DAY 2: IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
33 DAYS PREPARATORY PRAYER FOR THE RE-CONSECRATION OF NIGERIA TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY.
DAY 2
(September 9)
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
V. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
V. Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful.
R. And enkindle in them the fire of your love.
V. Send forth your spirit and they shall be created.
R. And you shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray: Oh God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in his consolation, through Chris our Lord. Amen.
HYMN TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.
1. O come to the throne of grace,
O come to the heart most pure!
To Mary, our hope of life,
In whom salvation is sure.
O Lady of Fatima, hail!
Immaculate Mother of grace;
O, pray for us, help us today,
Thou hope of the human race!
2. Immaculate Heart! we kneel
To consecrate all to thee:
The present, its pain and joy—–
The future, all it may be.
O Lady of Fatima, hail!
Immaculate Mother of grace;
O, pray for us, help us today,
Thou hope of the human race!
OPENING PRAYER.
O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin prepared a worthy dwelling for your Son, grant, we pray, that as you preserved her from every stain by virtue of the death of your Son, which you foresaw, so, through her intercession, we, too, may be cleansed and admitted to your presence. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen
ROSARY
SCRIPTURE READING: Gen 3:9-15, 20
After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree, the Lord God called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.” Then he asked, “who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!” The man replied, “The woman whom you put here with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.” The Lord God then asked the woman, “Why did you do such a thing?” The woman answered, “The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.”
Then, the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you shall be banned from all the animals, and from all the wild creatures; on your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.”
The man called his wife Eve, because she became the mother of all the living.
The word of the Lord.
REFLECTION:
In the dogma of Immaculate Conception, we recall the victory of God over Satan. The focus of that celebration is not so much on Mary as it is on God, who preserved her from the acquisition of the Original Sin. This is not stated verbatim in the scriptures but we can get that idea from some biblical and extra-biblical texts. The greeting of the angel to Mary, “Hail, full of grace” (Luke 1:28) is an indication of that. Remember that God created everything good (Gen 1:31) and God placed man at the center of the good creation (Gen 2:15) but man lost the state of grace due to sin (Gen 3:1-24). So why should the angel still greet Mary as full of grace? Beyond that, Jesus Christ is God who took our nature as man (Phil 2:7) but without sin (Heb 4:15). If everyone shares in Adam’s sin by birth, Jesus would only have been free of that sin if Mary was preserved from sin. Those are the wonders of the Lord and they are marvelous in our eyes (Ps 118:23). Remember that that was also the condition in which Adam and Eve were created but by the abuse of their freewill, they fell out of that grace. Mary on the other hand chose to cooperate with God (Luke 1:38). We too can chose either to cooperate with God and strive after holiness of life or remain and perish in sin. May the spirit of God inspire and sustain in you, the decision to follow him faithfully in holiness of life. Amen.
INTERCESSORY PRAYER:
a. For our families.
b. For the Church.
c. For Nigeria.
PRE-CONSECRATION PRAYER OF NIGERIA TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
Lord God, we thank you for the gift of our country Nigeria. You made it a fertile ground for the work of missionaries, guided by the power of the Holy Spirit. Your Word is now firmly established in our land such that we have not only become missionaries to ourselves but also to other nations.
As your Son Jesus Christ reposed in the arms of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so have we reposed Nigeria in her arms by making her our Patron Saint. As a nation, we are going through turbulent moments, with hunger, pain, killing, kidnapping and many other atrocities being committed against each other. We believe that never was it known that anyone who fled to her protection, implored her help or sought her intercession was left unaided. And so we come before her again, sinful and sorrowful, and desiring to re-consecrate Nigeria to her Immaculate Heart. May she intercede on our behalf to stabilize our ship of state.
We present ourselves as a nation, renouncing our past faults and offences. We resolve to imitate the exemplary life of our Mother Mary. Help us to renew and rectify the vows of our Baptism; rejecting Satan and all his works and empty promises. Obtain for us the grace for a perfect consecration of our nation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We seek her continual intercession and maternal protection.
May this this re-consecration bring forth peace, unity and tranquility to the nation and foster communion and service so as to radiate the joy of the Gospel for the common good of our country.
We make our prayer through your son, our Lord Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen
Our Lady Queen of Nigeria, Pray for us.
Our Lady of Fatima, Pray for us.
CONCLUDING PRAYER
O Lord our God, heal in us the wounds of that fault from which in a singular way you preserved Blessed Virgin Mary in her Immaculate Conception. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God forever and ever. Amen.
