Novena Prayer

     Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, during the Holy Season of Lent You call us to a closer union with Yourself.  Help me to prepare to celebrate the Paschal Mystery with mind and heart renewed.
Give me a spirit of loving reverence for You, our Father, and of willing service to my neighbour.  As I recall the great events that gave us new life in Christ, bring the image of Your Son to perfection within my soul.
     This great season of grace is Your gift of Your family to renew us in spirit.  Give me strength to purify my heart, to control my desires, and so to serve You in freedom.  Teach me how to live in this passing world with my heart set on the world that will never end.
     I ask for the grace to master my sinfulness and conquer my pride.  I want to show to those in need Your goodness to me by being kind to all.  
     Through my observance of Lent, help me to correct my faults and raise my mind to You, and thus grow in holiness that I may deserve the reward of everlasting life.
     In Your mercy grant me this special favour: (Mention your request).
     The days of the life-giving Death and glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Your Son, are approaching.  This is the hour when He triumphed over Satan's pride, the time when we celebrate the great event of our Redemption.  The Suffering and Death of Your Son brought life to the whole world, moving our hearts to praise Your glory.
     The power of the Cross reveals Your judgement on this world and the Kingship of Christ crucified.  Father, through His love for us and through His Suffereings, Death and Resurrection, may I gain eternal life with You in heaven.

Prayer for Spiritual Renewal

     God, heavenly Father, look upon me and hear my prayer during this holy Season of Lent. By the good works You inspire, help me to discipline my body and to be renewed in Spirit.
     Without You I can do nothing.  By Your Spirit help me to know what is right and to be eager in doing Your will.  Teach me to find new life through penance.  Keep me from sin, and help me live by Your commandment of love.  
     God of love, bring me back to You. Send Your Spirit to make me strong in faith and active in good works.  May my acts of penance bring me Your forgiveness, open my heart to Your love, and prepare me for the coming feast of the Resurrection of Jesus.
     Lord, during this Lenten Season nourish me with Your Word of life and make me one with You in love and prayer.  
     Fill my heart with Your love and keep me faithful to the Gospel of Christ.  Give me the grace to rise above my human weakness.  Give me new life by Your Sacraments, especially the Mass.
     Father, our source of life, I reach out with joy to grasp Your hand;  let me walk more readily in Your ways.  Guide me in Your gentle mercy, for left to myself, I cannot do Your Will.
     Father of love, source of all blessings, help me to pass from my old life of sin tothe new life of grace.  Prepare me for the glory of Your Kingdom.
     I ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever. Amen.

Prayer

Almighty and Everlasting God, You have given the human race Jesus Christ our Saviour as a model of humility.  He fulfilled Your Will by becoming Man and giving His life on the Cross.  Help us to bear witness to You by following His example of suffering and make us worthy to share in His Resurrection.  We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son. Amen.

     The greatest of God's works is the taking on of human flesh by His Son, Jesus Christ, and this is called the Incarnation.  
     The Son came to earth to bring the world His own Divine Life and to save it from sin, and in this way to make the world new again.  Jesus offered His life as the highest gift to His Father by dying on the Cross for us.   In this way He redeemed the world.  The Passion and Death of our Lord teaches us the great evil of sin.  It was sin which caused Him to suffer so much and to die.  But He took away our sins and made us free to serve God and to reach heaven.
     Jesus Christ is our Saviour because through Him all creatures will be saved from the slavery of sin.  There is no salvation in anyone but Jesus Christ, nor has there ever been.
     Jesus Christ is our Saviour and Redeemer because as God made Man, He preached the Gospel of the Kindgom of God and gave Himself up to death out of love for His Father and for us.  
     God sent His Son to free men from the power of Satan and make peace between God and men.  To do this Jesus had to become man, to preach His truth about the Kingdom of His Father.  He continued preaching even though some of the religious leaders of His nation were trying to harm Him.  They finally arranged to have Him put to death by the Romans because He claimed to be the Son of God.  He is truly our Saviour.
     Jesus is also our Redeemer because He paid our debt for sin and bought heaven back for us.  He offered His life for us and for the glory of His Father.  He did His Father's Will to honour Him and to make people happy forever in God's Kingdom.  The Father now gives His own Divine Life of grace to people who turn to Him in Faith.
     We show our love for Jesus when we remember how much He suffered for us.  We can do this during the Holy Season of Lent, each Friday of the week, but above all at Holy Mass, because the Eucharistic celebration is carried out in obedience to His words at the Last Supper:  "Do this in memory of Me."

The Word of God

"There is no greater love than this:  to lay down one's life for one's friends."
                                                                                               -Jn 15:13

"Is it possible that He Who did not spare His own Son but handed Him over for the sake of us all will not grant all things besides?"
                                                                                                -Rom 8:32

(The Seven Last Words)

1.  "Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing" (Lk 23:34)

2.  "I assure you :  this day you will be with Me in paradise"  (Lk 23:43)

3.  "Woman, there is Your Son"  (Jn 19:26)

4.  "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"  (Mt 27:46)

5.  "I thirst"  (Jn 19:28)

6.  "It is finished"  (Jn 19:30)

7.  "Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit"  (Lk 23:46)

NOVENA PRAYERS

Prayer

     Jesus Christ, Son of God made Man, crowned with thorns, bearing a scepter of a reed, wearing a royal cloak purpled with Your Precious Blood, I venerate You as the Man of Sorrows and acknowledge You as my Lord and King.
     Jesus crucified, I firmly renounce the devil and detest all sins that has torn me from Your loving friendship.  I pledge my loyalty to You, my Saviour, and beg You to make me Your own in sincerest love.  I promise to be faithful in serving You, and to strive to become more pleasing to you by avoiding every sin and its occasions, by carrying out my duties perfectly as a good Catholic, and by practicing virtue.
     Jesus crucified, accept the homage I wish to render You during this novena, as a token of my sincerest appreciation for the sorrows and sufferings You have willingly borne to atone for my many sins and to prove how much You love me.
     I adore You as my very God, Who willed to become Man in order to save me from eternal death.
     I thank You as my best Friend, Who laid down Your life as proof of the greatest love possible.
     I ask pardon for having so little thought of You, Jesus crucified, and for having caused Your sorrows and sufferings by the many sins I have committed.
     I pray to You, dearest Jesus, for all the graces I need to know You, to love You and serve You faithfully until death, and to save my soul.  Give me a tender and fervent devotion to Your Sacred Passion by which I was redeemed, venerating You especially in Holy Mass.  Teach me how to unite the sorrows and sufferings of my life with Your own.
     Finally, through all Your sorrows and pains, through Your Sacred Heart glowing with love for me, broken because of my want of  love for You, through the sorrows of Mary, Your Sorrowful Mother, I ask for this special favour: (Mention your request)
     With childlike trust I abandon myself to Your holy Will concerning my request.

     Catholic theology teaches that the entire human nature of Christ is worthy of adoration because of its intimate and unending union with the Person of the Divine Word.  Devotion to any one of the parts of the human nature of Christ properly takes the form of adoration.  The motive of such adoration is the Godhead itself, or the Divine Word, Who is inseparably united with Christ's sacred Humanity.
     But there are certain parts of Christ's human nature which are particularly deserving of honour because of the singular part they played in the mystery of Redemption or because of a special symbolism they possess.  The special reason underlying devotion to the Most Precious Blood of Christ is the fact that we were redeemed with the Precious Blood.  The Precious Blood of Christ, shed to the last drop during the Passion, is the price He paid for our salvation.  
     The Blood of Christ is true sacrificial blood shed to ratify the New Covenant.  His Blood was far more excellent than the blood of sacrificial victims of the Old Covenant to cleanse and purify us.  By the Will of God and according to His Divine plan, the New Covenant required dedication by the blood of a victim, Jesus Christ.  At the Last Supper Jesus said,  "This cup is the New Covenant in my Blood which will be shed for you"  (Lk 22:20).  As a reward for the Blood which Jesus shed in establishing an everlasting Covenant, the Eternal Father raised Him from the dead, and thus His bloody death on the Cross merited for Him, as well as for us, a glorious Resurrection.
     The Precious Body and Blood of Christ is offered in the Mass as a sacrifice of Christ's Mystical Body, as the sacrifice of each of us.
     The Precious Body and Blood of Christ received in Holy Communion gives food, drink, refreshment, and health to the life of the soul.  The Lamb of God, slain for the sins of mankind, is the sacrifice and the banquet of the Christian soul, the very strength and inspiriation for Christian living.  Thus devotion to the Most Precious Blood encourages a greater love for the Mass.
     The Blood of Christ is real drink and, togeher with His flesh, is food for our eternal life.  Jesus promised the Eucharist in these words:  "Anyone who eats My flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.  For My Flesh is real food and My Blood real drink.  The man who eats My flesh and drinks My Blood remains in Me, and I in him"  (Jn 6: 54-56). 
     St. Paul say, "Every time, then, you eat this Bread and drink this Cup, you proclaim the Death of the Lord until He comes!" (1 Cor 11:26).
     The Precious Blood of Jesus was symbolized by the victims of the Old Law; yet this Blood alone, by virtue of its infinite efficacy, can wash us free from all sin and sanctify us if we avail ourselves of the Sacraments which our Saviour has given us, especially the Sacrament of Penance and the Holy Eucharist.
     A single drop of the Blood of Jesus would have sufficed to save us, for being the God-Man, everything in Him is of Infinite value.  But it was to manifest to us the extent of His love that He shed His Blood to the last drop when His Sacred Heart was pierced.  Now, if He shed His very life's blood for us, it is but right that we live only for Him.

The Word of God

     "One of the soldiers thrust a lance into His side, and immediately Blood and water flowed out." - Jn 19:34

     "When Christ came as High Priest of the good things which have come to be, He entered once for all into the sanctuary, passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hands, that is, not belonging to this creation.  He entered, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own Blood, and achieved eternal redemption."                                                                                                                                   - Heb 9: 11-12

     "Realize that you were delivered from the futile way of life your fathers handed on to you, not by any diminishable sum of silver or gold, but by Christ's Blood beyond all price."                                                                   - 1 Pt 1:18-19

     "Worthy are You to receive the scroll and break open it's seals, for You were slain.  With Your Blood You purchased for God, men of every race and tongue, of every people and nation.  You made of them a Kingdom, and priests to serve our God, and they shall reign on the earth."                                                                 - Rv 5: 9-10

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