Christmas Novena Day 1

This below is the 1st Day of the Christmas Novena found at the "America needs Fatima" website, which starts today. The presentation here is slightly different to that on the site but it is otherwise the same.

The intentions in the prayer are my own and given that you are currently on this page, i'd be grateful if you prayed for those too BUT having said that, praying for these intentions does not mean one cannot add his/her own :-) Add and pray your own intentions too!

- and (especially for friends who are doubting it) remember that God loves you :-) ...if He did not then WHY was He born to DIE for you ...and me?

Novena Day 1:

Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment

at which the Son of God was born

of a most pure Virgin at a stable at midnight

in Bethlehem in the piercing cold.

At that hour vouchsafe,

I beseech You to hear my prayers

and grant my requests:

That we may all draw near to You

strengthened to receive your mercy,

that our lives may be filled with hope, peace and joy.

That we may all believe in Your love for us

and may trust in You – no matter how hard it gets.

That those who cry or feel alone

may know that You are with them.

Through Jesus Christ and His most Blessed Mother,

Amen.

Your Passion is my hope. For the sake of that love which led You to take upon Yourself human nature and to die for me on the cross, forgive me all the offenses I have committed against You.

I love You, O Word Incarnate!

Prayer/reflection:

O Great Son of God, You have become man in order to make Yourself loved by men. But where is the love that men give You in return? You have given Your life blood to save our souls.

Why then are we so unappreciative that, instead of repaying You with love, we spurn You with ingratitude? And I, Lord, I myself more than others have thus ill treated You.

But Your Passion is my hope. For the sake of that love which led You to take upon Yourself human nature and to die for me on the cross, forgive me all the offenses I have committed against You.

I love You, O Word Incarnate; I love You, O infinite goodness. Out of love for You, I could die of grief for these offenses.

Give me, O Jesus, Your love. Let me no longer live in ungrateful forgetfulness of the love You bearest me. I wish to love You always. Grant that I may always preserve in this holy desire.

O Mary, Mother of God and my Mother, pray for me that Your Son may give me the grace to love Him always, unto death. Amen.

Your Passion is my hope. For the sake of that love which led You to take upon Yourself human nature and to die for me on the cross, forgive me all the offenses I have committed against You.

I love You, O Word Incarnate!

Thank you to the people at the "America needs Fatima" website for sharing this Novena.