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Mary is invoked as Our Lady of Perpetual Help because she affords help to Christians even in
all temporal needs. Although she is now enthroned in heaven, she still takes an interest in our misery and relieves
our wants.
Mary brings us help especially in our spiritual needs. She is a most merciful Mother who
rejects no sinner. She loveingly interests herself in our behalf and tries to reconcile us to her Son when we have sinned.
She assists us in temptation. She confirms us in good and obtains for us the grace of making progress in the path of
virtue, for she desires nothing more ardently than that we all become partakers of the fruits of redemption, won for us by
her Son. In our efforts to reach holiness, she supports us and obtains for us the grace of perseverance. We can
ask for nothing of her that will give her greater pleasure or that she will grant more willingly than the grace to do good.
Above all, Mary will assist us in the hour of death, which is a crucial moment in our life because
it is then that we prepare for the judgment. As the exalted Queen of Heaven she takes the souls of her faithful servents
under her protecting mantle, accompanies them to the judgment seat of her Son, and there she becomes their intercessor.
Mary is still the Mother of God in heaven as she was on earth; Jesus, Who is omnipotence itself,
remains her Son for all eternity. Her love for us is now even more intense and more compassionate, because she knows
our misery better in heaven. She obtains gentle rest for all who are laden with trouble and pain; she gives comfort
to the afflicted and healing to the sick.
Mary is our Mother of Perpetual Help, and therefore we should have an unbounded confidence in
her. She can help us, for her prayer is all-powerful with God, and she will help us, for she is our MOhter and she loves
us as her children.
Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Mother of Perpetual Help, behold at your feet a sinner who has recourse to you and has
confidence in you. Mother of mercy, have pity on me. I hear all calling you the refuge and hope of sinners.
Be, then, my refuge and my hope. For the love of Jesus Christ, your Son, help me.
Give your hand to a poor sinner who commends himself to you and dedicates himself to your
lasting service. I praise and thank God Who in His mercy has given to me this confidence in you, a sure pledge of my
eternal salvation.
It is true that in the past, I, miserable and wretched, have fallen into sin because I
did not have recourse to you. But I know that with your help I shall be able to overcome myself. I know, too,
that you will help me, if I commend myself to you. But I fear that in the occasions of sin, I may neglect to call upon
you and thus run the risk of being lost.
This grace, then, I seek of you; for this I implore you as much as I know how and as much
as I can: that in all the attacks of hell I may ever have recourse to you and say to you: "O Mary, help me. O Mother
of Perpetual Help, do not let me lose my God."
3 Hail Marys.
Mother of Perpetual Help, aid me ever to call upon your powerful name, since your name
is the help of the living and the salvation of the dying. Mary most pure, Mary most sweet, grant that your name from
this day forth may be to me the very breath of life. Dear Lady, do not delay in coming to help me when I call upon you,
for in all the temptations that trouble me, in all the needs of my life, I will ever call upon you, repeating: "Mary, Mary."
What comfort, what sweetness, what confidence, what consolation fills my soul at the sound
of your name, at the very thought of you! I give thanks to our Lord, Who for my sake has given you a name so sweet,
so lovable and so mighty. But I am not content only to speak your name; I will call upon you because I love you.
I want that love to remind me always to call you Mother of Perpetual Help.
3 Hail Marys.
Mother of Perpetual Help, you are the dispenser of every grace that God grants us in our
misery. For this reason He has made you so powerful, so rich, and so kind that you might help us in our needs.
You are the advocate of the most wretched and abandoned sinners, if they but come to you. Come to my aid, for I commend
myself to you.
In your hands I place my eternal salvation; to you I entrust my soul. Count me among
your most faithful servants. Take me under your protection; that is enough for me. If you protect me, I shall
fear nothing. I shall not fear my sins, because you will obtain for me their pardon and remission. Neither shall
I fear the evil spirts, because you are mightier than all the powers of hell.
I fear only that through my own negligence I may forget to recommend myself to you and
so lose my soul. My dear Lady, obtain for me the forgiveness of my sins, love for Jesus, final perseverance, and the
grace to have recourse to you at all times, Mother of Perpetual Help.
3 Hail Marys.
(Saint Alphonsus Liguori)
Litany to Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven,
Have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
Have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit,
Have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, One God,
Have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, pray for us.
Holy Mother of God, pray for us.
Holy Virgin of virgins, etc.
Mother of Christ,
Queen conceived without the stain of Original Sin,
Queen of the most Holy Rosary,
Our Lady of Perpetual Help,
O Mother of Perpetual Help, whose very name inspires confidence,
Come to my aid, O loving Mother.
That I may love God with all my heart,
Come to my aid, O loving Mother.
That I may in all things conform my will to that of thy Divine Son, etc.
That I may always shun sin, the only real evil,
That I may always remember my last end,
That I may often and devoutly receive the Sacraments,
That I may avoid every proximate occasion of sin,
That I may never neglect prayer,
That I may ever remember to invoke thee,
particularly in time of temptation,
That I may always be victorious in the hour of temptation,
That I may generously pardon my enemies,
That I may arise quickly, should I have the
misfortune of falling into mortal sin,
That I may courageously resisit the seductions of evil companions,
That I may be strong against my own inconstancy,
That I may not delay my conversion from day to day,
That I may labor zealously to eradicate my evil habits,
That I may ever love to serve thee,
That I may lead others to love and serve thee,
That I may live and die in the friendship of God,
In all necessities of body and soul,
In sickness and pain,
In poverty and distress,
In persecution and abandonment,
In grief and dereliction of mind,
In time of war, famine and contagion,
In every danger of sin,
When assailed by the evil spirits,
When tempted by the allurements of a deceitful world,
When struggling against the inclinations of my corrupt nature,
When tempted against the holy virtue of purity,
When death is nigh,
When the loss of my senses shall warn me that my
earthly career is at an end,
When the thought of my approaching dissolution shall
fill me with fear and terror,
When at the decisive hour of death, the evil spirit will
endeavor to plunge my soul into despair,
When the priest of God shall give me his last
absolution and his last blessing,
When my friends and relations, surrounding my bed,
moved with compassion, shall invoke thy clemency on my behalf,
When the world will vanish from my sight,
and my heart will cease to beat,
When I shall yield my soul into the hands of its Creator,
When my soul will appear before its Sovereign Judge,
When the irrevocable sentence will be pronounced,
When I will be suffereing in Purgatory,
and sighing for the vision of God,
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us.
Let Us Pray
O Almighty and merciful God, Who, in order to succor the human race, hast willed the Blessed
Virgin Mary to become the Mother of Thy only-begotten Son, grant, we beseech Thee, that by her intercession we may avoid the
contagion of sin and serve Thee with a pur heart, through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.
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