Immaculate Conception Novena: Day 1, November 29
Written by radioadmin on November 29, 2020
Reading, Day 1
From the writings of our Seraphic Father Saint Francis (1182-1226)
A. Therefore, O sons of men, how long will you be hard of heart? Why do you not recognize the truth and believe In the Son of God? See, daily He humbles Himself as when He came from the royal throne into the womb of the Virgin; dally He comes to us in a humble form; daily He comes down from the bosom of the Father upon the altar in the hands of the priest.
(Admonition I)
B. Hall, O Lady, holy Queen, Mary, holy Mother of God. You are the Virgin made Church and the One chosen by the most holy Father In heaven, whom He consecrated with His most holy beloved Son and with the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, in whom there was and is all the fullness of grace and every good. Hail, His Palace! Hail, His Tabernacle! Hall, His Home! Hall, His Robe! Hali, His Servant! Hail, His Mother! And hail, all you holy virtues; which through the grace and light of the Holy Spirit are poured into the hearts of the faithful so that, from their faithless state, You may make them faithful to God.
(Salutation of the Blessed Virgin Mary)
C. Listen, my brothers: If the blessed Virgin is so honored, as it is right, since She carried Him in Her most holy womb; if the blessed Baptist trembled and did not dare to touch the holy head of God; if the tomb in which He lay for some time is so venerated, how holy, just, and worthy must be the person who touches Him with his hands, receives Him in his heart and mouth, and offers Him to others to be received. This is He Who now not about to die, but Who Is eternally victorious and glorified, upon Whom the angels desire to gaze.
(from A Letter to the Entire Order)
D. Through His angel, Saint Gabriel, the most high Father in heaven announced this Word of the Father — so worthy, so holy and glorious — in the womb of the holy and glorious Virgin Mary, from which He received the flesh of humanity and our frailty. Though He was rich beyond all other things, in this world He, together with the most blessed Virgin, His Mother, willed to choose poverty.
(from The Second Letter to the Faithful)
E. I, brother Francis, the little one, wish to follow the life and poverty of our most high Lord Jesus Christ and of His most holy Mother and to persevere in this until the end.
(from The Last Will Written for Saint Clare and Her Sisters)
Prayer
V. In Conceptione tua, Virgo, lmmaculata fuisti.
In Your Conception, O Virgin, You were Immaculate.
R. Ora pro nobis Patrem, cuius Filium peperisti.
Pray for us to the Father, whose Son You have borne.
Let us pray:
O God, Who, by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, prepared a worthy dwelling for Your Son: we beseech You that, as in view of the death of that Son You preserved Her from all stain of sin, so You would enable us, being made pure by Her Intercession, to come unto You. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
