Day Six Novena Invoking Our Lady and St. Gianna Molla
Blessed are the Pure of Heart
Reflection
To read St. Gianna’s letters is to understand that her activities were vastly similar to those of any lay person. But all that she did was done from purity of intention and with her vocation fully in mind. She enjoyed skiing, attending the symphony, and when unable to accompany her husband on business trips, kept up constant letter-writing. Even when her children were very young, Gianna cared for their spiritual training by praying with them in the evenings and encouraging an examination of conscience.
“‘Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God.’ St. Augustine explains that ‘the eyes by which God is seen are within the heart.’ As if he is speaking to our age he admonishes, ‘how foolish then are those who try to find God through the use of their bodily eyes!’ We must walk by faith not by sight. The purification of our hearts is the true end of our love which will allow us to see God clearly."
- “St. Augustine On the Beatitudes,” by Steven Jonathan Rummelsburg
Intention
Let us ask St. Gianna to help bolster our resolve
to practice the Beatitudes in our daily lives.
Novena Prayer to St. Gianna
(Composed by His Eminence, Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke)
Saint Gianna, heroically Christlike wife, mother and physician, I ask the help of your prayers, as I strive to follow your holy example in my physical and spiritual trials.
Help me, by your prayers, to recognize the suffering of the Cross as the way to pure and selfless love of God and my neighbor. May your practice of medicine with priestly care of both body and soul inspire physicians to see the Face of the suffering Christ in their patients.
May your loving acceptance of illness and death help patients to know and do God's will in all things, uniting their sufferings to the Passion and Death of Christ for the salvation of the world.
Saint Gianna, pray for us always that we may have a heart, meek and courageous, like the Heart of Jesus, in Whom we find our healing and strength.
We ask this through Christ Our Lord. AMEN
Invoking the Aid of Our Lady
Our Mother and Lady, dear Virgin of Montserrat! At your feet we kneel this day to offer you our prayers, because at the foot of the cross you consented to be our mother and from that hour you are the Mother of all men, shelter of sinners and our brave mediator. We cry to you for help, for we know you will never forsake any of your children who are in distress. Please come to our aid quickly! (Mention your intentions now and especially that many graces be bestowed upon Cardinal Burke.)
Help us, that like you, we live with the certainty that God is by our side and accompanies us with His divine providence. AMEN
Our Lady of Montserrat, pray for us!
St. Gianna Beretta Molla,
pray for us!