54 Day Rosary Novena – Day 53

54 Day Rosary Novena – Day 53

OUR LADY OF GOOD HELP, PRAY FOR US

ROSARY PRAYER INTENTIONS: For the Family and Marriage. Including for peace, the sanctity of human life, religious freedom and your personal intentions

DAILY ROSARY – Sorrowful

(See below for traditional 54 Day Novena prayers. This runs its own 3 day cycle. Today is Sorrowful Mysteries)

GOT YOUR SIX

“The fervent petition of a holy man is powerful indeed. My brothers, the case may arise among you of someone straying from the truth and of another bringing him back. Remember this: the person who brings a sinner back from his way will save his soul from death and cancel a multitude of sins” (Jas 5:16b, 19-20).

“I’ve got your six” is a military phrase that basically means “I’ve got your back.” It comes from the old pilot system in which directions correspond to hours on the clock, where 12 o’clock is forward and 6 o’clock is behind. Thus anyone behind you is “at your six.”

Blessed Peter Favre said, “I felt great desires that the saints might pray for us, they who have so much power in their state of glory, and that the souls in purgatory might offer prayers for us amidst those remorseful lamentations of theirs … these souls can do much for us (more than we can tell).” St. John Vianney said, “Oh! If all of us but knew how great is the power of the good souls in purgatory with the heart of God, and if we knew all the graces we can attain through their intercession, they would not be so much forgotten! We must pray much for them, so that they may pray much for us.”

We are not meant to advance unaided. In His great wisdom, God has set up a Holy Alliance that, once united, is designed to defeat any and all forces of darkness in the heavenly realm, rescue souls, and build up the kingdom of God. This alliance is the aforementioned Communion of Saints. It is the exchange of the Sancta Sanctis! (“God’s holy gifts for God’s holy people!”) Those on earth (Church Militant) invoke the saints in heaven and pray for the souls in purgatory (we can gain indulgences for them). When called upon, those in heaven pray for the Church Militant and the Church Penitent; they obtain graces for us on earth and an alleviation of suffering for the poor souls in purgatory. Those in purgatory can, when called upon, invoke the saints on high and pray for us struggling with the world, the flesh, and the evil spirit.

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote: “Charity is incomplete until it includes the dead as well as the living.” While we live together on earth as Christians, we are in communion, or unity, with one another. But that communion doesn’t end when one of us dies. In the Communion of Saints “a perennial link of charity exists between the faithful who have already reached their heavenly home, those who are expiating their sins in purgatory, and those who are still pilgrims on earth. Between them there is, too, an abundant exchange of all good things.” In other words, the bond of love remains, along with the self-emptying nature of that real love. Even separated by death, we continue to care for each other, look out for each other, and build each other up. And so we continue to say to one another, “I’ve got your six!”

 

THE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES OF THE HOLY ROSARY

Prayer before the recitation: Sign of the cross. Hail Mary.

In Thanksgiving: Hail, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, my Mother Mary, hail! At thy feet I humbly kneel to offer thee a Crown of Roses, blood red roses to remind thee of the passion of thy divine Son, with Whom thou didst so fully partake of its bitterness, each rose recalling to thee a holy mystery, each 10 bound together with my petition for a particular grace. O Holy Queen, dispenser of God’s graces, and Mother of all who invoke thee! Thou canst not look upon my gift and fail to see its binding. As thou receivest my gift, so wilt thou receive my thanksgiving; from thy bounty thou hast given me the favor I so earnestly and trustingly sought. I despaired not of what I asked of thee, and thou hast truly shown thyself my Mother!

Say: The Apostles’ Creed, Our Father, 3 Hail Marys, Glory Be.

The Agony in the Garden – Our Father, 10 Hail Marys, Glory Be.

Concluding Prayer: I bind these blood red roses with a petition for the virtue of resignation to the will of God and humbly lay this bouquet at thy feet.

The Scourging at the Pillar – Our Father, 10 Hail Marys, Glory Be.

Concluding Prayer: I bind these blood red roses with a petition for the virtue of mortification and humbly lay this bouquet at thy feet.

The Crowning with Thorns – Our Father, 10 Hail Marys, Glory Be.

Concluding Prayer: I bind these blood red roses with a petition for the virtue of humility and humbly lay this bouquet at thy feet.

The Carrying of the Cross – Our Father, 10 Hail Marys, Glory Be.

Concluding Prayer: I bind these blood red roses with a petition for the virtue of patience in adversity and humbly lay this bouquet at thy feet.

The Crucifixion – Our Father, 10 Hail Marys, Glory Be.

Concluding Prayer: I bind these blood red roses with a petition for the virtue of love of our enemies and humbly lay this bouquet at thy feet.

Say: The Hail Holy Queen.

In Thanksgiving: Sweet Mother Mary, I offer thee this Spiritual Communion to bind my bouquets in a wreath to place upon thy brow in thanksgiving for (specify request) which thou in thy love hast obtained for me. Hail, Mary, etc.