As we begin our nine days of prayer, please leave your supportive messages for the folks in Newtown and Sandy Hook in the comments section here on the blog. They’ll be seeing them, I assure you. Each night as we pray for the entire community, we’ll lift up in a special way different groups within that population. Thanks for joining in. God Bless you and your loved ones.
Prayer
Be blessed, O most pure Virgin, for having vouchsafed to manifest your shining with life, sweetness and beauty, in the Grotto of Lourdes, saying to the child, St. Bernadette: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” A thousand times we congratulate you upon your Immaculate Conception. And now, O ever Immaculate Virgin, Mother of mercy, Health of the sick, Refuge of sinners, Comforter of the afflicted, you know our wants, our troubles, our sufferings deign to cast upon us a look of mercy.
DAY ONE
O Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, virgin and mother, queen of heaven, chosen from all eternity to be the Mother of the Eternal Word and in virtue of this title preserved from original sin, we kneel before you as did little Bernadette at Lourdes and pray with childlike trust in you that as we contemplate your glorious appearance at Lourdes, you will look with mercy on our present petition and secure for us a favorable answer to the request for which we are making this novena.
We lift up to you tonight the parents and siblings of the children who were taken from them so violently. We ask for these the strength to bury their precious little ones, and the hope for a future complete with healing, meaning, and fulfillment. We beg your intercession with your Son, that He send His Spirit of Peace and Healing to these families, to separate despair from agony, to see Heaven’s presence here in their midst.
O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette, pray for us.
Read more: http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/novena/lourdes.htm#ixzz2F9iE6sGz
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Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
My dear brethren, I know there is nothing I can say to give you the comfort you need. Please just know that I love you all, and I love the children who were taken from you. When I enter into the Lord’s Presence in prayer, I will be sure to bring you and them with me.
Remember that life is so much more than the short and often troubled time we have on this earth. In all things, God is love.
“We know that all things work for the good for those who love God.” (Romans 8:28)
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You are all in our prayers. We lift up those children that were lost here on earth and know they are found in Jesus Christ’s arms. They are now your guardian angels. I pray for you and all of those that have been affected by this tragedy that you will find peace knowing God’s love.
I, myself do not have the right words to say but Max Lucado in his book “Hope Pure and Simple” has some consoling thoughts. “No struggle will come your way apart from God’s purposee, presence, and permission.”
“Goodness and mercy follow the child of God each and every day.”
“The power of prayer does not depend on the one who makes the prayer but on the One who hears the prayer.”
“If God can make a billion galaxies, can’t he make good out of our bad and sense out of our faltering lives? Of course he can. He is God.”
“God is the shepherd who guides, the Lord who provides, the voice who brings peace in the storm.”
“God never promises to remove us from our struggles, He does promise, however, to change the way we look at them.”
“When asked to describe the width of his love, Christ stretched one hand to the right and the other to the left and had them nailed in that position so you would know he died loving you.”
I pray in solidarity with you, townspeople of Newtown and members of the Sandy Hook Elementary School, and most especially with all of you who lost so precious a child or a loved one. Please know that I and many others are with you spiritually. We hold you and your families in prayer that in this your terrible night of darkness you will come to find light and comfort – that it will come to you in its right time and that you will know peace once again. I pray to Our Lord that He may send His mercy upon you.
Newtown, the whole world mourns with you. As on 9/11, we all cry and pray and wish we could wrap our arms around you and comfort you in your pain. May God bless you and comfort you.
[…] Day 1 here. […]
[…] Day 1 here. […]
You all are in my prayers. So many grieve for you, for your children. I pray you find peace and are reminded that His grace is with you and your children and loved ones are with Him. Amen.
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