Mysteries of The Holy Childhood.

V/ Incline unto my aid, O GOD.

R/O LORD, make haste to help me.

V/Glo­ry be to the FATHER, and to The SON, and to The HOLY SPIRIT, as It Was in the begin­ning, Is now, and ever Shall Be, world with­out end. Amen.

PATER noster,…/Our FATHER,…

I. JESU, sweet­est Child, who didst come down from the bosom of the FATHER for our Sal­va­tion, who wast con­ceived by The HOLY GHOST, who didst not abhor the Vir­gin’s Womb, and, The Word made flesh, didst take upon Thee the form of a ser­vant; have mer­cy upon us.

R/ Have mer­cy on us, Infant JESUS, have mer­cy on us. Ave, Maria.,… / Hail, Mary,…

II. JESU, Sweet­est Child, who, through Thy Vir­gin Moth­er, didst vis­it Saint Elis­a­beth, and fill Thy fore­run­ner the Holy Bap­tist with The HOLY GHOST, sanc­ti­fy­ing him whilst yet in his mother’s womb; have mer­cy upon us.

R/Have mer­cy, etc., as above.  Ave, Maria,…/Hail, Mary,…

III. JESU, Wweet­est Child, Who, shut up for nine months in Thy Mother’s Womb, wast looked for with eager expec­ta­tion by Mary and by Joseph, and wast offered to GOD The FATHER for the sal­va­tion of the world; have mer­cy upon us.

R/Have mer­cy, etc., as above.  Ave, Maria,…/Hail, Mary,…

IV.JESU, Sweet­est Child, born in Beth­le­hem of Mary ever Vir­gin, swathed in rags, laid in the manger, announced by Angels, vis­it­ed by Shep­herds; have mer­cy upon us.

 R/. Have mer­cy, etc., as above.  Ave, Maria,…/Hail, Mary,…

O JESU, born of Vir­gin Bright, Immor­tal Glo­ry be to Thee; Praise to The FATHER Infi­nite, And HOLY GHOST eternally.

V/CHRIST is at hand,. 

R/Come let us worship.

PATER noster,…/Our Father,…

V. JESU, Sweet­est Child, Wound­ed in Thy Cir­cum­ci­sion the eighth day, called by The Glo­ri­ous Name of JESUS, and at once by Thy Name and Thy Blood fore­shown as The SAVIOUR of the world; have mer­cy upon us.

R/ . Have mer­cy, etc., as above.  Ave, Maria,…/Hail, Mary,…

VI. JESU, Sweet­est Child, made known to the three Magi by a star, Adored in the Arms of Thy Moth­er, pre­sent­ed with the mys­tic gifts of gold, frank­in­cense, and myrrh; have mer­cy upon us.

 R/. Have mer­cy,etc., as above.  Ave, Maria,…/Hail, Mary,…

VII. JESU, Sweet­est Child, Who wast pre­sent­ed in the Tem­ple by Thy Vir­gin Moth­er, Who wast embraced by Sime­on, and revealed to Israel by Anna the Prophet­ess; have mer­cy upon us.

 R/. Have mer­cy, etc., as above.  Ave, Maria,…/Hail, Mary,…

VIII. JESU, Sweet­est Child, Whom wicked Herod sought to slay, Whom Joseph car­ried with Mary into Egypt, Who wast tak­en from a cru­el death and wast glo­ri­fied by the blood of inno­cents; have mer­cy upon us.

 R/. Have mer­cy, etc. Ave Maria.

O JESU  etc. , as above, V/. and R/. as above. PATER nos­ter.

IX. JESU, sweet­est Child, who didst dwell in Egypt with most holy Mary and the Patri­arch holy Joseph

until the death of Herod; have mer­cy upon us.

R/. Have mer­cy, etc. Ave Maria.

X. JESU, sweet­est Child, who didst return with Mary and Joseph out of Egypt into the land of Israel, who

didst suf­fer many toils by the way, and didst enter into the city of Nazareth; have mer­cy upon us.

R/Have mer­cy, etc. Ave Maria.

XI. JESU, sweet­est Child, who in the holy house at Nazareth didst remain sub­ject to Mary and Joseph,

didst dwell there most holily, wast wea­ried by pover­ty and labours, and didst advance in wis­dom, age,

and grace; have mer­cy upon us.

R/. Have mer­cy, etc. Ave Maria.

XII. JESU, sweet­est Child, at twelve years old brought to Jerusalem, sought for by Mary and Joseph with

sor­row, and found with joy after three days amongst the doc­tors; have mer­cy upon us.

R/. Have mer­cy, etc. Ave Maria.

O JESU,etc. , as above.

For Christ­mas Day and its Octave.

V/.

The Word was made flesh. Alleluia,

R/.And dwelt among us. Alleluia.

The Alleluia is omit­ted dur­ing the rest of the year.

For the Epiphany and its Octave.

V/.CHRIST hath man­i­fest­ed Him­self to us. Alleluia.

R/.Come, let us adore. Alleluia.

Let us pray.

ALMIGHTY and ever­last­ing GOD, LORD of heav­en and earth, who dost reveal thy­self to lit­tle ones; grant, we beseech Thee, that we,. duly hon­our­ing The Holy Mys­ter­ies of Thy SON, The Infant JESUS, and dai­ly imi­tat­ing Him in our lives, may come to The King­dom of Heav­en promised by Thee to lit­tle chil­dren.  Through The Same JESUS CHRIST, etc.

R/. Amen.

(75 Pius VII, Novem­ber 23,1819.)

76. Novena for the Twenty-fifth Day of every Month.

(nine days pre­vi­ous to the 25th day of any and each month.

76 Pius IX, Sep­tem­ber 23, 1846.

First Offer­ing.

ETERNAL FATHER, I offer to thy hon­our and glo­ry, and for my own sal­va­tion, and for the sal­va­tion of all the world, the mys­tery of the Birth of our Divine SAVIOUR. Glo­ria PATRI.

Sec­ond Offering.

ETERNAL FATHER, I offer to thy hon­our and glo­ry, and for my eter­nal sal­va­tion, the suf­fer­ings of the most holy Vir­gin and of St Joseph in that long and weary jour­ney from Nazareth to Beth­le­hem; I offer Thee their pain in find­ing no place where­in to shel­ter them­selves, when the SAVIOUR of the world was to be born. Glo­ria PATRI.

Third Offer­ing.

ETERNAL FATHER, I offer to thy hon­our and glo­ry, and for my eter­nal sal­va­tion, the sta­ble where JESUS was born, the hard straw which served Him for a bed, the cold He suf­fered, the swad­dling clothes which bound Him, the tears He shed, and his ten­der infant cries. Glo­ria PATRI.

Fourth Offer­ing.

ETERNAL FATHER, I offer to thy hon­our and glo­ry, and for my eter­nal sal­va­tion, the pain which the divine Child JESUS felt in his ten­der infant body when He sub­mit­ted it to the keen knife of cir­cum­ci­sion; I offer Thee that Pre­cious Blood which then first He shed for the sal­va­tion of the whole race of man. Glo­ria PATRI.

Fifth Offer­ing.

ETERNAL FATHER, I offer to thy hon­our and glo­ry, and for my eter­nal sal­va­tion, the humil­i­ty, mor­ti­fi­ca­tion, patience, char­i­ty and all the virtues of the Child JESUS; I thank Thee, and I love Thee, and I bless Thee with­out end, for this inef­fa­ble mys­tery of the Incar­na­tion of the divine Word. Glo­ria PATRI.

V/.The Word was made flesh.

R/.And dwelt amongst us.

Let us pray.

O GOD, whose only-begot­ten SON was made man­i­fest to us in the sub­stance of our flesh; grant, we beseech Thee, that our souls may be inward­ly renewed through Him, whom our eyes have seen exter­nal­ly like unto our­selves. Who liveth and reigneth with Thee for ever and ever. Amen.

77. Prayer before the Crib.

i. 200 Days, once a day, if said in the Basil­i­ca of St. Mary Major. ii. 100 Days, once a day, if said any­where else.

77 Pius IX, Br. Octo­ber 1, 1861.

I ADORE Thee, O Word Incar­nate, true SON of GOD from all eter­ni­ty, and true Son of Mary ever Vir­gin in the full­ness of time. When I adore thy divine Per­son, and the Human­i­ty unit­ed to thy Divin­i­ty, I ven­er­ate the poor manger which wel­comed Thee when an Infant, and which was tru­ly the throne of thy love. I pros­trate myself before it with the sim­plic­i­ty of the shep­herds, with the faith of Joseph, with the love of Mary. I bow down in ven­er­a­tion of this pre­cious memo­r­i­al of our sal­va­tion with the same spir­it of mor­ti­fi­ca­tion, pover­ty and humil­i­ty with which Thou, though the LORD of heav­en and earth, didst  choose for thy­self a manger where­in to lay thy ten­der infant limbs. And Thou, O LORD, who in Thine Infan­cy didst deign to lay Thy­self in this manger, vouch­safe also to pour into my heart a drop of that joy to which the sight of Thy Love­ly Child­hood, and the mir­a­cles, which accom­pa­nied Thy Birth, gave rise.  By That Holy Birth, I now implore Thee to grant to all the world peace and good­will, and in the name of the whole human race, I ren­der thanks and hon­or to GOD The FATHER, and to GOD The HOLY SPIRIT, Who, with Thee live and reign One GOD, world with­out end. Amen.

78. Prayer.

 78 Leo XIII, Jan­u­ary 18, 1894.

MOST Dear LORD JESUS CHRIST, Who, being made an Infant for us, wast will­ing to be born in a cave, to free us from the dark­ness of sin, to draw us to Thy­self, and to inflame us with Thy Holy Love ; we adore Thee as our CREATOR and REDEEMER, we accept and choose Thee for our KING and LORD, and for trib­ute we offer Thee all of the affec­tions of our poor hearts.  Dear JESUS, our LORD and GOD, deign to accept this offer­ing, and that it may be wor­thy of Thine Accep­tance, par­don us our faults, enlight­en us, and inflame us with that Holy Fire, which Thou earnest to bring into the world and enkin­dle in men’s hearts.  May our souls thus become a per­pet­u­al sac­ri­fice in Thine Hon­or.  Grant that we may ever seek Thy Greater Glo­ry here on earth, so that we may one day come to rejoice in Thine Infi­nite Love­li­ness in Heav­en. Amen.

79. The Month of January.

i. 300 Days, each day, if the Devo­tions are pub­lic, in a church or pub­lic chapel, ii. 100 Days, each day, if pri­vate. iii. Ple­nary, on the last day of the month, for dai­ly atten­dance at pub­lic devo­tions. I, II, IV. (See

Instruc­tions.) 79 Leo XIII, Br, Decem­ber 21, 1901.

Some devo­tion must be prac­ticed dai­ly in hon­or of The Holy Name of Jesus.