the history of Marian veneration, the history of Lourdes and the contributions of the Popes to her veneration at Lourdes.


This encyclical was issued on the centenary of the apparitions of Lourdes from St. Peter's Basilica, on the feast of the Visitation of the Most Holy Virgin, July 2, 1957, the nineteenth year of his Pontificate. The encyclical represents one of the strongest pronouncements of the papal magisterium on Marian apparitions in the history of the Catholic Church. The Pope presents Mary as the model of Christian Life. The school of Mary teaches everybody selflessness and charity.   


 

"In the school of Mary one can learn to live, not only to give Christ to the world, but also to await with faith the hour of Jesus, and to remain with Mary at the foot of the cross"



Wherever providence has placed a person, there is always more to be done for God's cause. 

"Priests should with supernatural confidence, show the narrow road which leads to life. Consecrated and Religious fight under Mary's banner against inordinate lust for freedom, riches, and pleasures. In response to the Immaculate, they will fight with the weapons of prayer and penance and by triumphs of charity. Go to her, you who are crushed by material misery, defenseless against the hardships of life and the indifference of men. Go to her, you who are assailed by sorrows and moral trials. Go to her, beloved invalids and infirm, you who are sincerely welcomed and honored at Lourdes as the suffering members of our Lord. Go to her and receive peace of heart, strength for your daily duties, joy for the sacrifice you offer."

O my Mother in your Heart I place all the anguish of my heart and it is there that I gain strength and courage." 

Sainte Berrnadette Personal Notebook p.28

The Divine Mercy Novena and The Spark that Would Come from Poland!

 

Novena to Divine Mercy

"On each day of the novena you will bring to My heart a different group of souls and you will immerse them in this ocean of My mercy ... You will beg My Father, on the strength of My passion, for the graces for these souls." 

Click on each day for links to prayers:

DAY 1 (Good Fri.)       All mankind,and poor sinners.

DAY  2 (Holy Sat.)       Priests and religious souls

DAY 3 (Easter Sun.)    Devout and faithful souls

DAY 4 (Easter Mon.)   Souls with no faith

DAY  5 (Easter Tues.)  Separated brethren

DAY  6 (Easter Wed)   Meek, humble and Children

DAY  7 (Easter Thurs) Souls who venerate my mercy

DAY  8 (Easter Fri.)     Souls who are in purgatory

DAY  9 (Easter Sat.)     Lukewarm Souls 

The Chaplet of Divine Mercy

The Chaplet of Divine Mercy  The Chaplet can be said at any time, but the Lord specifically asked that it be prayed as a novena, especially on the nine days before the Feast of the Divine Mercy starting on Good Friday. And He promised: “By this Novena of Chaplets I will grant every possible grace to souls” (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska 796).

Remember to pray the Regina Caeli (Queen of Heaven) from Easter Sunday until noon on the Saturday before Pentecost  Instead of praying the Angelus during the Easter Season --See end of post for prayer and Gregorian Chant    

The Spark from Poland that will

Prepare World for My Final Coming 

We are all worried about our country and concerns for its economy and for the erosion of our  religious freedoms. St. Faustina  also worried and prayed for Poland: "Jesus, I beg You for my homeland; protect it against the assaults of its enemies" (Diary of St. Faustina, 119).  

Jesus responded to  St. Faustina as she prayed:
"I bear a special love for Poland, and if she will be obedient to My will, I will exalt her in might and holiness. From her will come forth the spark that will prepare the world for My final coming" (Diary, 1732).   

At the time it seemed as though this prayer of hers had failed.  Poland was conquered, fractured by the Nazi regime and later she was swallowed up by Communism.  It seemed her prayer to Our Lord was not answered.  However, the beginning of  the answer to her prayer and Poland’s  deliverance from Communism began on October 16, 1978. Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, Archbishop of Kraków was elected Pope, taking the name John Paul II.  

This event had an electrifying  unifying effect  for Poland.  Even under Communist rule, Poland  was one of the most devoutly Catholic nations in Europe. The election of a Polish pope the spark from Poland (Diary, 1732). was  the beginning of her political  freedom. God has honored Poland by lighting on her soil “the spark" giving us Bl. John Paul II  who  traversed the entire globe building up the kingdom of God so that it was preached in every land and nation!

Divine Mercy and the End Time

The exact timing is the Lord's But of that day and hour no one knows, not the angels of heaven, but the Father alone  Mat. 24:36   It seems that we have reached a certain critical phase of the end times that  had its beginnings with the Church.

Pope John Paul II alluded at the consecration of the Shrine of Merciful Love in 1981  making note of  the "special task" assigned to him by God" in the present situation of man, the Church and the world."  He urged us "to implore God's mercy for humanity in this hour of history ... to beg for it at this difficult, critical phase of the history of the Church and of the world as we approach the end of the second millennium." (Rich in Mercy 15)

 

It's  ironic that many of the most religious people of Christ's time  who were actively practicing their religion and  even though they awaited the promised Messiah  they were not able to recognize Him when He came. They even condemned him to death on the cross.  The Pharisees, devoted to their rules, and rituals that over the years, had become so important that their real meaning had been lost. They talked a lot of about God, but none of it had touched their hearts.  They were not living the way He wanted them to live.  “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me" (Is 29:13).  

 

Mary Mother of Mercy 

Mary Mother of all graces and Mother of Divine Mercy, Defend us from our enemies and receive us at the hour of our death. O Mary Mother of Mercy, Implore for us the Mercy of your Son!

Our Lady also spoke to St. Faustina: “You have to speak to the world about His great mercy and prepare the world for the Second Coming of Him who will come, not as a merciful Savior, but as a just Judge. Oh how terrible is that day! Determined is the day of justice, the day of divine wrath. The angels tremble before it. Speak to souls about this great mercy while it is still the time for granting mercy. (Diary635).

The Words of the Our Lady to St Faustina are similar to the Fatima Message. There is a sense urgency in them. Like the message of Fatima, it is the same urgency of the Gospel, "The time is accomplished, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent, and believe the gospel.”Mark1:15

"If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world."

Our Enemy is not Evil Around us,
Our Real Enemy is Sin Within us!

Are we not faced with a similar circumstances as we await the final coming of the Lord?  Paul writes in second Thessalonians: “The coming of the lawless one whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying wonders, And in all seduction of iniquity to them that perish; because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. In order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in wickedness" 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12

                The Church's Final Trial                

 675 “Before  Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.”Read more: Catechism of the Catholic Church and the last days                                                                                                           

Unceasingly the Church Implores
 God's  Mercy for Everyone!

April 30, 2000 View of  St. Peter's Square Institution of Feast of  Divine Mercy

Speak to the world about My mercy ... It is a sign for the end times. After it will come the Day of Justice. While there is still time, let them have recourse to the fountain of My mercy.(Diary 848)  Read more

Words of Blessed John Paul II: “At no time and in no historical period -- especially at a moment as critical as our own -- can the Church forget the prayer that is a cry for the mercy of God amid the many forms of evil which weigh upon humanity and threaten it. "The more the human conscience succumbs to secularization, loses its sense of the very meaning of the word "mercy," moves away from God, and distances itself from the mystery of mercy, the more the Church has the right and the duty to appeal to the God of mercy with loud cries!”  June 7, 1977  Divine Mercy Shrine in Lagiewniki, Poland .(Dives in Misericordia, n. 15).

  The Regina Caeli

Remember to pray the Regina Caeli (Queen of Heaven) from Easter Sunday until noon on the Saturday before Pentecost  Instead of praying the Angelus during the Easter Season     

                                   

 

  The Regina Caeli (Queen of Heaven)

V/.  Queen of Heaven, rejoice.  Alleluia.  
R/.  For He whom you did merit to bear.  Alleluia.

V/.  Has risen as He said Alleluia 
 R/.  Pray for us to God.  Alleluia. 

V/.  Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary.  Alleluia 
R/.  For the Lord has truly risen.  Alleluia.

  
V.  LET US PRAY. 

R. O God, Who by the Resurrection of Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, have been pleased to fill the world with joy, grant, we beseech You, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may receive the joys of eternal life, through the same Christ Our Lord.  Amen. 

December 10th is the Anniversary of the Fatima apparition in Pontevedra Spain requesting the 5 First Saturdays!

The Promises of Our Lady for her assistance at the hour of death and for our Salvation when we make the devotion of the 5 First Saturdays!

The Vision of  Pontevedra December 10th 1925. Our Lady and the Child Jesus who asked for compassion on the Heart of His
 Mother,  that was surrounded with thorns.

Eight years after the Fatima apparitions of 1917, when Sister Lucy was living in a convent in Pontevedra, Spain, Our Lady returned (as She had promised at Fatima) to Sister Lucy on December 10, 1925. On this occasion, Our Lady came to ask for the Communion of Reparation on the Five First Saturdays. She promised eternal salvation for Catholics who fulfill the Five First Saturdays. The Most Holy Virgin appeared to her, and by Her side, elevated on a luminous cloud, was the Child Jesus. 

Our Lady rested her hand on Lucia's shoulder and as She did so, She showed her a heart encircled by thorns, which She was holding in Her other hand. At the same time, the Child said: "Have compassion an the Heart of your Most Holy Mother, covered with thorns, with which ungrateful men pierce It at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation to remove them."

Our Lady continued speaking while looking intently at Sr. Lucia  and said:

"Look My daughter, at My Heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce Me at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console Me and announce in My name that I promise to assist at the moment of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep Me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me."      


                     

Why Five Consecutive First Saturdays of Reparation?

The five consecutive First Saturdays of reparation were requested by Our Lady of Fatima to atone for the five ways in which people offend her Immaculate Heart:

1. Attacks upon Mary’s Immaculate Conception;

2. Attacks against her Perpetual Virginity;

3. Attacks upon her Divine Maternity and the refusal to accept her as the Mother of all mankind.

4 For those who try to publicly implant in children’s hearts indifference, contempt and even hatred of this Immaculate Mother;

5. For those who insult her directly in her sacred images.

On Feb 15, 1926 the Child Jesus appeared once more in the garden at Pontevedra to Lucia

who was still a novice and asked her a question:

 

Later, Sister Lúcia reported that on February 15, 1926 while emptying a  garbage can outside the garden, she saw a child she thought she recognized. After striking up a conversation with him, the child transformed into the Child Jesus, who then reprimanded Sister Lúcia for not doing more to promote the five First Saturdays devotion. "Have you spread devotion to the five 1st Saturdays? It is true, my daughter, that many souls begin the First Saturdays, but few finish them, and those who do complete them do so in order to receive the graces that are promised thereby. It would please me more if they did Five with fervor and with the intention of making reparation to the Heart of your heavenly Mother, then if they did Fifteen in a tepid and indifferent manner."

  How to Make the First Saturdays

• Sacramental confession

The confession can take place within the month of the First Saturday Holy Communion is received, but the Holy Communion must be received with dignity, in a state of Grace, keeping in mind that Jesus is physically present in the Eucharist.  The Intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary must be made before Holy Communion is received and should be kept in mind during your confession.

• Holy Communion

The Holy Communion has to be received within the 24 hours of the first Saturday of the Month. Attendance to Holy Mass is optional. Receiving Holy Communion as part of this devotion must be consciously intended as an Act of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart. 

The devotee need not tell anyone else, but keep it in mind. To avoid omitting the Intention every Saturday, the General Intention for the devotion of the Act of Reparation can be mentally or outspokenly stated before starting the First Saturdays (or in between).
If a person has a valid reason not to attend Mass (Masses not available on Saturdays, sickness,or other major event), the devotee may consult a priest about receiving Communion privately or on another day with the intention of making this Communion as part of the first Saturday devotion.

• Holy Rosary The Rosary must also be recited with the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart 
• Meditation  A 15 Minute Meditation must also be made on the Mysteries of the Rosary
  
  This Meditation should also be done in an Act of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Rosary Meditations can be done on all 15 of the mysteries or fewer but must last for 15 minutes. This meditation is in addition to the recitation of the Rosary. 
  However, One may say one 5 decade rosary and then say another as one is meditating if one has trouble focusing ones thoughts to meditate.  The Rosary and the period of Meditation my be done alone or in a group and with or without the aid of sacred scripture. It is always good to consult ones confessor when in doubt.

Help Our Lady convert poor sinners! 

Promote the First Saturday's  requested by Our Lord use this pdf. 1st. Saturday Phamplet and distribute!  
http://sicutincaelo.org/downloads/FSP.pdf
 

Read also:
Pope Francis' PRAYER to the Immaculate Conception at the Piazza di Spagna on December 8th

 

This post registered on Catholic Blogger linkup for Decemberr, 2013

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