NOVENA TO THE IMMACULATE OF MARY

NOVEMBER 29TH SUNDAY Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is an ancient custom, tied to a passage from the of Luke that speaks of Mary’s heart, “(and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many may be .revealed” (Luke 2:35) HYMN

Immaculate Mary! Our hearts are on fire; That title so .1 wondrous Fills all our desire! Ave, Ave, Ave Maria! Ave, Ave Maria!

2. We pray for God's glory, May His kingdom come; We pray for His Vicar, Our Father in Rome. Ave, Ave, Ave Maria! Ave, Ave Maria!

3. We pray for our Mother, The Church upon earth, And bless, sweetest Lady, The land of our birth. Ave, Ave, Ave Maria! Ave, Ave Maria

By the 17th century the devotion became widespread and at about the same time images of Mary with her Immaculate .Heart rose in popularity The image appears to be simple, but the symbolism behind it .is complex First of all Mary’s heart is visible outside of her body. This points to her undying love for all people. Her love is such that she can not contain it within. Some artists choose to depict the Blessed Virgin carrying her heart in her hand or simply pointing with a finger to her heart. The gesture suggests that Mary wants to give her heart to the one who is viewing the .image Secondly, her heart is typically on fire, which emphasizes the .intensity of her love for God and for humanity Next there are white roses that encircle her heart. These symbolize her purity, brought about by her , creating within her a most . In some cases her heart is also shown with a lily coming out of the top, .also symbolizing her purity A single sword is sometimes added going through her heart, referring to the passage of Luke (“a sword shall pierce…”) and brings to mind the sorrows she endured during her lifetime, .especially during the crucifixion Last of all, the heart is typically surrounded by rays of light. This brings to mind 12:1, where it describes the ”.Blessed Virgin Mary as “a woman clothed with the sun .Meditation: in silence for some minutes :Comments The has the two hearts of and Mary. ?What does this mean for us .All are invited to comment on their meditation time : Together O Mary conceived without sin. Pray for us who have .recourse to Thee Immaculate Queen and , I renew my to you for this day and for always, so that you might use me for the coming of the Kingdom of Jesus in the whole world. To this end I offer you all my , actions and .sacrifices of this day

MONDAY 30th November The Immaculate Conception of Mary was defined by Pius IX in 1855 ?but what does it mean A Catholic was talking to a protestant about the Immaculate conception and then showed him how “full of grace” in Luke 1:28, s is better translated as “she who has been perfected by grace” thus attempting to show how God had perfected Mary. But he pulled out Hebrews 10:14 which says “He perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” What he was basically saying is that all who are in Christ have been perfected by his sacrifice on the cross and that Mary is no different then ?anyone else. So what is the answer The reply came: shout :Amen: because that is precisely what the teaches concerning the Blessed Virgin! He has just dropped his whole oppositional argument in your lap because the whole point is that we believe that she was the recipient of that grace at her conception due to the unique .purpose she was called to However, where he is still wrong, is that this grace was indeed applied to Mary at conception as opposed to the rest of us. Mary knew it! Look at Luke 1:46 “The Magnificat” Mary said: My soul magnifies the Lord. 47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour. 48 Because he has regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. 49 Because he that is mighty, has done great .things to me; and holy is his name

Meditation for some minutes Reflection shared by all. Do we understand that Mary was First sanctified before she was born, therefore she was ?conceived then born Immaculate in soul :Prayer Together O Mary conceived without sin. Pray for us who have .recourse to Thee Immaculate Queen and Mother of the Church, I renew my consecration to you for this day and for always, so that you might use me for the coming of the Kingdom of Jesus in the whole world. To this end I offer you all my prayers, actions and .sacrifices of this day

TUESDAY 1st December The Immaculate Heart of Mary is a devotional name used to refer to the interior life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, her joys and sorrows, her virtues and hidden perfections, and, above all, her virginal love for , her maternal love for her son Jesus Christ, and her motherly and compassionate love for all mankind. Traditionally, the Immaculate heart is depicted pierced with seven wounds or swords, in homage to the seven dolors of Mary and roses, usually red or white, wrapped .around the heart In Chapter 2 of St. Luke's gospel, the evangelist twice reports that Mary kept all things in her heart, that there she might ponder over them. Luke 2:35 recounts the of Simeon that her heart would be pierced with a sword. This image (the pierced heart) is the most popular representation of .the Immaculate Heart St. John's Gospel further invited attention to Mary's heart with its depiction of Mary at the foot of the cross at Jesus' crucifixion. St. Augustine said of this that Mary was not merely passive at the foot of the cross; "she cooperated ."through charity in the work of our redemption St. Leo said that through faith and love she conceived her son spiritually, even before receiving him into her womb, and St. Augustine says that she was more blessed in having borne Christ in her heart than in having conceived him in the .flesh Our Lady of Fátima asked that, in reparation for the sins committed against her Immaculate Heart, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months a Catholic believer go to the (within eight days before or after the first Saturday), receive the Holy Communion, recite five decades of the , and keep her company for 15 minutes while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary. She promised that, whoever would ever do this, would be given the graces .necessary for at the hour of one's death

Meditation for some minutes Reflection shared by all. Do we understand why Mary’s heart ?is depicted with a sword piercing her, or even seven swords :Prayer Together O Mary conceived without sin. Pray for us who have .recourse to Thee Immaculate Queen and Mother of the Church, I renew my consecration to you for this day and for always, so that you might use me for the coming of the Kingdom of Jesus in the whole world. To this end I offer you all my prayers, actions and .sacrifices of this day

,Wednesday 2nd December Our hymn Original sin is the Christian doctrine that each human being is born in a state of sin inherited from the first man, Adam, who disobeyed God in eating the forbidden fruit (of knowledge of good and evil) and, in consequence, transmitted his sin and .guilt by heredity to his descendants The doctrine was defined by St. (354-430 AD).Engaged in a controversy with the monk Pelagius over the question of whether infants could sin (Pelagius said they could not and therefore would not go to hell if unbaptised), In fact the Church teaches that they go to a place of waiting. St Augustine inserted original sin and the fall from grace into the story of the Garden of Eden and Paul's Letter to the Romans. Augustine identified the male seed, as the means by which original sin was made heritable, leaving only Jesus Christ, conceived without male seed , free of the sin passed down .from Adam through the intimate act

Meditation for some minutes Reflection shared by all. Do we understand these ideas of Original Sin, as the sin of our first parents, passed down to ?each one? Is there evidence today for such a sin :Prayer Together O Mary conceived without sin. Pray for us who have .recourse to Thee Immaculate Queen and Mother of the Church, I renew my consecration to you for this day and for always, so that you might use me for the coming of the Kingdom of Jesus in the whole world. To this end I offer you all my prayers, actions and .sacrifices of this day Thursday 3rd December Our hymn The and the Roman Rite Liturgy of the Hours naturally includes references to Mary's immaculate conception in the feast of the Immaculate Conception. An example is the that begins: "Tota pulchra es, Maria, et macula originalis non est in te" ("You are all beautiful, Mary, and the original stain [of sin] is not in you." It continues: "Your clothing is white as snow, and your face is like the sun. You are all beautiful, Mary, and the original stain [of sin] is not in you. You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the joy of Israel, .you give honour to our people. You are all beautiful, Mary (born Rajmund Kolbe; Polish: Maksymilian Maria Kolbe [maksɨˌmʲilʲan ˌmarʲja ˈkɔlbɛ]; 8 January 1894 – 14 August 1941), venerated as Maximilian Kolbe, was a Polish Catholic priest and Conventual Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the German death camp of Auschwitz, located in German-occupied during World War II. He had been active in promoting the veneration of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, founding and supervising the monastery of Niepokalanów near Warsaw, operating an amateur-radio station (SP3RN), and founding or .running several other organizations and publications On 10 October 1982 Pope John Paul II canonized Father Kolbe and declared him a martyr of charity.From the earliest known prayer to Mary, the (c. 200) to St. John Damascene (d. 750) to St. (d. 1716), devotion to Mary and total consecration to her have ancient roots. In our times Pope John Paul II recommended an “act of entrustment” to Mary (his papal motto was an enthusiastic Totus Tuus-“Totally Yours”). St. Maximilian Kolbe .adds a strong missionary dimension to Marian consecration :The consecration prayer is as follows O Immaculate and earth, refuge of sinners and our most loving Mother, God has willed to entrust the entire order of mercy to you. I, (name), a repentant sinner, cast myself at your feet, humbly imploring you to take me with all that I am and have, wholly to yourself as your possession and property. Please make of me, of all my powers of soul and body, of my whole life, death and eternity, whatever most .pleases you If it pleases you, use all that I am and have without reserve, wholly to accomplish what was said of you: "She will crush your head," and "You alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world." Let me be a fit instrument in your immaculate and merciful hands for introducing and increasing your glory to the maximum in all the many strayed and indifferent souls, and thus help extend as far as possible the blessed kingdom of the most of Jesus. For wherever you enter you obtain the grace of conversion and growth in holiness, since it is through your hands that all graces come to us from .the most Sacred Heart of Jesus

V. Allow me to praise you, O Sacred Virgin R. Give me strength against your enemies

FRIDAY 4th December Our hymn THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL owes its origins to the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the chapel of the Rue du Bac, Paris, in 1830. She appeared to Catherine of Labouré, showing the young nun and future canonized saint the design of a medal that serves as a mini-catechism of the Church’s .teaching on Our Lady In a , Mary stood on a globe with brilliant light streaming from her jeweled fingers. “Behold the symbol of graces shed upon those who ask for them,” she said, representing herself as of All Graces. Surrounding her a banner read, “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you,” symbolizing her Immaculate Conception. The vision reversed, showing the letter “M” entwined with a cross above the Sacred Hearts. This image represents Mary as Co-redemptrix, a unique participator in Jesus’ saving act of .redemption Millions of medals have been distributed and untold graces given “to those who wear it around the neck” as the Virgin promised to St. Catherine. Hearing of the miraculous conversion of the agnostic Alphonse Ratisbonne through the medal, St. Maximilian made wearing it and giving it away an integral part of his movement. He called the Miraculous Medal “a ‘bullet’ with which the faithful soldier hits the enemy, that is ”.evil, and thus rescues souls

Meditation for some minutes Reflection shared by all. Do we know about the Miraculous ?Medal? Who has stories of its power used for blessing :Prayer Together O Mary conceived without sin. Pray for us who have .recourse to Thee Immaculate Queen and Mother of the Church, I renew my consecration to you for this day and for always, so that you might use me for the coming of the Kingdom of Jesus in the whole world. To this end I offer you all my prayers, actions and .sacrifices of this day SATURDAY 6th December Our hymn

St. Joseph, the Model of Consecration .By Fr. Patrick Greenough, OFMConv If St. Maximilian were alive today I think that he would make St. Joseph the spiritual patron of his society, for he embodies .everything that a member should be .He was the First to be Consecrated In a dream, an of The Lord appeared to him and told him ” Not to be afraid to take Mary into his home.” (Mt 1:20) Neither should we ever be afraid to take Mary into our hearts and home for she carries with her, the Word made Flesh, Our .Lord and Savior Rather than ever be afraid, like Joseph we should embrace .her with all the love in our hearts Joseph was spiritually betrothed to Mary. All that he had and was; .All of his heart and soul he gave to her completely and totally Is this not what each one is called to do in our Consecration? ?Who has ever done it more completely and fully than Joseph Lastly, from Bethlehem, to Egypt, to Jerusalem, to Nazareth, Joseph carried Mary and Jesus with him, loving them, watching over them, pouring out his love and honor and .devotion upon them .This is how we are to Evangelize in our Catholic life We too are to carry Mary and Jesus with us wherever we go in the workplace, shopping, our neighborhood and our home with .all the love and honor and devotion we have in our hearts So that on the last day, when we take our last breath, Mary and Jesus will still be at our side because through our Consecration, like Joseph, we never left them and they never left us. And we too will die in Peace surrounded by Our Lord and Mary to whom we have consecrated our heart and soul, our .love and devotion, our whole life, death and eternity So at the end of every renewal of our Consecration to the Blessed Virgin, I recommend that we say, “St. Joseph, Pray for ”!us Because he was the first to be Consecrated and the model of .how to be Consecrated heart and soul to Mary In St. Joseph, Meditation on St Joseph .All are invited to comment on their meditation time :Prayer Together O Mary conceived without sin. Pray for us who have .recourse to Thee Immaculate Queen and Mother of the Church, I renew my consecration to you for this day and for always, so that you might use me for the coming of the Kingdom of Jesus in the whole world. To this end I offer you all my prayers, actions and .sacrifices of this day SUNDAY 7th December, Day before the Immaculate Conception Feast

Our hymn Mother Teresa and the Miraculous Medal .By Fr. James McCurry, OFMConv Mother Teresa of Calcutta, renowned for the worldwide mission of charity that she began in 1946, used a simple “tool” as a symbol of that charity: the “Miraculous Medal.” A common sight it was to watch Mother take a fistful of such medals, kiss them, and hand them out to the poor. Queues of people would form outside her convents when word would spread that Mother Teresa had come to town. One by one she would welcome young and old, the sick and the needy, lay and clergy, the significant and the insignificant. Rarely would any leave without Mother pressing Miraculous Medals into .their hands On her last visit to the South Bronx of New York in June 1997, sitting in a wheelchair less than three months before her death, Mother cradled a full basket of these medals on her lap. Her sisters kept refilling the basket as Mother gave sizeable quantities to each priest greeting her after . Noteworthy was the reverence with which she handled these religious sacramentals, and the earnestness with which she suggested they be used as tools for spreading the Gospel .message of love Why did Mother Teresa pass out Miraculous Medals? What connection do they have to the work of her sisters, the Missionaries of Charity (whom Mother affectionately called MCs)? Since Mother herself oversaw the yearly distribution of tens of thousands of Miraculous Medals in the final decade of her life, and since her MCs continue to circulate 1.8 million Miraculous Medals annually, a brief look at this phenomenon .seems well indicated Eighty years before Mother was born, the Miraculous Medal had its origin. The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared on the 18th of July and on the 27th of November, in the year 1830, to a young Daughter of Charity, St. Catherine Labouré, on the Rue du Bac in Paris. Our Lady’s parting message to the visionary was that a medal be cast and distributed with a depiction of her Immaculate Conception on the front, and a tableau of Calvary on the back. Within ten years of the apparition— generally regarded as the beginning of the modern era of Marian phenomena—the medal became so widespread and popular, and occasioned such numerous healings and conversions, that people began calling it the “Miraculous Medal”—a nickname which continues to the present day. In the first half of the twentieth century, the Conventual Franciscan Friar and later Martyr of Charity at Auschwitz, St. Maximilian Kolbe, championed the mass distribution of Miraculous Medals. St. Maximilian called the Medal: “our weapon with which to strike hearts” and “a bullet with which a faithful soldier hits the enemy, that is evil, and thus rescues ”.souls If St. Maximilian Kolbe can be considered the foremost advocate of the Miraculous Medal in the first half of the twentieth century, a good case could be made to designate Mother Teresa the foremost champion of the Medal in the second half of the twentieth century. She inherited the St Maximilian’s insight that the Medal was an effective tool for .evangelization—spreading the Gospel of Love The symbolism of the front and back of the Medal is like reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Lessons about Jesus Christ, His Church, the Redemption, the , the , Grace, Original Sin, Mary, Death, Judgement, Heaven, and Hell are all to be learned by studying the images .impressed on the Medal The front of the Miraculous Medal depicts the scene from the Book of Genesis 3:15, known as the Protoevangelium, the “first gospel,” where God prophesies that a Woman and her offspring will eventually crush the head of the ancient serpent, who had tricked Adam and Even into committing Original Sin. Standing atop the earth, with her foot on the crawling snake, Mary is depicted as the Immaculate Conception—a doctrine explained by the words of the prayer framing Our Lady in an oval: “O Mary conceived without sin pray for us who have recourse to thee.” Mary, the , the first of our human race to be freed from Original Sin (at the very instant she was conceived in her mother’s womb), offers us the graces from God to overcome the influences of evil that slime their way though our frail lives. These graces that she mediates from God to us are symbolized by the rays that come from her fingers. Notice that not all of her fingers have rays emanating. She explained to St. Catherine that the absent rays represent graces which God offers but we refuse. All in all, the front of the Miraculous Medal is a mini-catechism about the great struggle between good and evil that engages the human race—a struggle in which Mary stands out as first prize of the victory won by Christ and as our God-given Mother channeling to us the graces necessary to share in the same .victory The reverse (back) of the Miraculous Medal depicts the scene from the Gospel of John 19:25-27, where the Cross of Jesus Christ, with Mary at its foot, stands uppermost in the mystery of Divine Charity—redemptive love without limits. Surrounded by an oval of 12 stars, symbolizing the 12 Tribes of Israel from the Old Testament and the 12 Apostles of the , the Cross on the Miraculous Medal represents hope—a hope which Mary understood and which Mother Teresa conveyed each time she pressed the Medal into the hands of the poor. At the base of the cross is a horizontal bar, and this is regarded as a symbol of the Altar; for it is on the Altar at Mass that the Sacrifice of Calvary continues to be present in the world of today and down through the ages. The initial M at the foot of the Cross and the Altar indicates the way in which Mary gathers the faithful to receive the graces of Redemption and partake of Holy Communion with her attitude of faith and stance of total consecration to Christ and His mission of .charity Beneath the Marian monogram are the two hearts—the Sacred Heart of Jesus encircled with thorns and the Immaculate Heart of Mary pierced by a sword. The covenant of these two Hearts in the blood of suffering and sacrifice would ultimately become an alliance in glory. The glorified Jesus, ascended into Heaven, and the , assumed body and soul to the same abode, live now united in one eternally synchronized heartbeat of love for humanity— .called to share someday in the fullness of life and love On the Cross, Jesus said to his beloved disciple (and to all of us until the end of time) “Behold your Mother” (Jn. 19:27). He then cried out “I thirst.” Mother Teresa did not fail to see the connection between those phrases. Jesus thirsted for His love to be received and spread. Mary on Calvary understood her Son’s thirst, received His love, returned his love, and spread it. The motto of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity is precisely “I thirst”—their mission to satisfy the thirst of Jesus as He cries out to them in the poorest of the poor— goal to return Jesus’ love by their love the way Mary did. As simply as she could, Mother Teresa adopted the Miraculous Medal as a beautiful tool to symbolize the return of love for .Love: Love is repaid by love alone Taking a Miraculous Medal in her knarled and toil worn fingers, Mother Teresa often would ask the sick person “Where does it hurt?”; then she would gently press the medal on that spot. “Let Our Lady kiss where it hurts,” she would be heard to say. Then she would tell the sick person: “Repeat after me: ‘Mary Mother, be a mother to me NOW.'” She would stress the word “now,” and repeat the phrase, as she caressed the sick with Our Lady’s medal. For Mother Teresa, this was a “medal of charity”—a sign of God’s single interest in each and every person at each and every moment “now” of life. She gave to the Miraculous Medal a new apostolic thrust, and refocused the Medal’s spirituality and theology through the prism of her holy mission of charity. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee, so that the thirst of Jesus might be satisfied, and His world become something beautiful for God, a kingdom of love, where you, O Mary Mother of Jesus, can be a mother to me .and to all, now and forever. Amen

.Thank you for praying this NOVENA with our group