ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 3 – Knights of the Precious Blood

The 18th of December: Day 3

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 The Child JESUS had now begun his incarnate life. Let us consider the glorious soul and the holy body that he had assumed, adoring them deeply. Admiring first the soul of that Divine Child, let us ponder in it the fullness of His sanctifying grace, the plenitude of that beatific science through which, from the first moment of his life, He saw the Divine Essence more clearly than all the angels and could read the past and the future and all the secrets they hold. He could not know by learning anything that he had not already known by infusion from all time, yet he took on every infirmity of our nature that he could righteously adopt, even when doing so was not necessary to accomplish the great work for which He had come. Let us ask Him to fortify the weakness of our faculties through the strength of his own, giving them new vigor: that his memory may teach us to constantly remember his gifts, that his understanding may help us to think of Him, that his will may enable us to do nothing except what pleases and serves Him.

Having pondered the soul of the CHRIST Child, let us now contemplate his body, which was in itself a world of wonders, a masterpiece sculpted by the hand of GOD. It was not, like our own, a stumbling block to the soul, but rather a means to holiness. He desired that it be small and weak like that of every child, subject to all the discomforts of infancy, in order to make Himself fully like us and take part in our humiliations. The HOLY SPIRIT made the Divine Infant’s body tender, capable of great feeling, that he might be able to undergo the supreme suffering through which he accomplished our redemption. The beauty of the CHRIST Child’s body was greater than anything ever imagined; the holy blood that had begun running through his veins at the moment of the Incarnation is the same blood that washes all the stains of this guilty world. Let us ask Him to wash away our own stains in the sacrament of penance, that on the day of his Nativity He may find us purified, forgiven, and ready to receive Him lovingly for our spiritual benefit.

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!