For
Don Bosco, Mary Help of Christians was a living presence in his own life, in
the Oratory, and in the life of the poor boys who attended it. Mary is actively present in the history of the
Church, of humanity, and of our Community.
She is a maternal presence and mediatrix of grace for her children and a
Mother who continues to fight against the evil that surrounds and menaces us. When Don Bosco used to propose to people to
“make a novena,” he did so convinced of the motherliness and mediation of
Mary.
He did not doubt that Mary would
again manifest herself in many ways so as to give help to all who invoke her
with faith and with love. He used to
say: “If you wish to obtain graces from
the Blessed Virgin, make a novena” (The
Biographical Memoirs of St. John Bosco, vol. IX, p. 139) – i.e., intensify
your prayers to Her.
Today,
we, too, begin the novena to Mary Help of Christians that was so dear to Don
Bosco and to the entire Salesian Family.
We wish to ask Mary with faith to intercede with the Lord for the personal conversion of each and
every one of us, Her Daughters, so that we might: live this Year of Mercy
with the conviction that it is a year of grace from the Lord and an opportunity
to draw ever closer to the center of the Mystery of God and of our Faith; receive
mercy and show mercy so as to change our hearts and our Communities into places
that are more merciful, and not so cold, possessing the warmth of love and of
solidarity among ourselves and towards our brothers and sisters who are most in
need, especially the young.
Let
us recall what Don Bosco asked of those who wanted to obtain a special grace
from Mary Help of Christians: a strong faith in God, united to the conviction
that He knows what is best for us, and the willingness to accept as His Will - whether
permitting or ordaining - whatever might come. Beyond this, Don Bosco insisted on the
necessity of a heart disposed to live the novena with faith. He invited these individuals to approach the
Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist; to rekindle their faith in
Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and in the maternal mediation of Mary Help of
Christians; and to make an offering to works dedicated to the education of the
young. As for us, we will not make a
material offering, but, rather, a renewal of the offering of our life for the
salvation of the young.
We are invited to pray daily the traditional novena proposed by Don
Bosco[1] and to take up again one element of the journey that
we lived this year on every 24th of the month to deepen our
understanding of the Prayer of Entrustment to Mary Help of Christians. In this way, we can prepare our heart to
receive the graces we need for personal and Community conversion and to renew
our entrustment to Mary Help of Christians on May 24 in a most solemn way. Each Community is invited to celebrate this
moment together in the way that is most suited to its concrete reality.[2]
Proposal for the
Novena to Mary Help of Christians
Day 1: «O Virgin Mary, Mother of
Jesus and our Mother, we entrust ourselves to you that we may live in total availability to God for the redemption
of the world»
In our daily life, there are
so many opportunities – both big and small – to fill up in our flesh, “for His
Body, which is the Church, those things that are lacking to the sufferings of
Christ” (Col. 1:24). But at times, they
risk being wasted for the Lord does not find us ready to welcome into our hands
even one lone thorn from His crown. There
are moments when we imagine ourselves capable of dying as martyrs for the
Faith, but then we do not even succeed in accepting something unforeseen that
upsets our plans…
Practice: I entrust myself to Mary to become like Her: available and ready to welcome
God’s Will with love and without losing my patience.
Day 2: «You who are the Mother and Help of the Church, protect our Holy Father,
Pope Francis, all Bishops, Priests, and Religious»
The second paragraph of the
Act of Entrustment invites us to recognize in Mary, “Mother of Jesus and Our
Mother,” the “Mother and Help of the Church”.
It is She, in fact, who in the “fullness of time” (Gal. 4:4) gave a body
of flesh to the Son of God and who will collaborate with the Holy Spirit until
the end of time so that the Body of Christ, the Church, will be continually
regenerated in the love of the Father. (I Peter 1:3) St. Paul teaches us that
there are many members in this Body. (I Cor. 12:12) Mary is called to care for
each and every one of them through her powerful intercession and her luminous
example of a life totally given to God and for others.
Practice: With
Mary, let us meditate on these words of Jesus: «By this all will know that you are my Disciples, if you have love one
for another» (Jn. 13:35) by thinking about them in reference to the Sisters
of my Community or Province and to all our brothers and sisters in the Faith
who are in the parish, city, and Diocese in which we live.
Day 3: «Open the hearts
of the young to the Lord's call and help them to follow Him with courage and
fidelity»
We are invited to help the
young to be "happy in time and in eternity," accompanying them in the
discovery of their own vocation. If all
are called, vocational discernment cannot be a privilege reserved to the “good
kids.” Certainly, the journey must be
different for each person, since for each one the point of arrival as well as
the point of departure will be different, but, this notwithstanding, each young
person has the right to hear it said to him or her that he or she is loved by
God in a unique and personal way and that, as in every loving relationship, God
desires that His love be returned.
The young will be able to
believe in the love of Jesus if we love them as He loves them, with no strings
attached, and if we share with them the experience of our encounter with God (Acts of General Chapter XXIII).
Practice: With
Mary and the Community we can ask ourselves if our Community is a vocational
one that fosters the vocation culture
through an educative presence which promotes discernment and the accompaniment
of the young.
Day 4: «Watch over our Institute, the entire
Salesian Family, our relatives and benefactors, our Past Pupils, and all the
young people entrusted to our care»
We are a Family born from God's heart and entrusted to Mary from
the very first moment of its birth, when Don Bosco had his dream at age 9. It is always moving to remember that first dream
which is the foundation of the apostolic life of our Father; in it, all the
words and gestures have a prophetic dimension.
Mary is presented there as Mother and Teacher but also as protectress of
his entire work.
We
FMA belong to this Family: “Our Institute is a living part of the Salesian
Family… In this Family we share the
spiritual heritage of the Founder, and, as in Mornese, we offer the unique
contribution of our vocation.” (Constitutions,
Article 3).
Practice: We entrust ourselves today to Mary not only
as an Institute but also as a Salesian Family and we pray for all the Groups of
the Family so that they might experience that it is Mary "who has done
everything" in Don Bosco's work and also in our life.
Day 5: «Mother
and Model of the Church, teach us to live like you, in patient charity, joyful
humility, and purity of heart»
Mary's patient charity, joyful humility, and purity of
heart are not merits of her personal actions but are the fruit of her intimate
and indissoluble communion with Jesus: her love for us is a participation in
the infinite love of Jesus for us; her humility is conformed to Jesus’
humility; her purity is the radiation of God's presence in her - a presence
which pervades and possesses her entirely.
For this reason, Mary is so filled with joy that it spills over: she is
the “House of God-with-us”! To be the House
of God among men: this is precisely what God expects from his Church and from
each one of us!
Practice: With
Mary I will go to make a visit to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament to listen to
Him and to thank Him, to let myself take on His mercy and His sentiments and to
learn the secret of an authentic encounter with my Sisters, with the members of
the educating community, and with all those whom I will meet today. (see Constitutions,
Article 40)
Day 6: «that we
may be signs of your presence in the world»
To be the living presence of Mary in the world is also what Don Bosco
wanted from the FMA. When pointing out
this desire of the Founder, Don Rua used to love to repeat: “You must become
her reflection. She is the Help of the
Christian people, and you, Her Daughters, must prepare to become helpers of
souls on the way to Paradise.” This implies that we must learn, at the school
of Mary, “her dispositions of faith, hope, and charity, and her perfect union
with Christ… [and open] our hearts to the joyous humility of her Magnificat.” (Constitutions, Article 4)
Practice: Today I
will take a little time to meditate on one of the Marian articles of our
Constitutions and ask Her for the grace to feel her presence in my life and to
help me to go out of myself to carry Christ to others.
Day 7: «O Mary Help of Christians, make us faithful to our vocation and give us
the certainty of your protection in every circumstance of life and at the
moment of death»
The Act of Entrustment sums up in a few lines the
wisdom of the life of the Founders and suggests that we entrust to the maternal
intercession of Mary this important task of maturing in our fidelity to the
gift of the vocation that we have received.
The Blessed Mother herself, in the Dream of the Two Columns, tells Don
Bosco and his young people: “If you will
be devoted sons to me, I will be a Loving Mother to you.” With these simple
words, Mary assures us that we will experience the «certainty of her protection
in every circumstance of life and at the moment of death» in the measure in
which we entrust ourselves to her, not only in words, but «in deed and in truth».
(I Jn. 3:18)
Practice: In the morning I will entrust to Mary, in an
explicit way, all the encounters and the tasks of the day, asking for the grace
to be guided in everything by her. In
the evening, during the examination of conscience, I will ask myself: what
would Mary have done in my place… with that person… in that situation…?
Day 8: «Help us overcome every form of evil and sin»
In the battle against sin, Mary is our first
Ally. The incessant invitation which
Pope Francis makes to us to value the mercy of God follows the same path: by renewing
daily the handing over of our fragility, of our weaknesses, and of our ugly
habits to God's mercy, little by little, but in reality, we are freed, healed,
and sanctified, by His Love. God, in
fact - the Holy Father loves to repeat - never tires of pardoning us. The problem is that we tire of asking for
forgiveness. He never tires of
forgiving, but at times we tire of asking for forgiveness.
God wants to make us ever more like Mary! The greater our
desire to be pardoned, the greater will be the fruits of his mercy!
Practice: Together with Mary, I will prepare myself to
live the Sacrament of Reconciliation in a humble attitude of faith so as to
accept my poverty peacefully and to fulfill with greater commitment and hard
work the journey of freedom from sin and of welcoming and receiving the Mercy
of the Father.
Day 9: «so that with you and like you, we may
glorify the Lord now and forever. Amen»
God chose Mary, the humble maiden
of Nazareth, to accomplish His salvation.
He wanted to bend down to her and ask her consent. We know that this logic continues. God continues to choose the little ones to
accomplish great things; he chose little John Bosco, the little shepherd boy of
Becchi; he chose the uneducated farm girl of Mornese, Mary Mazzarello; and
today he chooses you, me, and all of us to continue this story of
salvation. Such is the logic which
upsets human plans. In the Magnificat, Mary praises the fidelity
and the love of God. He is remembered
for the promise He made to Abraham and to his descendents forever - a promise
which came true in Jesus.
Practice: Let us sing the Magificat with Mary, glorifying the Lord for the wonders that He
has accomplished in us and in all Humanity.
[1] Three sets of a Pater, Ave, and Gloria daily to
the Blessed Sacrament, with “Blessed and Praised every moment be the Most Holy
and Divine Sacrament” after each set; then, three Salve Regina to Mary Help of Christians, with the invocation “Mary,
Help of Christians, pray for us” following each one. (This set of prayers can be concluded with the
Memorare)
[2] On the 24th, a
little introduction to the Prayer of Entrustment can be added in which are
underlined the desire and the commitment to renew our entrustment to Her. Or, the prayer of the Rosary can be made
solemn, or another type of celebration can be held in which, at another point
in the day, a symbolic gesture can be united to the praying of the Act of
Entrustment. For example: a picture of
Mary Help of Christians may be placed near the altar and each Sister can place
at its feet a card with her name or the name of a young person written on it for
whom we wish to pray… after having finished the placing of the cards, the
Entrustment can be recited. Or, the
Community can gather around a picture or statue of Mary of particular
significance in the House: each Sister can bring with her a flower to offer to
Our Lady. After the offering of the
flowers, the Entrustment is prayed.
According to the possibilities of each Work, the young and/or the
educating Community may be invited to be involved in the celebration.
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