Day Two - Novena to the Mother of God for Our Nation

Mary's Desire for Virginity

Airs live Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012 at 8 AM ET

And Mary said to the angel, How shall this be, since I have no husband? – Luke 1:34

Prayer

We fly to your patronage,
O holy Mother of God;
Despise not our prayers in our necessities,
But ever deliver us from all dangers,
O glorious and blessed Virgin.

Reflection

Long before the Angel Gabriel brought Mary the message that God had chosen her to be the mother of his Son, she had resolved to give herself entirely and exclusively – in the gift of perpetual virginity. Mary knew that God had entered into a Covenant – a family bond – with the People of Israel on Mount Sinai. Although the Lord had remained faithful to the Covenant promises, Israel had not. By repeatedly breaking the Commandments of God, her people had shown herself to be an adulterous spouse. Mary, painfully aware of the history of Israel as told by the Prophets, yearned to make reparation for the sins of her people by loving God as his faithful bride.

Here is Pope John Paul II's description of Mary's desire to remain a virgin throughout her life:

Mary herself wanted to be the personal image of that absolutely faithful bride, totally devoted to the divine Bridegroom, and therefore she became the beginning of the new Israel in her spousal heart.... She confirms and strengthens a consecration already in effect, which becomes the abiding condition of her life. She in fact replies to the Angel of the Annunciation: "How will this come about, since I am a virgin?" (Lk. 1:34); as if to say: I am a virgin devoted to God, and I do not intend to leave my spouse, because I do not think that God wills it – He who is so jealous of Israel, so severe with anyone who betrays him, so persistent in his merciful call to reconciliation! Mary is well aware of her people's infidelity, and she wants personally to be a bride who is faithful to her most beloved divine Spouse.

God sent the Angel Gabriel to the town of Nazareth to tell Mary that he had accepted her desire to belong exclusively to him and, in fact, was the source of that desire. Mary's longing for a life of virginity was, in fact, a response to God's faithful love. The Angel tells Mary that she would conceive God's son as a virgin through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. She is to be simultaneously a virgin, bride, and mother. Her freely chosen virginity allowed Mary to belong totally to Christ as his mother and totally to each of us as our loving mother. The Blessed Virgin Mary witnesses that the beautiful value of virginity is always for the sake of spousal love and motherhood!

Prayer

Almighty and Ever-Living God, Mary gave herself to you unreservedly through the gift of her virginity. As she loved Jesus with an undivided heart, she continues to love and serve all of her children on earth. Through her example, instill in all the members of your Church a deeper appreciation of the value of virginity. Help all to understand that virginity is the perfect gift that spouses give to each other on their wedding day. Inspire many young men and women to embrace a life of consecrated celibacy or virginity in the priesthood and consecrated life. Teach us all the meaning of your Son's words:Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Mt. 5:8). We ask this through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

Day Two Novena

Day One - Novena to the Mother of God for Our Nation

The Immaculate Conception of  the Mother of God

You are wholly beautiful, my beloved, and without a 

blemish. – Song of Songs 4:7

Prayer

We fly to your patronage,

O holy Mother of God;

Despise not our prayers in 

our necessities,

But ever deliver us from 

all dangers,

O glorious and blessed 

Virgin.

Reflection

Since God creates an immortal soul through the conjugal union of man and woman, the conception of
every human person is sacred. God loves every person into being – even when the conception is an act of lust or violence.

When the Virgin Mary was conceived in the womb of her mother, God created her immortal soul and filled
her with his divine life. In the Immaculate Conception, God uniquely redeemed Mary by preserving her from
Original Sin through the foreseen merits of Christ, the Savior. From the first moment of her life, Mary was
wholly beautiful, full of grace (Lk. 1:28), without any trace of self-centeredness, any inclination to sin and
with unparalleled freedom to love God and all other people. In her conception, God armed Mary to destroy
the kingdom of Satan (Gen. 3:15). The charity of Christ filled Mary from the first moment of her existence – in the safety of her mother’s womb.


Pope Pius IX proclaimed the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception in these words: We declare, pronounce,
and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her
conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ,
the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God
and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.

The good news of the Immaculate Conception is that 14 15 there is more love in Mary’s sinless soul than there is evil in the world. In her  Immaculate Conception, God empowered Mary to say  yes freely to his plan of salvation in Christ and to help us, her sons and daughters, to say yes too.

Prayer

God, Almighty Father, at the moment of our 

conception you loved each of us into life. You 

loved Mary wondrously in her  Immaculate 

Conception, preserving her from inheriting the sin 

of Adam through the foreseen merits of the Savior. 

You prepared Mary in her conception to be the Mother 

and partner of your Son and our loving mother. Give 

all people an ever deeper reverence for your presence 

and creative action in human conception. Help all to 

recognize the evil of abortion and contraception, and all 

sins which offend our Creator God. In Mary’s maternal 

embrace, may every American foster reverence for 

human life in our nation. We ask this through Jesus 

Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

Novena Source

Pray for Fr. Eugene Konkel, S.S.

Rest in Peace, Fr. Eugene Konkel, S.S.

From the Office of the Bishop

Please pray for the happy repose of the soul of Father Eugene Konkel, S.S., who died at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California on Friday, September 14. For several years, Father Konkel served here in Hawaii as the Rector of St. Stephen’s Seminary in Kaneohe.

“I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies,

will live and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

John 11: 25-26

source: enews

Adopt a Priest who has Abandoned his prayer life

Picture source


Please pray daily.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
I love you very much.
I beg you to save the priest
I have spiritually adopted
who has abandoned his prayer life and is in danger
of losing his vocation.

Say one Hail Mary or make a small act of reparation.  You can also add 1 Hail Mary for a priest who has not lost his prayer life.

Prayer for Vocations

Picture source

Gracious God,

Your Son Jesus

told us to ask You to send laborers into

Your harvest.  

Confident in Your love,

we ask you to bless Your Church

with priests and religious who are

committed to making Your love

present wherever they are.

We pray for all those who are

seeking to know what You ask of them.

Give them the light and the courage they

need to know and follow Your will.

For our part, we pledge to be supportive

of those we know and those in our families who seek to follow You in

a priestly or religous vocation.

Hear our prayer which we offer to You in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Priests of the Sacred Heart

St. John Crysostom, September 13

"If Christ is with me, whom shall I fear? Though the waves and the sea and the anger of princes are roused against me, they are less to me than a spider's web. Indeed, unless you, my brothers, had detained me, I would have left this very day. For I always say: Lord, your will be done; not what this fellow or that would have me do, but what you want me to do. That is my strong tower, my immovable rock, my staff that never gives way. If God wants something, let it be done! If he wants me to stay here, I am grateful. But wherever he wants me to be, I am no less grateful."

St. John Chrysostom
September 13

Pono, Living the Aloha Spirit

Aloha!

What you will read are the last paragraphs of Fr. Daren J. Zehnle's blogpost and homily. This homily was delivered at the 6:00 a.m. Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace on the 2nd of September, the day before Fr. Daren left for his present home Springfield, Illinois. Fr. Daren has been a regular visitor to the Islands -- mostly Oahu for about seven years now -- and he hopes to one day become a kama'aina. He already is to many of us, who have known him for many years now, and even to those who had just met him when he was here on Oahu for a 17-day visit. His spirit embodies aloha as we Islanders know it. He blends in -- perfectly! Perhaps, if you didn't know that he was a visitor, you might have thought that he is a local.

The homily below touches my heart in a special way. I have always regarded Communion of Saints as one of God's most beautiful inventions. Pono most certainly gives communion of God's saints a definitive message that we love each other in the spirit of righteousness -- always with God's spirit -- and letting that spirit live on as we encounter more brothers and sisters -- even those who are not so like us -- and always, with an ultimate loving and natural gesture and desire to walk hand in hand towards our heavenly home, as brothers and sisters in Christ would! Our brother and sister saints in heaven would agree, as they pray for pono to become more and more a reality in our daily life here in our earthly home.

Praise our Lord and Master for Pono!

A few days ago I walked past a young man wearing a t-shirt that read, “Keep Calm and Live Pono.”  That simple phrase stuck with me.  It is taken, in part, from that poster of the Ministry of Information and, of course, from the motto of the Kingdom and State of Hawai‘i: “Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ‘Aina i ka Pono,” “The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness”. 

Pono is generally translated as either “righteous” or “righteousness.”  Biblically speaking, to be righteous is to live in right relationship with God and in right relationship with man, it is to live as one should be living.  As you know, pono can also mean goodness and morality and duty and virtue and proper.  In short, we might well say that to live pono is to live justly and we know that the “one who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.”  So it is that we could paraphrase the motto of Hawai‘i: “The life of the Christian is perpetuated in righteousness” because the one who lives justly will make their way to the Father’s house. 

To live pono is to live a life of love, a life of aloha; it is to conform ourselves always to Christ crucified, to love as he has loved.  It is this law that has been placed within us and that we must observe carefully because it will save our souls.  May the Lord strengthen us in this holy endeavor and bring us safely into his presence.  Amen.