CLICK HERE FOR BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND MYSPACE LAYOUTS »

Home

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Feast of OL of Fatima & Novena to Queen of Apostles

Here is the prayer Benedict XVI pronounced today at the Chapel of Apparitions upon arriving to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima.

Our Lady,
Mother of all men and women,
I come before you as a son
visiting his Mother,
and I do so in company
with a multitude of brothers and sisters.
As the Successor of Peter,
to whom was entrusted the mission
of presiding in the service
of charity in the Church of Christ
and of confirming all in faith and in hope,
I wish to present to your
Immaculate Heart
the joys and hopes
as well as the problems and sufferings
of each one of these sons and daughters of yours
who are gathered in the Cova di Iria
or who are praying with us from afar.

Mother most gentle,
you know each one by name,
you know each one’s face and personal history,
and you love them all
with maternal benevolence
that wells up from the very heart of Divine Love.
I entrust and consecrate them all to you,
Mary Most Holy,
Mother of God and our Mother.

The Venerable Pope John Paul II,
who visited you three times here in Fatima
and thanked the "unseen hand"
that rescued him from death
in the assassination attempt on 13 May
in Saint Peter’s Square almost thirty years ago,
wanted to offer to the Shrine of Fatima
a bullet which gravely wounded him
and was placed in the crown of the Queen of Peace.
It is a profound consolation
to know that you are crowned
not only with the silver
and gold of our joys and hopes,
but also with the "bullet"
of our anxieties and sufferings.

I thank you, beloved Mother,
for the prayers and sacrifices
that the shepherd-children
of Fatima offered for the Pope,
led by the sentiments
that you inspired in them in the apparitions.
I also thank all those who,
every day,
pray for the Successor of Peter
and for his intentions,
that the Pope may be strong in faith,
bold in hope and zealous in love.
Beloved Mother of us all,
here in your Shrine at Fatima I consign
the Golden Rose
that I have brought from Rome
as a homage of gratitude from the Pope
for the marvels that the Almighty
has worked through you
in the hearts of so many who come as pilgrims
to this your maternal home.

I am sure that the shepherd-children of Fatima,
Blessed Francisco and Jacinta
and the Servant of God Lucia of Jesus,
are united with us at this hour of prayer and jubilation.





The first devotion we find in the Church is devotion to the Queen of Apostles, as expressed in the Cenacle.
Devotion to Mary, which is a part of the Pauline spirit, has two ends for us: our religious sanctification and the pastoral apostolate, that is, reaching out to all men and women,"To Jesus through Mary." Write well of Mary because she is the way to go to Jesus, the easiest way. (Alberione, Ariccia, meditation notes, 1936)

Be assured of our prayers for you and your loved ones during this Novena to the Queen of Apostles!

Novena to the Queen of Apostles

First Day
"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel." (Gen 3:15)

Second Day
"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore, the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God." (Lk 1:35)

Third Day
"She gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn." (Lk 2:7)

Fourth Day
"This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed...and a sword will pierce your own soul too." (Lk 2:34-35)

Fifth Day
"His mother treasured all these things in her heart." (Lk 2:51)

Sixth Day
"Standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene." (Jn 19:25)

Seventh Day
"When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, 'Woman, here is your son.' Then he said to the disciple, 'Here is your mother.'" (Jn 19:26-27)

Eighth Day
"All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers." (Acts 1:14)

Ninth Day
"Mary Immaculate, the ever-virgin Mother of God, having finished the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory." (Pius XII, November, 1950)

3rd part of the Chaplet to the Queen of Apostles (Blessed James Alberione)

Virgin most pure, noble Queen of Martyrs, Morning Star, safe Refuge of sinners, rejoice for the days in which you were Teacher, Comforter and Mother of the apostles in the Cenacle. You invoked and received the divine Paraclete, the Spirit with the seven gifts, Love of the Father and of the Son, Transformer of the apostles. With your all-powerful intercession and your humble and irresistible prayers, which always move God's heart, obtain for me the grace to realize the value of every human person ransomed from hell with Jesus' most precious Blood. May each one of us be enthusiastic about the beauty of the Christian apostolate. May the charity of Christ urge us on. May the spiritual misery of poor humanity move us. Grant that we may feel in our hearts the needs of childhood, of adolescence, of adulthood, of old age. Grant that vast Africa, immense Asia, promising Oceania, troubled Europe, the two Americas may exercise a powerful attraction in our being. May the apostolate of example and word, of prayer and the press, of films, radio and television, of the souls in purgatory, win over the hearts of many generous persons, even to the point of the most heroic sacrifices. Mother of the Church, Queen of the Apostles, our Advocate, to you we sigh, mourning in this valley of tears.

Mary, Queen of the Apostles,
pray for us

Bookmark and Share

0 comments: