Novena to Infant Jesus of Prague

O Jesus, Who has said ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you, through the intercession of Mary, Thy Most Holy Mother, I knock, I seek and I ask that my prayer may be granted. (your prayer request here)

O Jesus, Who has said all that you ask of the Father in My Name, He will will grant you, through the intercession of Mary, Thy Most Holy Mother, I humbly and urgently ask Thy Father in Thy Name, that my prayer be granted. (your prayer request here)

O Jesus, Who has said “Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass”, through the intercession of Mary, Thy Most Holy Mother, I feel confident that my prayer will be granted. (your prayer request here)

[say above novena once an hour for nine hours on a single day]

Prayer to Infant Jesus of Prague

O Child Jesus, I have recourse to you by your holy mother; I implore you to assist me in this necessity, for I firmly believe your Divinity can assist me. I confidently hope to obtain your holy grace. I love you with my whole heart and my whole soul. I am heartily sorry for my sins, and entreat you, O Good Jesus, to give me strength to overcome them.

I am firmly resolved never to offend you again and to suffer everything rather than displease you. Henceforth, I wish to serve you faithfully. For love of you, O Divine Child, I will love my neighbor as myself. O Jesus, Omnipotent Child, I entreat you again to come to my assistance in this necessity: [remember your petitions]

O Divine Child, and still the great, omnipotent God, I implore you through your most holy Mother’s most powerful intercession and through the boundless mercy of your omnipotence as God, for a favorable answer to the intention I so earnestly ask for in this novena.

Grant me the grace of possessing you eternally with Mary and Joseph, and of adoring you with your holy angels and saints.

O Divine Infant of Prague
Hear my prayer and grant my petition.

Let us pray:

O miraculous Infant Jesus, prostrate before your sacred image, we beseech you to cast a merciful look on our troubled hearts. Let your tender heart, so inclined to pity, be softened by our prayers, and grant us that grace for which we ardently implore you. Take from us all affliction and despair, all trials and misfortunes with which we are laden. For your Sacred Infancy’s sake hear our prayers and send us consolation and aid, that we may praise you with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

Mobile Wallpapers of Virgin Mary – Set 01 is here.

Click on the above thumbnails to see the virgin mary images in mobile wallpaper sizes i.e. 240×320 pixels. You can then right-click and save them to your computer and transfer to your mobile phone using a data cable. Thats it. Now you have your favorite mother mary image on your mobile phone to use as mobile wallpaper.

We had already given so many sets of Virgin Mary mobile pictures in WAP format here and in other dimensions. We are slowly going to convert all those posts into this model, in this new 240×320 dimensions and available for you for free download through internet browser to your computer and then to your cellphone.

Check back later to see the remaining sets of Virgin Mary mobile wallpapers in TBTG.

The Gospel presents why anyone who is materially rich to himself will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus had on many an occasion, categorically declared that ‘the rich’ will have a tough time finding God, the eternal Truth. All those parables with central characters of rich and the famous never find favor with Jesus to the extent that He even refuses to mention the rich and the mighty with a name…! He simply says ‘a rich man’, but the poor fellow lying at the rich man’s gate has a name…a face that Jesus readily recognizes as Lazarus.

The rich ruler who went up to Jesus and asked Him whether there was anything else he should do to attain the Kingdom of God, got a prompt reply, “you still lack one thing, sell everything you have and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me” (Lk. 18: 18 – 29). The Gospel says; the rich man left Jesus with a heavy heart, as he could not part with his fortune. For him the Kingdom of Heaven looked too small in stark contrast with the vast empire he owned.

A little later, in the Gospel of St. Luke we find the miraculous transformation of the ruthless tax collector, Zaccheus after Jesus entered his home. We find an excited Zaccheus announcing a rather shocking declaration in front of Jesus. “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount” (Lk.19:1-9).

How was that while the rich guy, who could not even think of selling his possessions and giving them to the poor, Zaccheus a notorious and ruthless tax collector could empty himself for Jesus probably in a matter of couple of hours? Remember, the rich ruler was not all a bad guy; rather he was a ‘good and decent gentleman’ of his time who apparently in full faith had been practicing the Commandments, that too from his childhood days. Even Jesus agrees that he lacks only one thing. Where as our hero, Zaccheus was corrupt to the core, a man even the society looked upon with contempt! What transpired during the meeting between Jesus and Zaccheus is shrouded in mystery! Luke is eloquently silent on what really happened in that short span of time while Jesus and his starving team of disciples probably were enjoying a rare and hearty meal!

It also is a bit strange that, Jesus, the chief guest of the occasion, never uttered a word of appreciation until Zaccheus made his announcement. But the response from the Lord was instantaneous, once the declaration was made; responding, “Today salvation has come to this house” (Lk.19:9-10). Jesus says the whole family is saved by the great sacrifice offered by the head of the family, Zaccheus. But then the declaration by Zaccheus, ensured a clean sweep of the entire fortune of his worldly holdings, reducing him to absolute zero as far his financial credibility and social acceptance are concerned! Where did he get the courage to disown his every savings for a man whom he had not met before and have had only very little knowledge? The onlookers would have been thoroughly baffled by the stupidity of his action, as we also would react very often!

But something deep within his soul, Zaccheus felt a transformation taking place which he himself could not decline…rather resist…! His decision came very swift…even without his being fully aware of what is happening around…and what could be the implications! He only knew that he need not have the worldly possessions but cannot afford to go on without the Lord who relieved him from his bondages.

In the case of the Rich Ruler, the events had a different complexion altogether. We find the Rich Ruler an enthusiastic seeker of the Kingdom of God. But his enthusiasm decelerates into a total withdrawal when he is told that he has a ‘heavy baggage’ which he needs to dispose off before he could enter the gates of eternal salvation.

‘The rich and the famous’ story in Luke 16:19-31, is another example where Jesus points his accusing finger on the rich. Jesus refuses to give a name to the rich man. We may feel that the rich man did not do anything really wrong. In fact, he even allowed the beggar Lazarus to be at his gate, which many of us would have not dared to do knowing well that he was a Leper, allowed him to pick up the bits and pieces of wasted food from the dining table of his durbar..! The rich man allowed Lazarus as much comfort as possible at his gate. He never chased him out but occasionally fed him even while his dogs were licking his sores! It is only natural that the funeral of Lazarus would have been fully sponsored by the rich man, which would have given him an even better image in the public eye.

Yet again Jesus sends out a strong warning to the rich and the mighty in St.Luke12:13 – 21, calling the rich man, ‘a fool!’ In fact, Jesus had as his friends quite a few people who were rich and famous. Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary, the man who was raised from the dead by the Lord, who it seems had inherited and owned a huge fortune, was one of Jesus’ close friends. The Joseph of Arimathea was also very rich and influential but his heart was very close to Jesus. He used his influence to get permission from Pontius Pilate, to remove Jesus’ body from the Cross and then went on to donate his new grave for the Son of God.

Jesus disapproved attachments to worldly belongings which distanced man from God, his creator. He knew, money, ‘Mammon’ is the root cause for all evils. In Luke 12: 15, Jesus made it amply clear “Then he said to them; watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Jesus knew very well that wealth makes a man blind to the love of God and to the love towards his fellow men. This is because the rich feel that they do not need anybody, not even God… because they replace God by money, fame, beauty etc., in short by ‘Mammon’. And then you cannot worship both Mammon and God together!

When Zaccheus made his intentions public, he was cutting loose the attachments to his riches. Jesus saw that moment of release from the clutches of slavery to the ‘Mammon ‘and declared him a winner.

If we could join with our whole heart prophet Habakkuk to pray without even feeling an iota of doubt or fear, “Though the fig trees does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails, and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in God, my savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to go on the heights!” (Habbakkuk 3:17- 19).

- – - written by Jose Mattappallil