We at Scala News are happy to bring to you the Online Novena in preparation for the Feast of Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 27th of June. This year in preparation for the feast we will have a 9-day novena with a reflection on the theme, “Mary, Star of Evangelisation in the Year dedicated to Mission and an Icon of Hope.”
As Redemptorists, this year, 2025 is dedicated to our Mission, our fundamental call to be Missionaries of Hope in the footsteps of the Redeemer. As Universal Church we celebrate the Holy and Jubilee Year of Hope, embracing our call to be pilgrims of Hope.
This year then for our novena we will reflect on Mary, Our Mother of Perpetual Help, in and through our Icon. We will reflect on Mary as the Star of Evangelisation and Mission and the meaning of mission as is brought out for us in the Icon. We will also reflect on Mary as the Icon of Hope in and through our Icon, as she offers us her Son, the First Missionary and the One who is our Hope.
We will reflect and pray each day during this 9-day novena with Fr. Joseph Ivel Mendanha, C.Ss.R., Consultor General, and grow deeper into our appreciation of our call as Christians to Mission and our missionary vocation as Redemptorists. May we all grow through this novena under the watchful gaze of Mary our Mother of Perpetual Help to be truly Pilgrims of Hope.
Introduction to the Novena (17 June)
- Day one (18 June): Mary, Mother of Jesus, the First Missionary
When we come to gaze at the Icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, we cannot but be drawn to the One who is our Way, Truth and Life. Jesus Our Lord and Saviour, being held in the left arm of his Mother Mary.
Our Icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help thus draws us to reflect on the very core of what it means to be a missionary and what is mission for all of us Redemptorists and the entire Redemptorist family and for all the baptised who, by nature of our Baptism, are called to Mission.
We pray today on this first day of our Novena, seeking the intercession of Mary, Mother of the Missionary himself, Jesus, that all of us Christians as disciples of the Lord Jesus, the missionary, and each of us in the Redemptorist family, may pray and contemplate on the Mission of Jesus, so that we may grow to be more and more like him in emptying ourselves, moving out of our comfort zones to give ourselves to the mission of love of the Father in Jesus our Redeemer.
Our Mother of Perpetual Help, Star of Evangelisation and Mission, pray for us.
2. Day two (19 June): Mary, Her own call to mission
Today our eyes are naturally drawn to Mary the Mother of Jesus the Missionary. Like Jesus who received a mission from his Father, Mary too receives a mission from the Father. The Angel Gabriel depicted in our Icon bowing in adoration to Jesus and to his Mother Mary, came to Mary with the greeting, “Hail, Mary, full of grace!
Mary was invited to be part of the Mission of the Father by giving herself totally to the Father in being the Mother of his son Jesus who would bring his love to the world. Mary’s unique and singular mission was to offer herself totally to the plan of God.
In the nature of mission, she is invited to give up, to empty herself, to leave her comfort zone of security and certainty, of total trust in the plan of God the details of which she will never be given or told but must allow herself to be led daily and gradually into the plan of God. As Mother she had to unite herself totally to her son and his mission of saving love and that would demand sacrifices on her part which she responded with the same fidelity and selflessness that she showed at the annunciation.
Mary, teaches all of us, Christians called to live our mission, as well as Redemptorists on Mission, that our yes on the day of our Baptism, our consecration as Redemptorists at our First Profession, your vows on the day of your marriage, is not a one moment event but a daily self-giving and self-emptying to the plan of God for us. Mary, said Yes, and responded daily, we too said our yes and we too have to respond daily to being missionaries and to living the mission, to being mission. Our Mother of Perpetual Help, Star of Evangelisation and Mission pray for us.
3. Day three (20 June): Mary, offers us Jesus by pointing him to us
Today we reflect on Mary, who in the Icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help presents and offers Jesus, the Missionary of God’s love, to us.
The Icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help is a type of icon called an Hodegetria Icon: She who shows the way. The Virgin holds the child in her arms presenting him to the world for adoration. In this Icon Mary’s right hand not only upholds the hands of Jesus, but also points to Him: The Mother’s hand does not embrace the Son’s hand, but rather, it is straightened in a gesture pointing to the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
St Alphonsus always insisted that anyone with a strong devotion to Mary will always be close to her son and so be saved by her son. Mary’s mission is linked to that of her son and so she constantly points us to him, the Missionary of God’s love. Her gentle words to us are, “Do whatever he tells you!” The words to the servants at the wedding feast of Cana in Galilee. These words are not directed to us.
As we gaze at the Icon, our eyes drawn to those of Mary, she points us to her son Jesus our Lord, the way, the truth and the life, the missionary of God’s love, and we almost hear her saying to us to do what he tells you. What he tells us is to embrace his mission of love, “Whatsoever you do to the least of my sisters and brothers you do unto me.” (Mt 25:40).
4. Day four (21 June): Mary, Patroness of all Missionaries
Today we reflect on Mary, the Star of Evangelisation and the Patron of Missionaries. We turn our gaze to Mary in the Icon. We notice that there are two stars on her head. Let us understand the meaning of these stars.
In the Icon, the eight-pointed star on the veil above Mary’s forehead is a reference to the star of Bethlehem, guiding the Magi to Jesus, and thus announcing Mary to be a guide towards Christ. The Star is also a sign of Divine presence that permeates her person. There is also a cross shaped star on the Virgin’s veil, emphasizing the participation of the Mother of God in the mission of her Son to Redeem the world.
The Stars on Mary’s head reveal her as the one who is the Star of Evangelisation and Mission as she constantly guides us, leads us, points us to Jesus her Son and his Mission. She is thus the patroness of all missionaries.
Our Mother of Perpetual Help, Star of Evangelisation and Mission pray for us.
5. Day five (22 June): Mary, Mother of Jesus, Our Hope
We reflect today on the Icon itself and turn naturally to the One who is our Hope, Jesus himself, at the very centre of the Icon. Let us listen to the words of St Paul who says, “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39). Yes, the Icon in as much as it is about Mary, Our Mother of Perpetual Help is all about Jesus, who is the reason for our faith, hope and charity.
Our Icon then is an Icon of Hope because Jesus, God with us, Emmanuel has come to offer us hope, the hope of salvation and redemption from sin. He, sent by the Father to free us from sin, is our way, our truth and our life. To see him is to see the Father and thus to believe in him is to believe in the Father who sent him.
In our Icon, Jesus, clothed in the colours of Divinity and humanity reveals to us the mystery what he is both God and human and so offers us a share in his own divine nature. He became one of us as a human being so that we can share in his divine life. This is the wonder of our hope. This amazing mystery of Emmanuel, God with us, as our hope.
We turn to Mary Our Mother of Perpetual Help, the Mother of Jesus our Hope and seek her intercession. Mary Mother of Perpetual Help and our Mother of Hope, intercede for us. Amen
6. Day six (23 June): Mary, A Pilgrim of Hope
Our late Holy Father Francis in his bull inaugurating the Holy Year of Hope said, “Hope finds its supreme witness in the Mother of God. In the Blessed Virgin, we see that hope is not naive optimism but a gift of grace amid the realities of life.
Like every mother, whenever Mary looked at her Son, she thought of his future. Surely, she kept pondering in her heart the words spoken to her in the Temple by the elderly Simeon: “This child is destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed, so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Lk 2:34-35).
From the first moment of the annunciation and incarnation of the Lord, the visitation of her cousin Elisabeth and her song of hope in the Magnificat, through the birth of her son Jesus, his presentation in the temple, his loss and finding in the temple, he growth as a young boy to his life as a Missionary of God’s love leading to his death and her being named as the Mother of all his disciples unto the moment of Pentecost, Mary lived as a pilgrim of Hope.
We learn from her; we draw from her for our lives in this Jubilee year of Hope that we too like her with her intercession for us will walk as pilgrims of Hope through the trials and challenges of life focused on her Son Jesus our Hope.
Mary Mother of Perpetual Help and our Mother of Hope, intercede for us. Amen.
7. Day seven (24 June): Mary, offer us Jesus, who is our Hope
We have been reflecting these days on the theme of the Jubilee and Holy year, Pilgrims of Hope. We have seen how Jesus is Our Hope and how Mary is the star of Hope and perfect example of a Pilgrim of hope. Today we delve deeper into the mystery present for us in the Icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, she offers us, presents to us, draws us to Jesus who is our Hope.
When we gaze at the Icon our eyes are drawn to Mary, our Mother of Perpetual Help. As her eyes meet our eyes, her gaze of tenderness and mercy seems to draw us to her and yet she gently points us to her Son Jesus. This she does very gently as she knows from her own life that Jesus her son was sent by the Father for the salvation of all.
We come today with our guilt and shame, our failures and weaknesses, above all our sin. We come to the Mother of Hope, the Mother of Perpetual Help who does not condemn us or judge us, neither does she turn us away or abandon us but rather gently offers us and points us to her son Jesus who is our Hope. He is our reconciliation and our peace, our grace and our forgiveness, in him and through him we have our sins washed away and cleansed and the new life of grace offered for us.
Let us pray together today for the grace of conversion for each of us and for all of us who approach the Icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help in the words of the Hail Mary… Our Mother of Perpetual Help, Mother of Hope, pray for us.
8. Day eight (25 June): Mary, Patroness of all who Bring Hope to people
Our late Holy Father Pope Francis in the Bull for the Holy Year said, “During the Holy Year, we are called to be tangible signs of hope for those of our brothers and sisters who experience hardships of any kind.”
We see in Mary, how she despite her own situation of pregnancy went to assist her cousin Elizabeth who was well into her pregnancy thus a sign of hope to her cousin, she brought Jesus to her cousin. Mary was a sign of hope to the embarrassed couple at their wedding day when they ran short of wine and sought her son’s intervention to work his first miracle at Cana of Galilee. She was a sign of hope with the frightened disciples in the upper room waiting the gift of the Spirit of the Lord at the first Pentecost.
Pope Francis listed out different groups of people so in need of hope today and he called on every Christian and in fact all of humanity including governments to respond to being sings of hope to so many struggling without Hope in our world today.
What can you and I do? We can first be pilgrims and missionaries of hope as we intercede for each of these groups of people and creation. We can then do what we can in our own little way to support, care for, comfort, encourage, be present to, visit, be part of movements and efforts for peace, human dignity, and integrity of creation. Whatever we do, the tiniest bit is a contribution to building a community of hope.
Our Mother of Perpetual Help, Mother of Hope, pray for us.
9. Day Nine (26 June): Praying and venerating the Icon of Hope, Our Mother of Perpetual Help
We come before this Icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help with humility and simplicity of heart; for the icon enters our everyday life and becomes the altar before which we offer our prayers with fervour and love. The Icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help was not written or painted for beauty and artistic delight as beautiful as the Icon is. It was written for Prayer and contemplation so that the pilgrim coming before the Icon be drawn to contemplate the mystery and eventually live the mystery in his or her personal life.
Prayer before this icon leads one towards an individual transformation, inner healing from sin, and towards reconstruction of spiritual beauty in humanity. We begin to reflect in ourselves again the light of Christ’s face and we become transparent to the Spirit and filled with the Compassion of the Father as we radiate the Hope that the Father offered us in Jesus through the Spirit, Son of Mary. The result of such prayer and veneration is always an immense JOY the fruit of being bathed in the glory of the Lord emanating from the Icon.
We Redemptorists here from the shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help in Rome with the original Icon invite you in this Jubilee and Holy Year of Hope to gaze into the icon again, look at it, contemplate it, and be drawn into the mystery of God that it represents.
May our Mother point us each day to the mystery of God, Father Son and Spirit whom we celebrate and honour each day of our lives. Our Mother of Perpetual Help, Mother of all Redemptorist Missionaries and Mother of Hope, pray for us.
10. Feast Day (27 June): Thanking God for the gift of Mary as Our Mother of Perpetual Help.
We turn our gaze to her and we take up our Redemptorist Constitutions and Statutes and turn to no 20 of our Constitutions. This constitution brings together beautifully the aspects of Hope and Mission in the life of the Redemptorist Missionary. Let us read Constitution no 20 today on her feast day and see how beautifully she fulfils this role as Missionary of Hope in the attributes that form the first part of this Constitution.
Strong in Faith… Her faith was deeply profound and unwavering. Rejoicing in Hope… she was a joyful pilgrim of hope, the Hope she carried in Jesus her son. Burning with charity… she lived as a woman of love and other centeredness. On fire with zeal… she was a passionate and committed disciple of her son Jesus. In humility of heart… he was the humble servant girl, handmaid of the Lord. Persevering in prayer… her life was a life of prayerful contemplation of the mystery of her Son Jesus.
Let us pray today to Our Mother of Perpetual Help for all of us Redemptorist Missionaries, our entire Redemptorist Family of Lay Missionaries, Associates, Collaborators, our Sisters both cloister and apostolic that we may truly be pilgrims of hope in the footsteps of the Redeemer the first missionary of Hope in the world and live our Mission being Mission ourselves.
MAY OUR MOTHER OF PERPETUAL HELP INTERCEDE FOR US!
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