Laity Gathering

Preparation 3 - Novena Prayers & Reflections:

Preparing the International Encounter of

La Salette Laity (Month of August 2011)

Instructions: Each day of the novena there is a theme, a Bible reading, hymns, litanies, intercessions, and a question for group or personal reflection. The idea is to finish the novena prior to the encounter in France. The novena is a spiritual preparation and a way of journeying with all the participants.

“YOU ARE MY BELOVED,
MY FAVOR RESTS ON YOU”

This is the still, small Voice of Love. Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, "Prove that you are a good person." Another voice says, "You'd better be ashamed of yourself." There also is a voice that says, "Nobody really cares about you," and one that says, "Be sure to become successful, popular, and powerful." But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, "You are my Beloved, my favor rests on you." That's the voice we need most of all to hear. To hear that voice, however, requires special effort; it requires solitude, silence, and a strong determination to listen. That's what prayer is. It is listening to the voice that calls us "my Beloved." (Henri Nouwen)

GOD WHISPERS

Not long ago I heard a story about a young man and an old preacher. The young man had lost his job and didn’t know which way to turn. So he went to see the old preacher. Pacing about the preacher’s study, the young man ranted about his problem. Finally he clenched his fist and shouted, “I’ve begged God to say something to help me. Tell me, Preacher, why doesn’t God answer?” The old preacher, who sat across the room, spoke something in reply - something so hushed it was indistinguishable. The young man stepped across the room. “What did you say?” he asked. The preacher repeated himself, but again in a tone as soft as a whisper. So the young man moved closer until he was leaning on the preacher’s chair. “Sorry,” he said. “I still didn’t hear you.” With their heads bent together, the old preacher spoke once more. “God sometimes whispers,” he said, “so we will move closer to hear Him.” This time the young man heard and he understood. We all want God’s voice to thunder through the air with the answer to our problem. But God’s is the still, small voice … the gentle whisper. Perhaps there’s a reason. Nothing draws human focus quite like a whisper. God’s whisper means I must stop my ranting and move close to Him, until my head is bent together with His. And then, as I listen, I will find my answer. Better still, I find myself closer to God.

DAILY INVOCATION

LEADER: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

ALL: AMEN.

LEADER: Together, we pray . . . .

Opening prayer for each day

Dear loving Mother, Our Lady of La Salette, you tearfully pleaded and appealed to us to be reconciled with God, with one another, with all of creation and with all of humanity. We humbly pray that you intercede on our behalf that God may grant us the grace to follow you in the spiritual journey to a reconciled life and a reconciling way of life by “keeping, treasuring, and pondering all things in our hearts”. We entrust ourselves, La Salette Fathers, La Salette Brothers and La Salette Lay Associates to your maternal care, honoring you as our inspiration in becoming faithful Stewards of the Charism, Spirituality, and Mission of Reconciliation.

You may wish to download the NOVENA

in Adobe Acrobat File: :: Booklet Printing ::

or :: Letter-Sized Printing ::

FIRST DAY:
Do not be afraid. Draw near

“Do not be afraid, Mary” (Luke 1: 30)

Mary was told, and we are told, not to be afraid precisely because, in spite of faith, so often we are afraid. Fear, at its core, is a faith issue. Are we so accustomed to living in fear that we have become deaf to the voice that says: “Do not be afraid?” Throughout scriptures, this reassuring voice, which repeats over and over again: “Do not be afraid, have no fear” is the voice we most need to hear.

Response:

“Do not be afraid”

LEADER:

» God said to Abram when God came to Abram

in a vision. ®
» God said to Hagar as God heard Ishmael, son of
Hagar and Abraham, crying in the wilderness. ®
» God said to Isaac before God blessed Isaac with a multitude of descendants. ®
» God said to Moses before Moses and his companions found themselves wandering through the desert for 40 years. ®
» The angel of the Lord said to Joseph in the Gospel of Matthew as Joseph contemplated leaving a pregnant Mary. ®
» The angel Gabriel said to Zechariah, spouse of Elizabeth, when Zechariah was told he was father to the prophet John the Baptist. ®
» Jesus said to his disciples the night before he was executed. ®

LEADER:

These words changed the world. These words marked a point where something dramatic and life changing was about to happen.

LITANY OF HUMILITY

LEADER:

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.

Response:

Lord Jesus, deliver me.

LEADER:

From the desire of being esteemed; ®
From the desire of being loved; ®
From the desire of being extolled; ®
From the desire of being honored; ®
From the desire of being praised; ®
From the desire of being preferred to others; ®
From the desire of being consulted; ®
From the desire of being approved; ®
From the fear of being humiliated; ®
From the fear of being despised, ®
From the fear of suffering rebukes; ®
From the fear of being calumniated; ®
From the fear of being forgotten; ®
From the fear of being ridiculed; ®
From the fear of being wronged; ®
From the fear of being suspected. ®

LEADER:

(John 16: 33): I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

HYMN (Alternating)

God is Love. His Love endures forever
It’s the constant whisper heard from time’s beginning.
It’s the light that spills across the universe.
All creation finds its own way of revealing
what is carried on the wind around the earth.

We are fragile, so He reaches down to help us.
We’re in chains, and He won’t rest until we’re free.
We are lost, and so He makes a way to save us.
Yet, it’s hard to comprehend the mystery.

God is love! Won’t you open up your heart and believe?
God is love! There is hope for everyone who receives,
the grace He lavishes on us. God is love!

Every one He heals could gladly tell the story,
those who trust Him when He says, “I am the way.”
It is written at the cross in crimson letters.
And it rolls like thunder from the empty grave.

God is love! Won’t you open up your heart and believe?
God is love! There is hope for everyone who receives,
the grace He lavishes on us. God is love!

When the hurt you feel is so real you can’t go on,
just remember, you are in His hands and He’ll never let you go.

God is love! Won’t you open up your heart and believe?
God is love! There is hope for everyone who receives,
the grace He lavishes on us. God is love!

Make it right/make it count moment

“LOVE CASTS OUT FEAR”:

DO I BELIEVE IN A GOD WHO CONTROLS AND

PUNISHES US OR IN A GOD OF LOVE AND MERCY?

DAILY INVOCATION

LEADER: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

SECOND DAY:
“Do you say your prayers well,
my children?”

(Silent reading and moments of reflection)

Dearly Beloved: You may not know me, but I know everything about you ~ Psalm 139:1…I know when you sit down and when you rise up ~ Psalm 139:2…I am familiar with all your ways ~ Psalm 139:3… Even the very hairs on your head are numbered ~ Matthew 10:29-31.…For you were made in my image ~ Genesis 1:27…In me you live and move and have your being ~ Acts 17:28… Your Loving Father, Almighty God.

LEADER: Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without heart. Prayer does not require words… Just the passion of the heart. Prayer is God’s passionate Longing for us and our Hunger Thirst for God. Just like the Lord’s prayer….

ALL: "Our Father who art in heaven".

LEADER: You belong to God. He created you and watches over you. He wants you to live with Him in heaven forever.

ALL: "hallowed be Thy name,"

LEADER: You pray that God will be respected by all

ALL: "Thy kingdom come,"

LEADER: You pray that God will be loved and worshiped throughout the world

ALL: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,"

LEADER: You pray that God's laws will be followed on earth as willingly as they are followed in heaven

ALL: "Give us this day our daily bread,"

LEADER: You ask for your spiritual and physical needs

ALL: "and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,"

LEADER: You ask God forgive your sins you have committed against His laws and promise Him that you will forgive people who cause you harm

ALL: "and lead us not into temptation,"

LEADER: You ask God to keep you safe from all people and places that may lead you to sin

ALL: "but deliver us from evil,"

LEADER: You ask God to protect you from both physical and spiritual harm.

LEADER: This is then our constant, persistent and relentless prayer attitude.

ALL: Abba Father, Lord Jesus, in the Spirit, one God the Abba Father, Christ Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. Here I am Lord, listening, open to Your words, and though I stumble and fall, I keep my focus on Your presence. In Jesus name I ask and pray, that You bless me and mine for fulfillment of Your will and that You create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit within me ; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

PRAYERS:

Salvation: Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. (Psalm 51:1-4; 10-12).

In our struggless with evil and sin: Dear God, You know the struggles I am having with ongoing sin. Please forgive me my sins. Please deliver me from bondage to sin and create in me a pure heart to live only for you. I rededicate my life to you. Please send your Holy Spirit in all His power to help me live my life exclusively for you. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Wisdom and Direction: Dear God, You know the situation I face. I don’t know what to do. I release my need and my anxieties to you right now and ask that you give me your peace that surpasses understanding, and the wisdom how to resolve my circumstances. Enable me to patiently await your timing for the resolution of the problem and what I need to be doing on my own in the meantime. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Physical Healing: Dear God, I know that you can heal me. You know the pain I am in. I ask that you heal me from my sickness, whether it be divinely or through doctors and medicine. I also know that your will is made perfect through me when I am surrendered to you. If your perfect will does not include my healing, then I ask you to give me the joyful patience of affliction and the peace of heart to glorify you through my illness. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Faith & Trust: Dear God, Please give me the faith and trust in you for the circumstance I’m facing.

Please develop my faith to think and act in line with your ability to provide, not mine. Please enable me to trust you with all my heart and not to lean on my own understanding. Please teach me to see the incomparably great power you have and not limit myself to my abilities.In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

(Make it Right/Make it count moment)

WHAT ARE MY MOMENTS OF PERSONAL PRAYER LIKE?DO I MANAGE TO MAKE MY ENTIRE DAY A PRAYER,LISTENING TO GOD’S VOICE IN EVERY EVENT AND IN EVERY PERSON?

:: Next Day ::

A Grace called La Salette

On Saturday, September 19, 1846, a “Beautiful Lady” appeared to two children, both from Corps, in the French Alps: Maximin GIRAUD, eleven years old, and Melanie CALVAT, almost fifteen, who were watching their herds on the slope of Mont Planeau (alt. approx. 6,000 ft.), not far from the village of La Salette. In a little hollow, they suddenly noticed a globe of fire —“as though the sun had fallen on that spot.” Within the dazzling light they gradually perceived a woman, seated, her elbows’ resting on her knees and her face buried in her hands.

The Beautiful Lady rose, and said to the children, in French:

Come closer, my children; don’t be afraid. I am here to tell you great news.

She took a few steps towards them. Maximin and Melanie, reassured, ran down to her and stood very close to her.

The Beautiful Lady wept all the time she spoke. She was tall, and everything about her radiated light. She wore the typical garb of the women of the area: a long dress, an apron around her waist, a shawl crossed over her breast and tied behind her back, and a close-fitting bonnet. Along the hem of her shawl she wore a broad, flat chain, and from a smaller chain around her neck there hung a large crucifix. Under the arms of the cross there were, to the left of the figure of Christ, a hammer and, to the right, pincers. The radiance of the entire apparition seemed to emanate from this crucifix, and shone like a brilliant crown upon the Beautiful Lady’s head. She wore garlands of roses on her head, around the edge of her shawl, and around her feet.

The Beautiful Lady spoke to the two shepherds, first in French, in these words:

If my people refuse to submit, I will be forced to let go the arm of my Son. It is so strong and so heavy, I can no longer hold it back. How long a time I have suffered for you! If I want my Son not to abandon you, I am obliged to plead with him constantly. And as for you, you pay no heed! However much you pray, however much you do, you will never be able to recompense the pains I have taken for you.

I gave you six days to work;
I kept the seventh for myself,
and no one will give it to me.
This is what makes the arm of my Son so heavy. And then, those who drive the carts cannot swear without throwing in my Son’s name. These are the two things that make the arm of my Son so heavy.

If the harvest is ruined, it is only on account of yourselves.
I warned you last year with the potatoes. You paid no heed.
Instead, when you found the potatoes spoiled, you swore, and threw In my Son’s name.
They are going to continue to spoil, and by Christmas this year there will be none left.

Melanie was intrigued by the expression, pommes de terre. In the local dialect, potatoes were called las truffas. She looked inquiringly at Maximin, but the Beautiful Lady anticipated her question.

Don’t you understand, my children? Let me find another way to say it.

Using the local dialect, she repeated what she had said about the harvest, and then went on:

If you have wheat, you must not sow it. Anything you sow the vermin will eat, and whatever does grow will fall into dust when you thresh it. A great famine is coming. Before the famine comes, children under seven will be seized with trembling and die in the arms of the persons who hold them. The rest will do penance through the famine. The walnuts will become worm-eaten; the grapes will rot.

At this point the Beautiful Lady confided a secret to Maximin, and then to Melanie. Then she went on:

If they are converted, rocks and stones will turn into heaps of wheat, and potatoes will be self-sown in the fields.

Do you say your prayers well, my children?

“Hardly ever, Madam,” the two shepherds answered candidly.

Ah, my children, you should say them well, at night and in the morning, even if you say only an Our Father and a Hail Mary when you can’t do better.
When you can do better, say more.

In the summer, only a few elderly women go to Mass. The rest work on Sundays all summer long. In the winter, when they don’t know what to do, they go to Mass just to make fun of religion. In Lent they go to the butcher shops like dogs.

Have you never seen wheat gone bad, my children?

They answered, “No, Madam.”

The Beautiful Lady then spoke to Maximin.

But you, my child, surely you must have seen some once, at Coin, with your father. The owner of the field told your father to go and see his spoiled wheat. And then you went, and you took two or three ears of wheat in your hands, you rubbed them together,and it all crumbled Into dust. While you were on your way back and you were no more than a half hour away from Corps, your father gave you a piece of bread and said to you: “Here, my child, eat some bread while we still have it this year; because I don’t know who will eat any next year
if the wheat keeps up like that.”

“Oh, yes,” answered Maximin, “now I remember. Just then, I didn’t remember it.”

The Beautiful Lady then concluded, not in dialect, but in French:

Well, my children, you will make this known to all my people.

Then she moved forward, stepped over the stream and without turning back, she gave the injunction:

Very well, my children, make this known to all my people.

The vision climbed the steep path which wound its way towards the Collet (little neck). Then she rose into the air as the children caught up to her. She looked up at the sky, then down to the earth. Facing southeast, “she melted into light.” The light itself then disappeared.

On September 19, 1851, after “a precise and rigorous investigation” of the event, the witnesses, the content of the message, and its repercussions, Philibert de Bruillard, Bishop of Grenoble, pronounced his judgment in a pastoral letter of instruction. He declared that “the apparition of the Blessed Virgin to two shepherds, September 19, 1846, on a mountain in the Alps, located in the parish of La Salette, ... bears within itself all the characteristics of truth and that the faithful have grounds for believing it to be indubitable and certain.”

In another pastoral letter, dated May 1, 1852, the Bishop of Grenoble announced the construction of a Shrine on the mountain of the apparition, and went on to add:

“However important the erection of a Shrine may be, there is something still more important, namely the ministers of religion destined to look after it, to receive the pious pilgrims, to preach the word of God to them, to exercise towards them the ministry of reconciliation, to administer the Holy Sacrament of the altar, and to be, to all, the faithful dispensers of the mysteries of God and the Spiritual treasures of the Church.

“These priests shall be called the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette; their institution and existence shall be, like the Shrine itself, an eternal monument, a perpetual remembrance, of Mary’s merciful apparition.”

The first priests imbued with the spirit of the Apparition and who devoted themselves to the service of the pilgrims, felt from the beginning the call to and the need for religious life. Six of them pronounced their first vows on February 2,1858, in accordance with their provisional Constitutions, adapted in 1862 to include Brothers. From that time, Fathers and Brothers have constituted one religious family. The first General Chapter, in 1876, framed the Constitutions, and gave the Congregation a clearly apostolic thrust. The “Laudatory Decree” (1879) and the Decree of Approval (1890) placed the Institute directly under the authority of the Holy See, which in 1926 gave final approval to the Constitutions.

And now most recently, over a period of several years, our religious family has undertaken the revision and updating of its Constitutions and Capitular Norms, in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, and in keeping with papal exhortations and directives regarding the renewal of Religious Life in the modem world. This work is the fruit of prayer and meditation, of the fidelity and experience of the communities and members of every province. Here, then, are presented the Constitutions of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette, and the Capitular Norms. They are the means by which the Spirit which gives life to the Church calls us, day by day, to the perfection of love in Christ, in the service of all his people, to the glory of God the Father.

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