ADVENT NOVENA TO THE CHILD JESUS – Day 5 – Knights of the Precious Blood

The 20th of December: Day 5

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 We have contemplated already the life the Child JESUS led within the womb of his immaculate mother. Let us turn now to the life Mary herself must have led during this same period, in order to understand, to the extent possible to our limited powers, the sublime mystery of the Incarnation and the way in which we ought to respond to it.

MARY was filled with constant longing for the moment in which she would behold that earthly beatific vision: the face of GOD incarnate. She would soon see the human face destined to illuminate Heaven for all eternity. She would see the love of a child reflected upon the same eyes whose brightness was to bring everlasting joy to the multitude of the elect. She would see that tender face every day, every hour, for many years to come. She would witness in Him the apparent ignorance of childhood, the particular charms of youth, the thoughtful serenity of adulthood. She would even enjoy the freedom of doing as she liked with the Infant’s divine face: to press it against her own with all the liberty of maternal love; to cover in tender kisses the lips destined to pronounce judgment upon the world; to contemplate each one of his features, whether dreaming or waking, until she knew each one by heart. How ardently she must have longed for that day!

Such was the life of expectation that MARY led. It was a life in itself unheard of, and yet it did not for that reason cease to be a glorious model for every Christian life. Let us not be content to marvel at JESUS residing in MARY but let us realize that he lives also within us in potency, essence, and presence. Truly, JESUS is constantly being born in us and from us through the good works that He gives us the power to accomplish, through our cooperation with his grace, through the way in which a soul that lives in that grace becomes itself MARY’s womb forever, an interior Bethlehem without end. Let us realize that during those instants after receiving communion, JESUS really and substantially lives within us as both GOD and man, because that same Child who once lived within MARY, lives now also in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. What is such an existence, if not a participation in the life of MARY during those nine wonderful months, and a state of expectation, like hers, full of spiritual delights?

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!