ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 2 – Knights of the Precious Blood

The 17th of December: Day 2

OPENING PRAYER Most gracious GOD of infinite charity, You gave your only begotten Son as an unparalleled sign of your love for man. By this love He was made Flesh within a Virgin Mother’s Womb and was born in a manger for our salvation. Let our prayer come before you as a song of thanksgiving, uttered on behalf of every mortal man, for this wonder of your grace. Loving FATHER, there is nothing with which we can repay you, other than the poverty, humility, and other virtues of your Incarnate Son; I pray that for the sake of his divine merits, of every hardship that surrounded his birth, and of every tear that He shed at the manger, You may bring our hearts to such deep humility, such zealous love, and such perfect disregard for every worldly thing, that the newborn CHRIST may find in them his cradle and abide there forever. Amen.

Glory to the FATHER… (three times)

PRAYER TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN O Blessed Virgin MARY, spotless mirror of virtue and humility whom the GOD of Heaven and Earth elected for a mother, I pray that you may prepare my soul, and that of everyone who at this time might pray this novena, for the spiritual birth of your beloved Son. O Dearest of Mothers! Let me know something of that profound contemplation and devout tenderness with which you awaited Him, that I may be made less unworthy to see, love, and adore Him for all eternity. Amen.

(Pray the Hail MARY three times)

PRAYER TO SAINT JOSEPH Dearest Saint Joseph, husband of MARY and adoptive father of JESUS CHRIST, I praise GOD for electing you to such an exalted task and adorning you with every grace befitting so high a ministry. I pray that through the love with which you cared for the Infant CHRIST, you may embrace my heart with a fervent desire to behold and receive Him in the Blessed Sacrament, until in His Divine Essence I may one day gaze upon Him and rejoice with Him in Heaven. Amen.
Our FATHER, Hail MARY, Glory Be……

Meditation for the Day At the holy house of Nazareth, where MARY and Joseph lived, the Eternal Word was about to take on a created nature. As the HOLY SPIRIT approached to overshadow her with the divine decree, MARY was alone, engulfed in prayer. She spent the quite hours of the night in a most intimate union with GOD, and as she prayed, the Word took possession of His created abode. However, He did not arrive uninvited. Before coming to her He sent a messenger, the Archangel Gabriel, to request on GOD’s behalf MARY’s consent to the miracle of the Incarnation. The Creator did not wish to consummate this great mystery without the assent of His creature. It was a solemn moment, for it remained within MARY’s power to refuse. With what sublime delights, with what ineffable rejoicing the Holy Trinity must have awaited the moment in which MARY was to open her lips to pronounce that “FIAT,” a word must have been as a tender melody before GOD! Through it, MARY conformed her being, in an act of free and profound humility, to the omnipotent divine will. The Immaculate Virgin has given her assent. The archangel has vanished. GOD has clothed Himself in a created nature. The eternal will has been accomplished, the whole of Creation consummated. From the angelic realms bursts forth a roar of jubilation, but the Virgin MARY does not hear it—nor would she have paid attention to it if she had. Rather, her head was bowed and her soul immersed in a godly silence. The Word had become flesh, and though He remained still invisible to the world, He now dwelled among those whom his limitless love had come to rescue. He was no longer simply the Eternal Word; he was the Child JESUS, clothed in human form, already worthy of being called by all generations the most beautiful among the sons of men.

PRAYER TO THE CHRIST CHILD Remember, O beloved Infant JESUS, the words you spoke unto Venerable Margaret of the Blessed Sacrament as a promise of comfort to all the suffering and afflicted: “Everything that you would ask, ask it through the merits of my infancy, and nothing shall be denied you.” We thus come full of trust in you, O CHRIST—you who are Truth Incarnate—to offer up our every sadness.

Help us to lead a holy life, that we may receive the gift of a blessed eternity. Grant us, through the merits of your incarnation and infancy, the grace that we now request of You.

(Pause for a moment to silently make your prayer to GOD.)

We give ourselves to You, O Omnipotent Child, certain that our hope shall not be frustrated, and that by virtue of your divine promise, You will hear and answer our supplication. Amen.

JUBILATIONS

O come, O come, Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel.

O infinite wisdom of the Sacred Godhead, to an infant’s limits You humble your powers! O Child Uncreated, come to teach the blinded the prudence that fashions wise men from the humble!