OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP NOVENA PRAYER

About Our Lady of Perpetual Help

The picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is said to have been brought from Crete to Rome in the 15th century by a merchant who, upon his dying, asked that Our Lady be placed in a Church for public veneration. The picture was enshrined in St. Matthew’s Church for 300 years. When the French invaded Rome, St. Matthew’s was destroyed and the Augustinian fathers transferred Our Lady to St. Eusebius. The image was moved to St. Mary of Posterula where it hung in a side chapel for forty years.
In 1853, the Redemptorists built a house in Rome with a small church, St. Alphonsus, adjacent to what was once St. Matthew’s. Pope Pius IX asked the Augustinians to give the picture to the Redemptorist’s and in 1866, during the transfer of Our Lady, a young boy was cured of meningitis and a young girl recovered use of her paralyzed leg.
The picture is painted on wood with a gold background in a flat style characteristic of an icon. The Blessed Mother wears a dark red dress with a blue mantle and veil. On the left is the archangel Michael holding a lance and sponge. On the right is the archangel Gabriel holding the cross and nails. The Child Jesus holds his mother’s hand with both of his hands. His sandal slips from His foot as He peers as the angels who hold the instruments of His passion. The Greek letters above and below each of the images translate Mother of God, Michael Archangel, Gabriel Archangel, and Jesus Christ, respectively. Mary’s head gently touches her Son’s yet her solemn gaze is toward those who view her. In 1870, the Redemptorist dedicated a small Church near Boston to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, receiving from Rome the first copy of the painting touched to the original. Since then, over two thousand three hundred copies of the original have been sent out from St. Alphonsus’s Church in Rome.
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Prayer

Novena Begins:	June 18
Feast Day:	June 27

Name meaning: Forever Helping

Patron Saint of: Italy, Redemptorist Order, Haiti, Philippines, Oklahoma City, South Dakota, Kansas, England, Georgia

Day 1 – Mother of Perpetual Help Novena

Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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.