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Prayer of Saint
Therese of Lisieux to the Holy Face of Jesus
O Jesus, Who in Your bitter Passion became "the most abject of men, a man of
sorrows," I venerate Your sacred Face whereon there once shone the beauty and
sweetness of the Godhead; but now it has become for me as if it were the face of
a leper! Nevertheless, under those disfigured features I recognize Your infinite
love, and I am consumed with the desire to love You and make You loved by all
men. The tears which well up abundantly in Your sacred eyes appear to me as so
many precious pearls that I love to gather up, in order to purchase the souls of
poor sinners by means of their infinite value. O Jesus, Whose adorable Face
ravishes my heart, I implore You to fix deep within me Your divine image and to
set me on fire with Your love, that I may be found worthy to come to the
contemplation of Your glorious Face in Heaven. Amen.
O Jesus, through the merits of Your Holy Face. Have pity on us, and on the whole
world.
Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered. Let those who Hate Him flee before
His Holy Face.
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9
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Opening
O St. Therese of the Child Jesus, who during
your short life on earth became a mirror of angelic purity, of love strong
as death, and of wholehearted abandonment to God, now that you rejoice in
the reward of your virtues, cast a glance of pit on me as I leave all things
in your hands. Make my troubles your own, speak a word for me to Our Lady
Immaculate, whose flower of special love you were -- to that Queen of Heaven
"who smiled on you at the dawn of life" Beg her powerful intercession the
grace I yearn for so ardently at this moment...and that she join with it a
blessing that may strengthen me during life, defend me at the hour of death,
and lead me straight on to a happy eternity. Amen.
O God, who did inflame with
the Spirit of Love, the soul of your servant Therese of the Child Jesus,
grant that we also may love you and make you much loved. Amen.
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First Day
O Therese of the Child Jesus,
well beloved and full of charity, in union with you, I reverently adore the
majesty of God, and since I rejoice with exceeding joy in the singular gifts
of grace bestowed upon you during your life, and your gifts of glory after
death, I give Him deepest thanks for them; I beseech you with all my heart’s
devotion to be pleased to obtain for me (...mention request here). But if
what I ask of you so earnestly does not tend to the glory of God and the
greater good of my soul, do you, I pray, obtain for me that which is more
profitable to both these ends. Amen.
St. Therese of the Child
Jesus, pray for us.
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Almighty God, giver of all
good gifts, who did will that Blessed Therese, being watered by the heavenly
dew of your guiding grace, should bloom in Carmel with the beauty of
virginity and patience in suffering, grant that I your servant may go
forward in the order of her sweetness an may be found worthy to become a
devoted and loyal follower of Christ. Amen.
St. Therese of the Child
Jesus, pray for us.
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Third Day
O Therese of the Child Jesus,
lily of purity, ornament and glory of Carmel, I greet you, great saint,
seraph of divine love. I rejoice in the favors our Lord so liberally
bestowed on you. I humility and confidence I ask you to help me, for I know
God has given you love and pity as well as power. Tell Him, now, I beseech
you, of the favor I seek in this novena... Your request will crown my
petition with success and bring joy to my heart. Remember your promise to do
good here on earth. "I shall spend my heaven doing good on the Earth After
death I shall let fall a shower of roses.
St. Therese of the Child
Jesus, pray for us.
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Fourth Day
O Little Flower of Jesus, who
at an early age had your heart set on Carmel and in your brief earthly life
did become the mirror of angelic purity, of courageous love and of whole
hearted surrender to Almighty God, turn your eyes of mercy upon me who
trusts in you. Obtain for me the favor I seek in this novena...and the grace
to keep my heart and mind pure and clean. O dear saint, grant me to feel in
every need the power of your intercession; help to comfort me in all the
bitterness of this life and especially at its end, that I may be worth to
share eternal happiness with you in heaven. Amen.
St. Therese of the Child
Jesus, pray for us.
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Fifth Day
O Little Flower of Carmel,
Almighty God endowed you, consumed by love for him, with wondrous spiritual
strength to follow the way of perfection during the days of your short life.
Sickness touched you early but you remained firm in faith and prayer was
your life. O pray for me that I may benefit by your intercession and be
granted the favor I ask in this novena...
St. Therese of the Child
Jesus, pray for us.
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Sixth Day
O Little Flower of Jesus, you
have shown yourself so powerful in your intercession, so tender and
compassionate toward those who honor you and invoke you in suffering and
distress, that I kneel at your feet with perfect confidence and beseech you
most humbly and earnestly to take me under your protection in my present
necessity and obtain for me the favor I ask in this novena… Vouchsafe to
recommend my request to Mary, the merciful Queen of Heaven, that she may
plead my cause with you before the throne of Jesus, her divine Son.. Cease
not to intercede for me until my request is granted.
St. Therese of the Child
Jesus, pray for us.
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Seventh Day
Therese of the Child Jesus,
most loving Saint, in union with you I adore the divine Majesty. My heart is
filled with joy at the remembrance of the marvelous favors with which God
blessed your life on earth and of the great glory that came to you after
death. In union with you, I praise God, and offer him my humble tribute of
thanksgiving. I implore you to obtain for me, through your powerful
intercession, the greatest of all blessings -- that of living and dying in
the state of grace. I also beg of you to secure for me the special favor I
seek in this novena...
St. Therese of the Child
Jesus, pray for us.
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Eighth Day
O glorious St. Therese, who,
burning with the desire of increasing the glory of God, invariably attended
to the sanctification of your soul by the constant practice of prayer and
charity so that, becoming in the Church a model of holiness, you are now in
Heaven the protector of all those who have recourse to you in faith, look
down upon me who invokes your powerful patronage and join your petition to
mine that I be granted the favor I seek in this novena...
St. Therese of the Child
Jesus, pray for us.
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Ninth Day
O St. Therese, seraphic
virgin, beloved spouse of our Crucified Lord, you who on earth did burn with
a love so intense toward your God and my God, and now glow with a bright and
purer flame in paradise, obtain for me, I beseech you, a spark of that same
holy fire which shall help me to put things of the world in their proper
place and live my life always conscious of the presence of God. As I
conclude my novena I also beg of you to secure for me the special favor I
seek at this time...
St. Therese of the Child Jesus, pray for us.
Conclude this novena by
reciting one Our Father, one Hail Mary,
and one Glory Be.
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St. Teresa of Avila
Let nothing trouble you.
Let nothing scare you.
All is fleeting.
God alone is unchanging.
Patience
Everything obtains.
Who possesses God
Nothing wants.
God alone suffices.
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St. John of the Cross
Prayer of a Soul Taken with
Love
Lord God, my
Beloved, if you still remember my sins in such a way that you do not do what I
beg of you, do your will concerning them, my God, which is what I most desire,
and exercise your goodness and mercy, and you will be known through them. And if
you are waiting for my good works so as to hear my prayer through their means,
grant them to me, and work them for me, and the sufferings you desire to accept,
and let it be done. But if you are not waiting for my works, what is it that
makes you wait, my most clement Lord? Why do you delay? For if, after all, I am
to receive the grace and mercy that I entreat of you in your Son, take my mite,
since you desire it, and grant me this blessing, since you also desire that. Who
can free themselves from lowly manners and limitations if you do not lift them
to yourself, my God, in purity of love? How will human beings begotten and
nurtured in lowliness rise up to you, Lord, if you do not raise them with your
hand that made them? You will not take from me, my God, what you once gave me in
your only Son, Jesus Christ, in whom you gave me all I desire. Hence I rejoice
that if I wait for you, you will not delay. With what procrastinations do you
wait, since from this very moment you can love God in your heart?
Mine are the heavens and mine is the earth. Mine are the
nations, the just are mine, and mine the sinners. The angels are mine, and the
Mother of God, and all things are mine; and God himself is mine and for me,
because Christ is mine and all for me. What do
you ask, then, and seek, my soul? Yours is all of this, and all is for you. Do
not engage yourself in something less or pay heed to the crumbs that fall from
your Father's table. Go forth and exult in your Glory! Hide yourself in it and
rejoice, and you will obtain the supplications of your heart.
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Blessed Titus
Brandsma
"Before a Picture of Christ in
My Cell"
O Jesus, when I
look on you,
My love for you starts up anew,
And tells me that your heart loves me,
And you my special friend would be.
More courage I will need for sure,
But any pain will I endure,
Because it makes me like to you
And leads unto your kingdom too.
In sorrow do I find my bliss,
For sorrow now no more is this:
Rather the path that must be trod,
That makes me one with you, my God.
Oh, leave me here alone and still,
And all around, the cold and chill.
To enter here I will have none;
I weary not when I'm alone,
For, Jesus, you are at my side;
Never so close did we abide.
Stay with me, Jesus my delight,
Your presence near makes all things right.
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St. Elizabeth of the
Trinity
Trinity, whom I adore, calm and
changeless mystery,
I hide within Your Life: "You in me, and I in You."
Make my soul Your dwelling place,
Your heav'n on earth, Your home of rest.
May I ne'er leave You alone,
But keep me there
In living faith.
Word of God, eternal Sound, I give all to learn from You;
Through darkest poverty I will cling to Your embrace.
PRAISE OF GLORY I shall be,
Oh, Star of mine with lustrous beams:
Fascinate me with Your Light, And hold me fast
Within "MY THREE".
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Dove of Love, consuming Fire, form in me His mystery.
For Him, the Word of God, I will be humanity.
Father mine, look down on me, And see in me Your only Son.
Oh, my Life, my joy, my All,
You are "MY THREE, MY TRINITY. "
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