NOVENA TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
(Generally falls between June and July)
This feast usually comes up on the Saturday following the second Sunday after Pentecost. From this it can be seen that the feast of the Sacred Heart is the Friday before it. It should be ensured that the novena starts 9 days prior to the feast. It should be noted that the World Apostolate of Fatima propagates devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so each year this novena should be observed. Below is the novena prayer to be said each day respectively, throughout the nine days (usually after the Rosary).
First Intention: Fidelity
Most holy mother of God, our mother in the order of grace, we the beloved of your Immaculate Heart come to you this first day (week) of our novena to pray for the grace of fidelity. Mary, mother of holy love, our confidence, we invoke your most sweet heart that we may always be faithful to God, the holy Catholic Church, the good Angels and our Guardian Angels in particular and to the saints in heaven of which y ou are the Queen.
Mother Mary, Model woman of faith while you were upon earth, assist us that we may have a fidelity that avoids a depreciating criticism, not only in thoughts but even more in words. Grant us the strength of self control so that in all matters of integrity, we may act and answer as you Mary and our Guardian Angel would respond. May we be steadfast in the service of holy mother Church until death and then adore the Most Blessed Trinity in Communion with you and all Angels and Saints for all eternity.
O Virgin most faithful, scripture declares you “blessed among women”; it says “Blessed is She who believed that the promise made Her by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Luke 1:45). Obtain for us a faith so strong that we will accept the word of God through His holy Church, even when it is difficult and seems contrary to the way of the world.
Loyal to the very end, Mother Mary, you stood beneath the Cross on Calvary with John the beloved disciple. You heard with him the words of the redeeming saviour as He completed His public ministry, “Woman, behold your son; Son, behold your mother”, ‘It was your noble role to be mother and heart of the infant church’. You sustained the Disciples of Christ in courage and prayer, drawing down the power of the Holy Spirit as they gathered around you after the ascension awaiting the birthday of the Church, on Pentecost.
Mother of the Church, it has ever been your role in the holy church to invoke for us the virtues of faith and hope so that we might live in love patterned after your own Immaculate Heart as model. You believed, Mary, not only when things were easy; you continued to believe in Jesus in His darkest hours. With you as mother and model we shall persevere in fidelity until the very end. Amen. (Say ‘the concluding p rayers’. See concluding prayers after ninth intention).
Second Intention: Humility (To be said on the second days)
Immaculate Mother of God and our mother by grace we the beloved of your Immaculate Heart come to you on this second day (week) of our novena to pray for grace of humility. Mary, our mother, our confidence,
we invoke your most sweet heart that we may be your humble servants and brothers of your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Mary we live in humility within the refuge of your Immaculate Heart as a member of the Holy Catholic Church. Obtain for us the grace to live in true faith with courage to serve readily and joyfully. Intercede, O holy mother of God, Mediatrix of all graces, so that we may answer a joyful “Yes” and “Here I am”, in all our trials.
May the holy virtue of humility in us be excelled to the highest degree, O ever Virgin Mother of God. Guard us against suspicion, against jealousy and envy, against sensitiveness, against bearing grudges, against the act of thinking ourselves being superior to others. With the fire of your heart wane the coldness of our hearts.
May we humbly serve Jesus in souls everywhere possible with a spirit of helpfulness, cheerfulness and strength without compromise to the truth, but in total consecration to your Immaculate Heart which is at one with the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. May our humility gain for us confidence in the power of your intercession for our salvation and for the protection and growth of our holy mother, the Church. Assist us so that we serve in the present and look to the future with undiminished trust in the power of your Immaculate Heart.
Guard us O Holy Immaculate Mother from the spirit of quarrelsomeness so that we may live in peace and harmony with all members of our community and thereby lead others to unity in the fullness of true Catholic faith.
O Mary, you prayed, “my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour, because he had regarded the lowliness of his handmaid: for behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed” (Luke 1:47-48). It was your humility that made you great in the divine light.
Send forth now your angels and our guardian angels in particular; also the angel of our country, that we may always live in truth. Amen (Say the concluding prayers shown after ninth intention).
Third Intention: Obedience
Immaculate Mother of God, our mother by grace, we the beloved of your Immaculate Heart come to you on this third day (week) of our novena to pray for the grace of obedience found in re sponding to the grace of the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit in our souls. May we always realise that obedience comes from the desire to unite our wills with the will of God. O spouse of the Holy Spirit, by your intercession grant us the grace to be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit within us and to our Angels who influence us to think and act in harmony with the divine will.
We desire to submit to all lawful authority, inwardly and outwardly, so as to avoid having rebellious, dissenting attitudes, wh ich cause revengeful thoughts. By union with the Divine will with your Immaculate Heart as our Model, O mother, we will obtain the peace of the Holy Spirit and Union with the Most Blessed Trinity.
Obtain for us, the Beloved of your Immaculate Heart, O Mot her Mary, the grace of obedience to all lawful authority which is in harmony with the law of God and His holy church. In this way, the grace of humility for which we pray during this Novena will accompany the doing of God’s will, and all the commands we ob ey will turn out for greater glory of God and the salvation of souls.
Intercede, Glorious Mother, that we may always remember that obedience as a virtue is pleasing to God because it means the sacrifice of our will for love of God. May our spirit imitate yours, O holy mother, as when you answered God’s angel: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).
Grant us, O loving heart of Mary, the grace of rendering in special respect and undivided obedience to our holy father the Pope and to the Bishops who speak and teach in union with the vicar of Jesus Christ on earth.
By always being obedient, may we, within the refuge of your Immaculate Heart, live in uprightness as in the discipline of a well -ordered army, for the sake of Jesus Christ and His Holy Church. (Say the concluding prayers shown after the ninth intention).
Fourth Intention: Charity
Immaculate Mother of God, our mother by grace, we the beloved of your Immaculate Heart come to you on this fourth day (week) of our novena to pray for the holy virtue of Charity. Let rays of light from your Immaculate Heart penetrate our souls with the love of God.
Mary, mother of Christ, mother of holy love, form us accordingly to the heart of your son. His love of the Father and all men was so great that He laid down his life for us, even to death on a cross.
Obtain for us the grace of the infused supernatural virtue by which we love God above all things for His own sake and love others for the sake of God.
In devotion to your Immaculate Heart, O Mary, we will acquire the virtue of supernatural charity by the Divine power of charity infused into our souls together with sanctifying grace.
St. John, Apostle of Love, who received the mother of love into your own home and thereby into your heart according to the word of Jesus Christ from the cross, we look to your intercession to obtain for us knowledge of God who is love, that we may abide in God, and God in us.
Mary, spouse of the Holy Spirit, it is through your powerful intercession that the spirit sanctifies souls and enables us to pray “Lord Jesus” in faith and love; invoke O Immaculate Heart of Mary, the spirit of Divine love to fill us with ever greater love of Jesus Christ and of the Father. Teach us to have faith as you had on earth and to love as you loved. Share even now the flames of the intense love, which radiates from your own heart. Enkindle in us the fire of the Holy Spirit. Help us to serve the Church lovingly and faithfully.
In a world grown cold to love, a world divided, unite us through the power of your prayers, O Immaculate Mother of Love, into one fold under one shepherd. In drawing us to Jesus, possess our souls, our very lives. Enlighten our every thought, word and deed, so that our lives may reflect your own.
As our Lady of the Holy Eucharist, illuminate and purify us so that we may approach the Sacrament of love to receive our loving saviour for growth in leading to final glory. In this way, we will come one day, O loving Mother of Grace, to be in heaven both body and soul with Jesus as king and you as queen and mother. Amen (Say the concluding prayers shown after the ninth intention).
Fifth Intention: Silence
Immaculate Mother of God, mother by grace, we the beloved of your Immaculate Heart come to you on this fifth day (week) of our novena to pray for the grace of silence.
Blessed Mother Mary, Queen of peace, exalted above all angels and saints; you participate in the heavenly glory of the beatific vision of the Blessed Trinity, seeing God ‘Face to Face’ even as He is (1 Cor. 13:12). Obtain for us the grace that everything we speak may be spoken in love and every silence kept, not in anger, obstinacy, revengefulness or deceitfulness, but in the sacredness that opens hearts to God’s word.
As you pondered the word of God in your Immaculate Heart, O everVirgin mother of God and the mother of men, obtain for us the grace of silence so that we are not bound to the distraction of the world. Rather, emptied of the world, we may desire to be filled with the treasures of Divine Grace. It is in holy silence that we can comprehend Divine treasures and the secrets of the king’s heart.
Good St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus Christ and true husband of Mary you loved silence upon earth. The Bible does not record a word you spoke. Yet in your silence you had the holiest state in life next to Jesus and Mary. By your intercession, in union with your sweet spouse, obtain for us O glorious St. Joseph, the grace to imitate both interiorly and exteriorly the spirit of your silence.
O Holy family, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, in imitation of the silence, which reigned in your home, empty us of worldly noise and distraction so as to hear the voice of the Lord more clearly. Open our hearts to the work of the holy angels. The a ngels will thus lead us to faith and love for the Most Blessed Trinity, to the word made flesh, to the Church as the mystical body of Jesus and to the highest veneration of God’s Mother, the Mother of the Church.
May a spirit of materialism never touch ou r lives. In the silence of our hearts, “Speak, Lord for your servant is listening” (1 Sam, 3:9). (Say the concluding prayers shown after the ninth intention).
Sixth Intention: Right Balance
Immaculate Mother of God conceived without original sin, never t ouched by the slightest stain of sin, “tainted nature’s solitary boast”, we the beloved of your Immaculate Heart come to you on this sixth day (week) of our novena to pray for the grace of right balance.
O spotless Virgin Mother Mary, Mother of God and ou r mother by grace, obtain for us right balance as a foundation of candour, of tranquillity, of clearness and holiness. May there be no duplicity in our thoughts or actions.
Obtain for us a right balance in the order of our interior life, O Immaculate Heart of Mary, according to the well -ordered interior life you lived in the perfection of holiness when you were upon earth. Lead us to grow in holiness with a balance of spirituality so that our wills here below are in harmony with the kingdom of God in heave n, where you as Queen and mother reign with Jesus Christ your son who is our King, our Lord and brother.
May we avoid all extremes as you did, O mother of God the son, daughter of God the father, spouse of the Holy Spirit. You were subject to your loving husband, St. Joseph and to the laws of God. May we never be
more Catholic than the Church, nor less Catholic than this same holy Church your son Jesus Christ founded.
May we be neither “Liberal” nor “Conservative” but members of Jesus Christ’s Church who seek to live like Christ and follow the teachings of true Catholicism in faith and morals without compromise in a harmonious balance. May there be no conflict between what we believe and what we do. May we not demand of others what we decline to practice ourselves.
May our speech be “yes” when we mean yes and “No” when we mean no (Mt. 5:37).
Obtain for us by your powerful intercession, O Holy Mediatrix of all graces, a right balance in living the spirit of poverty, chastity and obedience according to our state in life, so that the wills of Satan never succeed in getting us to succumb to the spirit of the world, the weakness of the flesh, or the pride of life.
Send forth your Angels, O Queen of Angels, cause of our joy, mother of mercy. Intercede that we be open to the glorious spirits of heaven who are powerful to bring right order into our lives. Amen. (Say the concluding prayers shown after the ninth intention).
Seventh Intention: To Lead Souls to Jesus Christ
Immaculate Mother of God, our mother by grace, we the beloved of your Immaculate Heart come to you on the seventh day (week) of our novena.
We pray for the grace and strength to lead souls to Jesus Christ, Our Lord, God and Saviour. O heavenly Mother Mary, we come to Jesus when we come to you. Your greatness lies in your being “Mother of God”. May living our motto “To Jesus through Mary” lead many souls to your Son, true God, and true man.
“We fly to your patronage, O Holy Mother of God, despise not our petitions, in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, O glorious and Blessed Virgin Mary”.
Most Holy Mary, you conceived the word of God in your Immaculate Heart before you did in your womb. You sought always to ponder the word of God in your heart perfectly without drawing attention to yourself. It was
St. John the Baptist who said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
It was you, O Mary, who under the ‘power of the Holy Spirit’, prayed, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord” (Luke 1:46). May we too lead souls to Jesus in His Holy Catholic Church, under the visible leadership of the Pope.
Sanctify us O Lord, through your Holy Spirit, that we may be instruments of the sanctification of others by word and deed. You said, “No one can receive anything unless it is given to him from heaven” (John 3:27). May the glory of God and the salvation of our souls be always our objectives. May we remember, O heavenly Mother that we teach as much by what we are as by what we say.
May we never lead another soul astray. By our daily duties, may we always lead souls to Jesus Christ, where lies their hope of eternal salvation.
As apostles of your love, Immaculate, illumine and purify us, so that we may be effective agents for the divine mercy of Jesus Christ in leading many souls to the Father in the Unity of the Holy Spirit. (Say concluding prayers shown after ninth intention).
Eight Intention: To Become Saints of God
Holy Immaculate Mother of God, our mother by grace, we the beloved of your Immaculate Heart come to you on this eight day (week) of our novena to pray for the grace to become saints of God.
Queen of Angels and Saints, we desire to become Saints, not for our own glory, but for the honour and glory of God alone.
At our baptism, O Holy Mother, we were first sanctified when “The Love of God was poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which was being given to us” (Romans 5:5).
At the same time the entire Blessed Trinity came to dwell within us. We are now in the period of our second sanctification, which shall continue throughout life as we correspond with divine inspiration, striving to practice Christian virtues. Thus we will grow more and more into the likeness of your son Jesus Christ. Assist us Holy Mother Mary, never to waste graces.
Mother, in living a consecration to your Immaculate Heart, we will live the consecration of our baptism. May we arrive at that third sanctification which will take place when we enter heaven. There, we will, become totally and irrevocably united with the most Blessed Trinity in the beatific vision, of “what no eye has ever seen and no ear has heard, what the mind cannot visualise all that God has prepared for those who love him” (I Cor. 2:9).
We believe, sweet heart of Mary, that our sanctification lies in the performance of our daily duty to Christ, doing the will of God each day according to our state in life. May we be ever mindful, O Holy Mother that the sacrifice which God especially requires of us is the fulfilment of His law in the performance of our daily duty while living in a spirit of charity towards our neighbour. May we persevere in living the fullness of true faith in the Catholic Church, which is the mystical body of Jesus of which you are Mother. O Lord of Victory, keep us ever mindful of your son who said, “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me. For he who would save his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9:23-25).
Each one of us has a Guardian Angel to assist us in the battle against the forces of evil so as to lead us to our heavenly home. Heavenly Mother of
Our Saviour, keep us open to the good holy angels as they speak to us through the voice of conscience; thus we will live in harmony with the Word of God as taught by the Holy Mother Church. Amen (Say concluding prayers shown after ninth intention).
Ninth Intention: Imitation of Mary
Immaculate Mother of God, our mother by grace, we the beloved of your Immaculate Heart come to you on thi s final day (week) of our novena. We pray for the grace to imitate you, our heavenly Mother in your life of faith, hope, charity, humility, and purity all the Christian virtues in which you excel to a perfect degree. Created “full of grace”, you increased yet more in grace day by day.
At the Annunciation, Immaculate Mary, you replied to the Angel, “Behold the Handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to your word”. (Luke 1:38). Your cousin, St. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, greeted you with:
“Blessed are you among women, and Blessed is the fruit of your womb. Blessed is She who has believed that the things promised Her by the Lord will be accomplished in Her” (Luke 1:43 -45).
Your Divine Son Jesus Christ praised you in response to the wom an in the crowd; “Still more blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Luke 11:17-28). Thus did Jesus praise your faith and love even more than your physical maternity.
It was your perfect faith, O Mary, in which your motherhood was rooted and which inspires us yet today. You responded in love as the spirit of love overshadowed you. You lived the beatitudes perfectly, serving the church both as mother and model. Your son, Jesus Christ Our Lord, called upon all to imitate you in faith and lov e when He said: “Who are my mother and brothers? These are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God is brother and sister to me” (Mark 3:33 -35).
Our Mother of Mercy, God “has regarded the humility of His handmaid” (Luke 1:48). It was to you , Mother Mary that St. Luke the Evangelist wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, holding you as the first disciple who heard the word of God and did it perfectly (Luke 1:38).
You were present at the beginning of the Gospel and the beginning of the Church (Acts 1:14). You were a perfect example in prayer to the infant Church: “All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer,
together with Mary the Mother of God, and with His brothers” (Acts 1:14). Mary, model of all vocations single and virginal, married, parent, widowed, religious, by your perfection in all virtues, living the beatitudes perfectly, you have inspired all generations, which have called you “blessed”. At the wedding feast of Cana, as Daughter of Zion, “you greeted the Messianic bridegroom; as you represented the Church, the new Israel, you became mother of all”.
We hear your words yet today, “do whatever He tells you” (John 2:5). And we hear His words yet today, spoken from the cross in the very sacrificial act of redemption: “Woman, this is your son ... this is your mother” (John 19:27).
In the Acts of Apostles, in the cenacle we see you O Mary, prayerfully imploring the gift of the Spirit for the Church; for nine days you taught the apostles how to pray.
Gathered about you, and inspired by your Immaculate Heart, Peter, the first Pope, and the other disciples of “the Lord imitated the perfection of faith, hope and love in prayer as you awaited with them the fulfilment of the promise of the Lord. We the beloved of your Immaculate Heart, gathered about you even now, implore your special prayers for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Holy Church. In confidence we now present to your Holy and Immaculate Heart, a special intention for which
we have made this novena (each one names it privately). Amen. (Say the concluding prayers below).
Concluding Prayers:
V: O Mary conceived without sin,
R: Pray for us who have recourse to thee.
Come Holy Spirit; come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well beloved spouse.
SS. Peter and Paul Pray for us
St. John the Apostle Pray for us
St. Luke the Evangelist
Pray for us
St. Louis Marie de Montfort
Pray for us
St. Maximilian Kolbe
Pray for us
(Patron of our Parish)
Pray for us
Guardian Angel of Nigeria
Pray for us
My Guardian Angel
Pray for us
Trust in the Immaculate Heart:
To the refuge of your Immaculate Heart, O Heavenly Mother Mary, I come to be enclosed as in a most choice garden of sweetness and delight. You O spouse of the Holy Spirit, Daughter of God the Father, Mother of the Son, in your loving intimate relationship to the Most Blessed Trinity, serve as Mediatrix of all graces that comes to me from the heavenly throne, flowing forth from the Sacred Heart of your Son.
The love of your Immaculate Heart, showing forth, in tender care, gives us confidence in you. O heavenly Mother Mary, in you I trust. Your intercession united to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is sufficient to tend to every need of body and soul upon earth and lead me lovingly home to your everlasting embrace, where you will introduce me to your Divine Son and to the entire Blessed Trinity.
My Mother, my confidence, be to me always the intercessor who anticipates the very graces I ask for as well as those I forget to seek. Keep me always united with your son, with the Holy Spirit dwelling in my soul, and the Heavenly Father forever providing for my every temporal and spiritual need, as all three persons in the one Godhead see in you, O Mary; the Mother of this your (son/daughter) upon earth. Amen.
Litany of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Lord, have mercy on us Lord, have mercy on us
Christ, have mercy on us Christ, have mercy on us
Lord, have mercy on us Lord, have mercy on us
Christ hear us Christ graciously hear us
God the Father of heaven
Have mercy on us
God the Son, Redeemer of the World
Have mercy on us
God the Holy Spirit
Have mercy on us
Holy Trinity, One God
Have mercy on us
Immaculate Heart of Mary, favourite daughter of God the Father
Pray for us
Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of God the Son,
Pray for us
Immaculate Heart of Mary, redeemed in a sublime manner by the merit of your son
Pray for us
Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother and model of the Church
Pray for us
Immaculate Heart of Mary, excellent example in faith and charity
Pray for us
Immaculate Heart of Mary, who embraced God’s saving will with a full heart impeded by no sin
Pray for us
Immaculate Heart of Mary, who gave Precious Blood to the Son of God in His human nature
Pray for us
Immaculate Heart of Mary, given to us as Mother of Christ hung on the cross
Pray for us
The Memorare
All: Remember, O Most Gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help or sought your intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence I fly to you, O Virgin of Virgins, my Mother; to you I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petition, but in your mercy hear and answer me. Amen.