St. Maria Goretti & Our Lady of Perpetual Help Novena
St. Maria Goretti and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Novena
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Intro Prayer
Saint Mary Goretti who, strengthened by God’s grace, did not hesitate, even at a young age, to shed your blood and sacrifice life itself to defend your virginal purity, look graciously on the unhappy human race, which has strayed far from the path of eternal salvation. Teach us all, and especially youth, with what courage and promptitude we should flee for the love of Jesus, anything that could offend Him or stain our souls with sin. Obtain for us from our Lord victory in temptation, comfort in the sorrows of life, and the grace which we earnestly beg of Thee, (Mention your intention here) and may we one day enjoy with Thee the imperishable glory of heaven. Amen.
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Day 1 Prayer
Most lovable little Saint, who valued your purity above any earthly gain, and who sealed this choice with a martyr’s death, obtain for me also a strong love of this virtue, so consoling to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
The pleasures of the world create many temptations for me. I turn to your powerful intercession in Heaven,so that with this help I may remain ever loyal to God, no matter what the price. In danger inspire me to repeat with you, No, it is a sin!
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Day 2 Prayer
Dear Saint Mary Goretti, model of loving obedience to parents, teach me to imitate your example. Help me to overcome all selfishness and stubborn pride, draw my parents to Thee, then lead me to accept this authority as the Voice of God in my life. Help them to direct me aright and enable me to obey their every wish.
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Day 3 Prayer
Dear Little Saint Maria! You were ready for the moment of martyrdom because your short life was given over to daily and heroic self-denial. Your great love of the Sacred Hearts made all this possible.
Teach me to love Jesus and His Blessed Mother, so that I too will be inspired to daily self-denial. I am inclined to pamper myself, to gratify my senses, and to excuse myself from all penance. This keeps me from being a true follower of Christ. Help me, lovable Little Martyr, to a sincere practice of self-denial, so that I may be your worthy follower and thus gain Heaven for all Eternity.
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Day 4 Prayer
Dear Little Saint! Your days were spent in the filth of the marshes, willingly helping your desperately poor parents and family. Obtain for me the grace to accept my present circumstances in life, no matter how difficult or humiliating they may be.
Just one little drop of water, was the only request that fell from your parched lips during those last horrible hours of life. How much I demand, how unhappy I am when I cannot have my share of the world’s conveniences and gaudy attractions! Teach me by your heroic example to be content with what I have, to be grateful for the blessings God has already showered upon me.
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Day 5 Prayer
Dear Little Saint, I depend a great deal upon the help of my friends in time of trouble or sorrow. I look for their approval in many things I do. I am disconsolate and lonely when they desert me.
Through your powerful intercession in Heaven, obtain for me the grace to place all my confidence in God. Only by walking constantly in His presence and depending upon His help, will I have the courage to stand up for His laws, even though it may mean loss of friends, criticism and complete removal of worldly comfort. Help me to look for all of my strength in Him.
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Day 6 Prayer
Dear Little Saint! Help me to greater love of my Faith. I have many God-given opportunities to study it but, sad to say, I neglect them. I am even critical of the Priests, Brothers and Sisters who offer their lives that I may better know and love my holy religion.
Dear Saint Mary Goretti, teach me to be thankful for these grace which you did not have.Make me proud of my Faith and ready to die for it, if God should require that of me.
Day 7 Prayer
Dear Little Saint, never was Jesus more welcome in a human heart than in yours. The Great Dayof First Communion could not come quickly enough. In borrowed clothes and head crowned with flowers of the field, you knelt to receive Him into your soul, so rich with Innocence and Love, and this after months of keen anticipation!
O Powerful Intercessor with the Lamb of God, inflame my soul with your ardent longing to receive Jesus in the Eucharist. Obtain for me the grace to put aside laziness and indifference, so that I may often, even daily, allow myself to be consumed in the burning Furnace of Charity. Teach me what true Love really is!
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Day 8 Prayer
Dear Little Martyr! To the last you followed your beloved Jesus. He, while hanging upon His Cross of Suffering, uttered through parched lips, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And you upon your bed of pain, burning with fever,forgave your murderer with the words, I too, pardon him… I too, wish him to join me in Paradise.
Grant me the grace, O Heroic Saint, to be charitable to others. Much of my time is spent on vengeful thoughts, seeking how I may pay back to others the harm they have done to me. Teach me to forgive, so that I may not only gain Heaven, but also lead others there who might otherwise be doomed to Hell. If I am to follow Christ, help me to imitate His Charity, even as you have done.
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Day 9 Prayer
Dear Saint Mary Goretti, once again I turn to you, and beg of you in the words of Our Holy Father, Pope Pius XII, that serenity of spirit and deep joy which is the heritage of those who are pure of heart.
Help me to turn to Our Blessed Lady, confident in the hope that she will take my hand as she did yours, and lead me on to Paradise, my heavenly country, there to enjoy with you and Her, the company of God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost for all Eternity.
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Concluding Prayer
Father of mercies and God of all consolation, who forgives everyone who asks through your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, no matter how great the sin, I offer you myself as a sacrifice of mercy in union with Jesus’ in reparation and atonement for the worst sins committed in the world. I offer You my forgiveness of my enemies and anyone who has sinned against me; I release them from their debts. I accept all of the sufferings and labors that you will for me this day with patience and humble resignation to Your divine will, to console the Sacred Heart of Jesus and with him to give you my obedience, in order to bring Your mercy to the people in those situations: for the salvation of victims, especially those who perish in crimes; for the healing and consolation of survivors; and for the conversion of sinners and criminals, especially the most hard hearted. Pour forth your Spirit, O Lord, that I may offer this sacrifice of myself with the same fire of love and forgiveness that burns within the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, St. Joseph, St. Maria Goretti and which converted Alessandro Serenelli. Amen.
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Concluding Prayer
Pray the Litany of Forgiveness
Lord Jesus, who are mercy and forgiveness, R. grant me Lord, a heart like yours.
Toward those who have insulted me, R. grant me Lord, a heart like yours
Toward those who have forgotten me,
Toward those who have despised me,
Toward those whose blindness has injured me,
Toward those whose decisions have wounded me,
Toward those whose sins have impacted me,
Toward those whose selfishness has deprived me,
Toward those whose failings have made obstacles for me,
Toward those who have betrayed me,
Toward those who have misunderstood me,
Toward those who have criticized me,
For those I have injured by my pride, R. grant them Lord, to forgive me.
For those I have hurt with my words and actions,
For those I neglected in my indifference,
For those I disdained in my arrogance,
For those I forgot in my self-centeredness,
For those I insulted in my callousness,
For those I did not seek to understand,
For those I scandalized by my sins,
For those who were counting on me and I failed them,
For those to whom I was afraid to be a witness of your love,
For those for whom I made no place in my heart,
Jesus meek and humble of heart, R. make my heart more like yours.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus Christ, you are mercy and forgiveness. You never cease to love us with an everlasting love and are always ready to forgive us. Strengthen our will and soften our hearts so that, with a love ever more like yours, we may truly forgive all those who have hurt us in any way and always be ready to seek forgiveness from anyone we have harmed. Who live and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.
Most loving and merciful God, Who patiently offers mercy to every sinner, so that none may be lost; I thank You for the life of Alessandro Serenelli, the repentant murderer of St. Maria Goretti.
I praise You for the way he was converted by the heroic forgiveness that St. Maria extended towards him, which he accepted, and through which he discovered You.
​Humbly I ask that Your Church raise to the glory of her altars Alessandro Serenelli, who lived the holy life of a penitent, and through his intercession You would grant the following petitions if they be in accord with Your Most Holy Will: (here mention your petitions).
Through Christ Our Lord.
Amen
Our Father / Hail Mary / Glory be to the Father
Pray the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Lord, have mercy on us
Christ, have mercy on us
Lord, have mercy on us
Christ, hear us
Christ, graciously hear us
God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the World, have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God,
have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, pray for us.
Holy Mother of God, pray for us.
Holy Virgin of virgins, pray for us.
Mother of Christ, pray for us.
Mother of the Church, pray for us.
Mother of Mercy, pray for us.
Mother of Divine Grace, pray for us.
Mother of Hope, pray for us.
Mother most pure, pray for us.
Mother most chaste, pray for us.
Mother inviolate, pray for us.
Mother undefiled, pray for us.
Mother most amiable, pray for us.
Mother most admirable, pray for us.
Mother of good counsel, pray for us.
Mother of our Creator, pray for us.
Mother of our Savior, pray for us.
Virgin most prudent, pray for us.
Virgin most venerable, pray for us.
Virgin most renowned, pray for us.
Virgin most powerful, pray for us.
Virgin most merciful, pray for us.
Virgin most faithful, pray for us.
Mirror of justice, pray for us.
Seat of wisdom, pray for us.
Cause of our joy, pray for us.
Spiritual vessel, pray for us.
Vessel of honor, pray for us.
Singular vessel of devotion, pray for us.
Mystical rose, pray for us.
Tower of David, pray for us.
Tower of ivory, pray for us.
House of gold, pray for us.
Ark of the covenant, pray for us.
Gate of heaven, pray for us.
Morning star, pray for us.
Health of the sick, pray for us.
Refuge of sinners, pray for us.
Solace of Migrants, pray for us.
Comforter of the afflicted, pray for us.
Help of Christians, pray for us.
Queen of Angels, pray for us.
Queen of Patriarchs, pray for us.
Queen of Prophets, pray for us.
Queen of Apostles, pray for us.
Queen of Martyrs, pray for us.
Queen of Confessors, pray for us.
Queen of Virgins, pray for us.
Queen of all Saints, pray for us.
Queen conceived without original sin, pray for us.
Queen assumed into heaven, pray for us.
Queen of the most holy Rosary, pray for us.
Queen of Peace, pray for us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Grant we beseech You, O Lord God, unto us, Your servants, perpetual health of mind and body: and, by the glorious intercession of the blessed Mary, ever Virgin, may we be delivered from present sorrow and enter into the joy of your eternal gladness. Through Christ, our Lord.
Amen.
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To Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Oh Mother of Perpetual Help, grant that I may ever invoke your powerful name, the protection of the living and the salvation of the dying. Purest Mary, let your name henceforth be ever on my lips. Delay not, Blessed Lady, to rescue me whenever I call on you. In my temptations, in my needs, I will never cease to call on you, ever repeating your sacred name, Mary, Mary.
What a consolation, what sweetness, what confidence fills my soul when I utter your sacred name or even only think of you! I thank the Lord for having given you so sweet, so powerful, so lovely a name. But I will not be content with merely uttering your name. Let my love for you prompt me ever to hail you Mother of Perpetual Help. Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for me and grant me the favor I confidently ask of you (mention request here).
Hail Mary three times