OUR LADY OF THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT
NOVENA PRAYERS
To be said at the beginning of the daily novena prayer:
O Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, all praise and all
thanksgiving
be every moment Thine!
Blessed be the holy and Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Mother of God!
Day 1 Title of Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament
Virgin Immaculate, Mother of Jesus and our Mother, we invoke you under the
title of Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament because you are the Mother of
the Saviour who lives in the Eucharist. It was from you He took the flesh and
blood with which He feeds us in the Sacred Host. We also invoke you under that
title because the grace of the Eucharist comes to us through you, since you are
the Mediatrix, the channel, through which God’s graces reach us. And,
finally, we call you Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament because you were the
first to
live the Eucharistic life. Teach us to pray the Mass as you did, to receive
Holy Communion worthily and frequently, and to visit devoutly with Our Lord in
the Blessed Sacrament.
Day 2 Mary and The Holy Mass
Virgin Immaculate, you were present at the death of your Divine Son on
Calvary, and you offered your immense sorrow in union with His Sacrifice.
Again
after the Resurrection you were present at the real, but unbloody, Sacrifice of
your Son in the Holy Mass. Teach us to unite ourselves with Jesus at the
Consecration as you did; obtain for us the grace to understand the reality of
the
Mass; and awaken in us the desire to assist at Mass often, even daily.
Day 3 Mary and Holy Communion
Virgin Immaculate, your Communions were the most fervent and the most holy
ever made. When you received your Divine Son into your heart, you loved Him with
a love exceeding that of any other creature for his God. Teach us to make
Holy Communion the center of our life, as it was of yours, so that our lives may
be entirely spent in preparing for the coming of Jesus in Communion and in
thanking Him for the gift of himself to us.
Day 4 Mary and The Real Presence
Virgin Immaculate, after the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, you found
consolation in your separation from Him by visiting Him often in the Blessed
Sacrament. Obtain for us the grace to be always conscious of His presence in the
tabernacle and to visit Him often as you did, especially when we are troubled,
lonely, afraid and in pain of body or mind. Teach us to remember that He is
always there, ready to listen to us, to guide, protect, and console us.
Day 5 Mary, The Model of Adorers
Virgin Immaculate, you are the perfect model of adorers of the Blessed
Sacrament. You adored Jesus in the little white Host with the same faith,
reverence
and wonder with which you adored Him on the first Christmas night and during
all the years you lived with Him. Teach us not to forget that the small white
Host is truly our God, infinite, eternal and omnipotent. Help us to conduct
ourselves at all times in His presence with the modesty and reverence we owe to
our God.
Day 6 Mary, The Model of Thanksgiving
Virgin Immaculate, you gave to Jesus the most perfect thanksgiving for the
institution of the Eucharist. Teach us to thank your Divine Son for the gift of
Himself in the Blessed Sacrament. Teach us also to thank Him after we have
received Him in Communion. And since our best thanksgiving can never equal
yours,
permit us to offer Him your thanksgiving after Communion, your fervor, your
love, your devotion.
Day 7 Mary, The Model of Reparation
Virgin Immaculate, you gave to Jesus in the Sacred Host perfect reparation.
We desire to accept our daily trials for love of Him and with you, to console
Him for the ingratitude of men and the slights and outrages He suffers daily in
the Blessed Sacrament both from those who believe in Him and those who do
not.
Day 8 Mary, The Model of Prayer
Virgin Immaculate, while the apostles preached the Gospel, you stayed close
to your Divine Son in the tabernacle and prayed to Him for the graces they
needed to convert the world. Teach us to pray before the tabernacle where Jesus
waits day and night to hear and grant our petitions. Teach us to pray not only
for ourselves, but also for those who do not know Him in the Sacrament of His
love, so that the gift of faith may be given them, and His Eucharistic Kingdom
may be spread throughout the world.
Day 9 Mary, The Dispensatrix of Eucharistic
Graces
Virgin Immaculate, perfect lover of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, we ask
you to obtain for us the graces we need to become true adorers of our
Eucharistic God. Grant us, we beg of you, to know Him better, to love Him more,
and
to center our lives around the Eucharist, that is, to make our whole life a
constant prayer of adoration, thanksgiving, reparation, and petition to Our Lord
in the Blessed Sacrament. Amen.
To be said at the end of the daily novena prayer:
V. Pray for us, O Virgin Immaculate,
Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
R. That the Eucharistic Kingdom of Jesus Christ
may come among us!
Lord Jesus Christ, our King and our God, who are true God and true Man in the
Bread of the Eucharist, we beg of You, that, in venerating so great a
mystery, we may be mindful of Your Blessed Mother, in whose body You were
conceived
by the Holy Spirit. Grant also that we may imitate her manner of worshiping You
in the Sacred Host, her adoration, her thanksgiving, her reparation, her
prayer, so that we may see Your Eucharistic Kingdom spread and flourish
throughout
the whole world. Amen.
Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Most Holy Sacrament, glory of the Christian
people, joy of the universal Church, and the hope of the world, pray for us.
Kindle in all the faithful a lively devotion to the most Holy Eucharist, so that
they may be made worthy to receive Holy Communion every day.
Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, pray for us.
Let us with Mary Immaculate adore, thank, supplicate, and console the most
sacred and beloved Eucharistic Heart of Jesus!
Copyright © of novena prayers 1995 Rev. Lawrence G. Lovasik
All rights reserved. Used with permission.
IMPRIMATUR: John Mark Gannon, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D.
Archbishop of Erie
IMPRIMI POTEST: Rev. Robert C. Hunter, S.V.D., Provincial, Girard, Pa.
NIHIL OBSTAT: A. H. Wiersbinski, LL.D., Censor
OUR LADY OF THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT
On May 13 we celebrate the feast of “Our Lady of the Most Blessed
Sacrament.” This is the title that St. Peter Julian Eymard gave Our Lady
to honor her
for, as he so often stated, the Blessed Mother was the first and most perfect
adorer of Jesus. Our Lady adored Jesus from the very first moment of
conception in her womb. She continued her adoration throughout His earthly
life.
The early Church Fathers wrote that, after Jesus ascended into heaven, St. John
the beloved Apostle provided the Eucharist for Our Lady as he cared for her.
Our Lady spent most of her days and nights in Adoration of Jesus in the Holy
Eucharist. In early Church times the Eucharist was customarily reserved in
the
homes of all Christians. Our Lady's daily communion and adoration united
her
to Jesus even more intimately than during His years with her at Nazareth.
St. John Damascus points out in his 6th century writings, “The
body of
Christ in the Holy Eucharist is the very same body born of the Virgin Mary.”
When we receive Jesus in the Eucharist we receive the Son of Mary. Where
we find
the Son we find the Mother in adoration.
Consider another May 13 occurrence of great importance. In
1916,
preceding the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima, Portugal, an Angel appeared
three
times. The first apparition of the Angel to three children, Jacinta,
Lucia, and
Francisco, frightened them. The Angel said, “Fear not, I am the Angel
of
Peace. Pray with me: My God, I believe, I adore, I trust and I love Thee.
I beg
pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not trust and do not
love Thee.”
During the Angel's second apparition to the children, the message,
in
part, was “Pray, pray a great deal! The Heart of Jesus and Mary have
designs of
mercy for you.” In the third apparition, the Angel appeared holding a
chalice
and a Host. The Angel prostrated himself on the ground, while the chalice and
Host were suspended in the air, and offered this prayer three times with the
children to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist:
"My God, I believe, I adore,
I trust and I love Thee. I beg pardon
for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not trust and do not love Thee.
O Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly. I
offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ,
present in all the Tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages,
sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended, and by the infinite merits
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the
conversion of poor sinners."
After the harbinger's three
apparitions and messages, Our Lady
appeared on May 13, 1917. She asked the children to pray the following
prayer with
her, “O Most Holy Trinity, I adore Thee! My God, My God, I love Thee
in the
Most Blessed Sacrament!”
There were six apparitions of Our Lady over the next six months,
culminating in the Miracle of the Sun on October 13, 1917, witnessed by seventy
thousand
people. This miracle is foretelling the coming glory of of Jesus in the
Most
Blessed Sacrament! Finally, in 1929, Sister Lucia was given the famous
vision of the Most Holy Trinity. God our Father and the Holy Spirit were
present
with Jesus, Who was hanging on the Cross. A Chalice with a Host above it
was
suspended alongside Jesus. Blood was flowing from the head of Jesus, and
His
wounded side, over the Host and into the Chalice. From the left hand of
Jesus
water flowed down on the Altar forming the words, “Graces and Mercy.”
Our
Lady was beneath the right hand of Jesus, holding her Immaculate Heart in her
left hand and the Rosary in her right hand.
According to the Fatima messages, if Our Lady’s
requests—frequent
reception and adoration of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, monthly
Confession,
and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, especially by praying the
Rosary—are heeded, there will be great graces and mercy poured out upon our
world
resulting in a new era of peace. The Immaculate Heart of Mary will
triumph, and
these promises will be fulfilled, when the Eucharistic Heart of her Son Jesus
reigns throughout the world in Perpetual Adoration of the Most Blessed
Sacrament!
Mariologists have noted that true devotion to Mary leads us to
Jesus in
the Eucharist. Wherever there are shrines dedicated to Mary, her Son
reigns in
the Holy Eucharist, where he is received, worshiped and adored. Our Holy
Father, Pope John Paul II, wrote in his 1988 Marian encyclical, “The piety of
the
Christian people has always very rightly sensed a profound link between
devotion to the Blessed Virgin and worship of the Eucharist” (Redemptoris
Mater,
44.4). He later stated in Rome in June of 1994, while talking about
the
Eucharist, “I would also like to repeat my invitation to you to make
Adoration of the
Blessed Sacrament a habitual practice in all Christian communities.”
Our Eucharistic Lord is the center of all other devotion within our
church
and the primary source of grace and mercy. The May 13, 1856 founding of
the
“Congregation of the Most Blessed Sacrament” by St. Peter Julian Eymard to
spread Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration and their entrustment to “Our Lady of
the
Most Blessed Sacrament” was a prophetic foreshadowing of her May 13, 1917
Fatima apparition! Let us honor “Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament”
in the
way she most desires, by receiving, adoring and giving glory to her Son in the
Most Blessed Sacrament!
(Copyright 1995, Linda Bracy. All rights reserved).
Our Lady said “Do whatever He tells you” (Jn. 2:5). The only request
Jesus
ever made of His apostles is “Could you not watch one hour with Me?” (Mt.
26:40).
|
