May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved!

NINE DAYS with

OUR LADY OF THE SACRED HEART

A. TOSTAIN, M.S.C.

Translated bySister Sheila Larkin, F.D.N.S.C.

Imprimatur:Most Rev. E. Kelly, M.S.C.Bishop of ToowoombaJune 29, 1976

MEMORARE

Remember, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, the great things the Lord has done for you. He chose you for his Mother. He wanted you close to his Cross. He gives you a share in his glory. He listens to your prayer.

Offer him our prayers of praise and thanksgiving; present our petitions to him. Let us live like you in the love of your Son, that his kingdom may come.

Lead all people to the source of living water that flows from his heart, spreading over the world hope and salvation, justice and peace. See our trust in you; answer our prayer. Show yourself always our Mother. Amen.

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FIRST DAY

“Remember, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, the great things the Lord has done for you ...”

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, what joy it gives us to know that you are right beside us listening with kindly interest to our prayer! As our Mother, you know our needs even before we put them into words; you know, then, why we come to pray to you during this novena.

With the weight of our cares, sufferings and doubts, our hearts are not, perhaps, sufficiently free and open to God’s will. Therefore, we turn to you, our Mother, with complete trust: hear our prayer, intercede for us before your Son, but, above all, keep us in his love and help us to share the sentiments of his Heart.

We love to address you under the beautiful title of ‘Our Lady of the Sacred Heart’, which calls to mind all the wonderful gifts of love which the Lord showered on you: chosen by God and full of grace, you are in every respect, from the moment of your Immaculate Conception, a gift to us from the loving Heart of God. With affection he “looked upon” his humble handmaid; he has loved you more than any other, so that you may be for us a bright light of hope and joy in the midst of life’s darkness.

Most pure Virgin, Mother of God’s Son, most favored daughter of the Father, and sanctuary of the Holy Spirit,

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with all generations we proclaim you blessed. Remember the great things that the Love of the Lord has wrought in you and, in the name of this Love, help us to do all that Jesus tells us. Amen.

Remember ...

SECOND DAY

“He chose you for his Mother ...”

Remember, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart! The Lord’s great work in you had but one purpose: to prepare your heart to welcome the Son of God. From all eternity, the Father has loved you; he chose you from among all women to become the spouse of the Holy Spirit and the Mother of his Son.

This special love of God was revealed to you at the Annunciation. Remember that moment when the Angel Gabriel came in the name of the Most High to ask you to share in the work of salvation! With him we repeat: Rejoice, Full of grace. Virgin Mary, the Lord is with you (Luke 1:18). Humble handmaid of the Lord, you allowed all to be done according to his word. And in your womb the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us!

O Mary, with the whole church we hail you as Mother of God, for the eternal Son of God willed to be born of you, willed that his human nature be formed of you, that his

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human Heart be flesh of your flesh. You felt this Heart of God made flesh living and palpitating against your own heart; you were the first to sense the richness of God’s Love revealed in Jesus Christ, even though like us, you had to walk in the darkness of faith.

Remember, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, the maternal bonds which unite you to the Heart of your Son! Intercede for us in his presence, prepare our hearts to receive his Love, and give us the grace to live like you in trusting acceptance of his Will. Amen.

Remember ... THIRD DAY

“He wanted you dose to his cross ...”

“Standing beneath the Cross of Jesus, was his Mother ...” Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, these few words of the gospel reveal to us the extraordinary mystery of love which united you to your Son. Through love, you remained faithful to the end. You wante

d to follow Jesus on the way to Calvary, to be near him when, nailed to the Cross, he was offering his life for the salvation of the world. Who could express the anguish of your Mother’s heart in these tragic moments? Yet, when all around you was collapsing, you remained firmly on your feet. O admirable Mother, in this dark testing your faith did not waver, because in you, love is stronger than death.

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Here, before the wounded Heart of your Son, you became in the fullest sense, “Our Lady of the Sacred Heart”.

Through love God, too, willed your presence at the foot of the Cross. In choosing you as his Mother, he called you at the same time to share in his work of redemption. Certainly, Christ is the sole mediator and Savior, but was it not fitting that in the new creation, the New Eve be present with the New Adam, transmitting with him to the people of the New Covenant, the fruits of grace and pardon?

The Lord chose you for this unique role! That is why, in that solemn moment, he designates you as the Woman par excellence, the Mother of all the Living: “Woman, behold your Son ...”

Remember, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, that you became our mother at the foot of the Cross! Be near us in our sufferings. Help us to retain our confidence in spite of all; help us to remain strong and courageous under trial, so that, like you, we may learn to “complete in ourselves what is wanting in the Passion of Christ, for his Body, which is the Church”. (Col. 1:25). Amen.

Remember ...

FOURTH DAY

“He gives you a share in his glory, he listens to your prayer …”

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Your fidelity is rewarded, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, and the brightness of Easter succeeds the darkness of Calvary. Just as you were associated with Christ in suffering, so now you are united with him in joy and glory.

It is true that the risen Christ wishes to communicate to all humankind the glorious life which is henceforth his, for “he who has raised Christ from the dead, will also raise our mortal bodies through his Spirit dwelling in us” (Rom. 8:11); but for you, Mary, the Lord does not wait. Out of love he has already transformed you, body and soul, with his light and life. Your glorious Assumption is at once a gift of God and the fruit of your faithful response to his Love; for all of us, the pilgrim People of God, it is also a marvelous sign of hope.

If you share now in the glory of your Son; if you are beside him for all eternity – your soul, your glorified body, your maternal heart – is it not so that you may be at the same time closer to us? Are you not still our Mother? You who love us, and are so intimately associated with Jesus, our sole Mediator, intercede for us. As he heard your prayer at Cana, so he listens now to your requests presented in our name. Mother of the Church, Mother of humankind, speak for us to the Heart of your Son; pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Remember ...

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FIFTH DAY

“Offer him our prayers of praise and thanksgiving. Present our petitions to him.”

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, your Assumption has not separated you from your children. On the contrary, we know that, as a mother willing to help, you will always be near us, when we turn to God in prayer, and that, despite our destitution and our weaknesses, we can confidently rely on your assistance. As at Cana, on Calvary and in the Cenacle, are you not now, in heaven, our advocate with the Heart of your Son? – “so that, upheld by your maternal assistance, we may be more intimately bound to the sole Mediator and Savior” (Lumen Gentium 62).

That is why we beg you, Mary – you, who so wonderfully glorified God in your song of gratitude and love – to present to Jesus, your Son, our praise and thanksgiving. For us, too, the Lord has done great things, but we are so little able to see and recognize them. Tell him now of our joy in being saved by him, in being, with him, children of the Father and temples of the Holy Spirit. Offer him our thanksgiving for faith, baptism, the Eucharist and the marvelous hope he gives us of one day contemplating him with you forever.

Present to him also our requests. You know the desires of our heart; you know why each day of this novena, we come to pray to you. Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Mother who loves us so much, we beg you to pray for us to the Heart of

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your Son, source of all grace. Present to him at the same time the needs of all our fellow human beings, and especially of those associated with our Confraternity of prayer. It is with them and for them that we pray to you. Amen.

Remember ...

SIXTH DAY

“Let us live like you in the love of your Son, that his Kingdom may come …”

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, on the evening of Holy Thursday, Jesus your Son earnestly asked us to observe HIS commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.”

For our love to be genuine, we must then love one another as Jesus has loved us; we must in some way carry on, in time and space, the very love of the Heart of Jesus for all humanity. Now this is only possible if we are wholeheartedly united to Jesus Christ, so that we may live with his love and make it present to those around us. That is why he asked us on the same night of Holy Thursday – “Live on in my love; if you keep my commandments, you will live on in my love, just as I live in the love of the Father by keeping his commandments.” (Jn 15:10).

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You, who always accomplished God’s will perfectly; you, who lived so completely in the love of your Son, help us to keep his commandments, to live in his love so that we can in our turn love our brothers, “as Jesus has loved us – with a complete and unselfish love.

We have much to ask you in this Novena, O Mary, best of Mothers. But by far the most important is this: before all else, convert our hearts, help us to live like you in the love of your Son; put into us the sentiments of the Heart of Jesus, for the glory of the Father and the service of our sisters and brothers. Make us witnesses of Love, that Christ’s Kingdom may come, the Kingdom of life and truth, the Kingdom of grace and holiness, the kingdom of justice, love and peace. (Preface for Christ the King). Amen.

Remember ...

SEVENTH DAY

“Lead all peoples to the source of living water that flows from his heart ...”

When the Israelites, exhausted with thirst, crossed the desert into the Promised Land, God gave them to drink by commanding Moses to strike the rock with his staff, so causing living water to spring forth (cf. Ex. 17:3-7).

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The people of the New Covenant, journeying towards the True Promised Land, also have need of refreshment to continue on their way; like the Samaritan woman, they yearn in a confused manner for a spring of living water which will slake their thirst forever (cf. Jn. 4:13-15). And Jesus answers this deep desire: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink, he who believes in me”; the evangelist continues at once: “According to the words of Scripture, ‘From his side shall flow rivers of living water.’ He was speaking of the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive.” (Jn. 7:37-38).

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, you saw the realization of these words; when the soldier’s lance pierced the side of your Son and from his wounded Heart poured forth blood and water, you understood, with St. John, the full significance of this mystery. For the Rock is Christ says St. Paul (I Cor. 10:4). Beyond death your Son indeed wished to open his heart to quench our thirst forever. According to his promise, it is his Spirit that he gives, springing up into eternal life (cf. Jn. 4:14) – it is grace, the Sacraments, the Life of God.

Virgin Mary, we love to call you Our Lady of the Sacred Heart because you are so very close to this source of living water flowing from the heart of your Son. We beg you – pray for us sinners, look at your suffering children, see all those throughout the world who do not yet know the Gospel, all the victims of injustice and hatred. Lead us to your Son, so that all humanity, of every race, tongue,

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people and nation, may come to draw with joy from the springs of salvation. Amen.

Remember ...

EIGHTH DAY

“Spreading over the world hope and salvation, justice and peace ...”

All grace that we need flows from the Heart of your Son, and it is you, our Mother, who watch anxiously to impart it to us. And so we pray to you with confidence for ourselves and for all peoples: in our trials, guard us against the slightest discouragement, since by dying for us on the Cross, Jesus has opened for us the way to life. Yes, we now have access to the throne of God; we share his Spirit, who empowers us to say, ‘Abba Father’. But how many times could Jesus reproach us as he did his disciples in the midst of the storm, ‘Why are you afraid, people of little faith?’ Help us, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, to remain strong in hope, to contemplate the heart of your Son, so that we may draw from it hope, comfort, salvation.

Through your prayer, obtain for our hate-torn world the peace that your Son came to bring us. We do not ask for a peace of comfort and quiet, a peace ‘as the world gives it’, but for his Peace founded on justice and love. Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, obtain for us that peace promised to the world on the first Christmas night, and which the risen

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Christ communicated to his apostles gathered together in the Cenacle. Make us bearers of peace, engaged generously in the service of justice. Help us to come out of ourselves so that we can contribute courageously to the building up of a world of greater justice and family affection. Have pity on all the victims of war and oppression. Help us to bring about the triumph of peace, reconciliation and justice. Help us to grow in love that through us may extend the reign of the ‘Prince of Peace’. Amen.

Remember ...

NINTH DAY

“See our trust in you; answer our prayer. Show yourself always our Mother”.

We are now at the close of our Novena, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. As we contemplate your grace and beauty and meditate on the extraordinary relationship of love which unites you to the heart of your Son, our confidence in your goodness and power of intercession is ever growing. And even though our prayer may not be heard when and how we would wish, we will never lose this childlike confidence; for our prayer is never in vain, and you know better than we what is conducive to our spiritual good. We will continue then to pray to you; if need be, we will continue our novena, for perseverance is the surest way of showing our trust and of deepening through your help our understanding of what the Lord expects of us.

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However, we are sure even now that you have already heard us in one way or another, for a mother cannot remain insensitive to the call of her children, sinful and unworthy though they be. So we already thank you, good and powerful Virgin, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. You see our confidence in you, most loving Mother; once again look towards your children, who stretch forth their hands towards you. Listen to their call; have pity on those who suffer and weep. Give us hope, give us peace, give us the Love of your Son and we will then be able to carry out in all its fullness the Will of the Father.

And if trials must still be endured, keep us in the same spirit of trust and peace. Watch over us always, so that at the hour of death we may have the joy of being welcomed by you, in the presence of your Son. Today, as in our last hour stay with us; show yourself always our Mother. Amen.

Remember ...

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To know more about theDevotion to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart,

contact

The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC)305 S. Lake Street,P.O. Box 270,Aurora, IL 60507Phone: (630) 892-2371

Fr. Jules Chevalier, MSC Founder,Devotion to Our Lady of the

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Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart St. Francis de Sales Convent

424 East Browning Road,Bellmawr, NJ 08030

Missionary Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of JesusMSC Province Center2811 Moyers LaneReading, PA 19605Phone: (610) 929-5944

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