Evangelium Vitae Novena Prayers
Evangelium Vitae Novena Prayers.
Daily prayer: Pope Saint John Paul II’s Prayer to our Lady.
O Mary
bright dawn of the new world,
Mother of the living,
to you do we entrust the cause
Look down, O Mother,
upon the vast numbers
of babies not allowed to be born,
of the poor whose lives are made difficult,
of men and women
who are victims of brutal violence,
of the elderly and the sick killed
by indifference or out of misguided mercy.
Grant that all who believe in your Son
may proclaim the Gospel of Life
with honesty and love
to the people of our time.
Obtain for them the grace
to accept that Gospel
as a gift ever new,
the joy of celebrating it with gratitude
throughout their lives
and the courage to bear witness to it
resolutely, in order to build,
together with all people of good will,
the civilisation of truth and love,
to the praise and glory of God,
the Creator and lover of life.
Day 1: March 16 - For an end to the contraceptive mentality.
As the domestic church, the family is summoned to proclaim, celebrate and serve the Gospel of life. This is a responsibility which first concerns married couples, called to be givers of life, on the basis of an ever greater awareness of the meaning of procreation as a unique event which clearly reveals that human life is a gift received in order then to be given as a gift. In giving origin to new life, parents recognise that the child, “as the fruit of their mutual gift of love, is, in turn, a gift for both of them, a gift which flows from them.” EV 92
Heavenly Father, please grant all women the grace to acknowledge the awe-inspiring potential of their bodies to bear new life through your creative power. Allow a greater communication between men and women in order to help them use their creative potential wisely and to be open to life within the institution of marriage.
Day 2: March 17 - For an end to abortion.
The pro-abortion culture is especially strong precisely where the church’s teaching on contraception is rejected …. The life which could result from a sexual encounter thus becomes an enemy to be avoided at all costs, and abortion become the only possible decisive response to failed contraception. EV13
Heavenly Father, you intended the family to be the sanctuary of life. But throughout the world today, the family has become the author of the death sentence for its youngest and most vulnerable members. Please bestow your gift of courage on all parents facing an unplanned pregnancy, and raise up more people of goodwill to assist mothers in their time of need.
Day 3: March 18 - For an end to euthanasia of the elderly and disabled.
When the prevailing tendency is to value life only to the extent that it brings pleasure and well-being, suffering seems like an unbearable setback, something from which one must be freed at all costs. Death is considered ‘senseless’ if it suddenly interrupts a life still open to a future of new and interesting experiences. But it becomes a ‘rightful liberation’ once life is held to be no longer meaningful because it is filled with pain and inexorably doomed to even greater suffering. EV 64.
Heavenly Father, we ask for an end to the utilitarianism that obsesses the world and has led to the devaluation of lives which are no longer deemed to be productive. Please grant your grace of gratitude for the elderly and the disabled and relieve them of the fear that they are a burden to their families and carers.
Day 4: March 19 - For an end to the commodification of unborn children and mothers.
This moral condemnation also regards procedures that exploit living human embryos and foetuses - sometimes specifically ‘produced’ for this purpose by in vitro fertilisation - either to be used as ‘biological material’ or as providers of organs or tissue for transplants in the treatment of certain diseases. The killing of innocent human creatures, even if carried out to help others, constitutes an absolutely unacceptable act. EV 63.
Holy Trinity, You designed conception to take place within the conjugal context of marriage. Please grant your grace of fortitude to all medical professionals who seek solutions to the problems of infertility. May they reject using immoral techniques when assisting with the creation of new life. We also pray that unborn human beings will no longer be used for experimentation and that existing frozen embryos will be treated with dignity. Father, please enlighten the world to see that surrogacy is not part of Your plan for motherhood, and help us to end all industries that commodify Your children.
Day 5: March 20 - For an end to the sex industry.
In the materialistic perspective described so far, interpersonal relations are seriously impoverished. The first to be harmed are women, children …… The criterion of personal dignity - which demands respect, generosity and service - is replaced by the criterion of efficiency, functionality and usefulness: others are considered not for what they ‘are’, but for what they ‘have, do and produce.’ This is the supremacy of the strong over the weak. EV 23.
Heavenly Father, the sex-industry is an ‘unfruitful work of darkness’ which many Christians would prefer to ignore. Please grant your grace of understanding to assist us in exposing this great evil. Help us to provide dignified work and physical support for sex-workers, and grant freedom to those who are held against their wills. We ask that all people will begin to nurture only those true and loving relationships which value the other over self, which promote mutual respect and which maintain the dignity of all persons involved.
Day 6: March 21 - For Legislators.
In the encyclical Pacem in Terris, John XXIII pointed out that ” it is generally accepted today that the common good is best safeguarded when personal rights and duties are guaranteed. The chief concern of civil authorities must therefore be to ensure that these rights are recognized, respected, coordinated, defended and promoted, and that each individual is enabled to perform his duties more easily. EV 71.
Heavenly Father, many today are disillusioned by legislators whose promises come to little once they gain a position of power. Please grant fortitude to legislators that they may maintain their convictions once elected, and the wisdom speak the truth in love to uphold your unchanging laws. Grant them the extraordinary grace to begin to reverse laws which fail to protect the basic right to life of unborn children, the disabled and the elderly.
Day 7: March 22 - For a stronger witness from the clergy.
We need to make sure that in theological faculties, seminaries and Catholic institutions sound doctrine is taught, explained and more fully investigated. May Paul’s exhortation strike a chord in all theologians, pastors, teachers, and in all those responsible for catechesis and the formation of consciences. Aware of their specific role, may they never be so grievously irresponsible as to betray the truth and their own mission by proposing personal ideas contrary to the Gospel of life as faithfully presented and interpreted by the Magesterium. EV 82.
Heavenly Father, Your message of the Gospel of life has been misinterpreted and diluted, ignored and ridiculed, devalued and denied by many within the Church. Please sharpen the consciences of Your shepherds; remind them of their great responsibility to transmit Your truths to the faithful. And create in them a loud voice that cries out above the clamour of the world, “Choose life and reject the culture of death!”
Day 8: March 23 - For a stronger witness from the laity.
We need to begin with the renewal of a culture of life within Christian communities themselves. Too often it happens that believers, even those who take an active part in the life of the Church, end up by separating their Christian faith from its ethical requirements concerning life, and thus fall into moral subjectivism and certain objectionable ways of acting. With great openness and courage, we need to question how widespread is the culture of life today among individual Christians, families, groups and communities in our Dioceses. EV 95.
Heavenly Father, the communion which should exist through Your gift of the Eucharist has been broken by the widespread use of contraception among Your flock and by their wholesale disregard for the teachings of Your Church. Please raise up courageous families and single people who are prepared to forgo wordily acclaim and to suffer for the sake of Your Holy Church. Please console them in their times of discouragement, and make them always aware of Your Presence, as they endeavour to spread the Good News to the ends of the earth.
Day 9: March 24 - For an increase in the virtue of chastity.
It is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not help the young to accept and experience sexuality and love and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection. Sexuality, which enriches the whole person, ‘manifests its inmost meaning in leading the person to the gift of self in love’. The trivialisation of sexuality is among the principal factors which have led to contempt for new life. Only a true love is able to protect life. There can be no avoiding the duty to offer, especially to adolescents and young adults, an authentic education in sexuality and in love, an education which involves training in chastity as a virtue which fosters personal maturity and makes one capable of respecting the ‘spousal’ meaning of the body. EV 97.
Heavenly Father, Your design for human sexuality is among the most misunderstood of Your truths today. Please grant Your grace of self-control to all Your people, that they may be a witness to Your Holiness and purity by their lives of holy chastity. The culture of life will flourish when young people embrace the state of chastity both within and outside of marriage; please give parents and educators the means to communicate your plan for sexuality to our young people and through the media.
Closing reflection: March 25 - The Feast of the Annunciation.
On this Feast of the Annunciation, let us reflect on the the gift God has given us, the great gift of His heavenly Mother. May she always be our model of purity, holiness and motherhood.
The “woman clothed with the sun” - the Book of revelation tells us - “was with child” (12:2). The Church is fully aware that she bears within herself the Saviour of the world, Christ the Lord. She is aware that she is called to offer Christ to the world, giving men and women new birth into Christ’s own life.But the Church cannot forget that her mission was made possible by the motherhood of Mary, who conceived and bore the One who is “God from God”, “true God from true God.” Mary is truly the Mother of God, the Theotokos, in whose motherhood the vocation to motherhood bestowed by God on every woman is raised to the highest level. EV 103
Evangelium Vitae #99
Evangelium Vitae #99: To Women who have had Abortions I would now like to say a special word to women who have had an abortion. The Church is aware of the many factors which may have influenced your decision, and she does not doubt that in many cases it was a painful and even shattering decision. The wound in your heart may not yet have healed. Certainly what happened was and remains terribly wrong. But do not give in to discouragement and do not lose hope. Try rather to understand what happened and face it honestly. If you have not already done so, give yourselves over with humility and trust to repentance. The Father of mercies is ready to give you his forgiveness and his peace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. You will come to understand that nothing is definitively lost and you will also be able to ask forgiveness from your child, who is now living in the Lord. With the friendly and expert help and advice of other people, and as a result of your own painful experience, you can be among the most eloquent defenders of everyone’s right to life. Through your commitment to life, whether by accepting the birth of other children or by welcoming and caring for those most in need of someone to be close to them, you will become promoters of a new way of looking at human life. Share this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new...
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