Day 7: Immaculate Conception Novena

I would like to invite you throughout these next days to join in a Novena of the Immaculate Conception. Mary is the greatest woman in history. We can find in her the Mother we are most in need of day by day.

The Column of the Virgin with Child
Ara Coeli, Capitoline Hill, Rome, Italy

"...He has thrown down the rulers from their thronesbut lifted up the lowly..."

(Lk 2:53)

If you would have heard it said at the time of Our Lord that a Christian Church would stand above the ruins of Jupiter's Temple upon the  Capitoline I'm sure he would have been laughed at. But that is the Truth. Up above the long set of steps which lead to the bare facade stands the Ara Coeli Church, the Altar of the Heaven. It stands in the highest part of Rome, thus the most sacred. With a heart desirous of a New Evangelization let us shout up to Mary and ask her for her assistance as we face the difficulties day-by-day to bring Her Son's Beautiful Good News to all those we encounter.

Ave Maris Stella

Hail bright star of ocean,

God's own Mother blest,

Ever sinless Virgin,

Gate of heavenly rest

Taking that sweet Ave

Which from Gabriel came,

Peace confirm within us,

Changing Eva's name.

Break the captives' fetters,

Light on blindness pour,

All our ills expelling,

Every bliss implore.

Show thyself a Mother;

May the Word Divine,

Born for us thy Infant,

Hear our prayers through thine

Virgin all excelling,

Mildest of the mild,

Freed from guilt, preserve us,

Pure and undefiled.

Keep our life all spotless,

Make our way secure,

Till we find in Jesus

Joy for evermore

Through the highest heaven

To the Almighty Three

Father, Son, and Sprit

One same glory be,

Amen.

Group of Legion of Christ Brothers on a Church-a-thon
(www.churchathon.org)