ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 4 – Knights of the Precious Blood

The 19th of December: Day 4

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 Even from His mother’s womb, the Infant CHRIST already practiced that perfect submission to GOD that would characterize His entire life. He adored his Eternal FATHER; He submitted to his will; He faithfully accepted the lowly state in which He found himself, knowing all the weakness, hardship, and humiliation it implied. Who among us, having full use of the powers of reason and understanding, would willingly regress to such a helpless condition? Who could knowingly undergo such a prolonged martyrdom—one so painful in every respect? Yet that is the Divine Child began his painful and humbling journey. In such a way, he began to make Himself as nothing before the FATHER; to teach us what GOD deserves from His creature; to expiate our pride, the origin of our sins, and make us realize its fundamental evil and disorder.

We long to make a true prayer. Let us understand what such a prayer would be by contemplating the Child JESUS within his mother’s womb. The CHRIST Child prays there in the most excellent way. He does not speak; He does not meditate; He does not melt into fits of emotion. Rather, his condition of utter dependence is his prayer, a state He accepts in his willingness to honour GOD, and through which He reveals to us everything GOD deserves and the way in which He ought to be adored. Let us join this prayer made by the Divine Child within the womb of MARY. Let us imitate his profound self-denial, and let this abatement of ourselves be the first effect of our sacrifice to GOD. Let us give ourselves to GOD, not in order to be something—as our vanity demands—but in order to be nothing: to be eternally consumed in Him, to renounce our selfish desires and our hunger for greatness over others—even in a spiritual way—and forsake every stirring of vainglory. Let us disappear before our own regard, that GOD may be everything to us.

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!