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Our Lady of Health
Vailankanni, India |
| The Heavenly Mother appeared to a lame hindhu boy. At Vailankanni there was a central high place called nadu thittu, where a banyan tree was giving shelter to the travelers in the scorching sun. The mother of the lame boy used to leave him everyday under thre tree to sell buttermilk to thirsty travelers. One Summer day, the heat was seen glowing from the sand. Sitting all alone, the boy suddenly saw a light brighter than the sun approaching towards him. Fear gripped his heart and he began to look for help. But soon his fear disappeared as he saw a lady in splendour with her Child in her arm. She smiled at him with great affection and said "Please give me some drink." The boy offering the drink, fell prostate before her. The vision continued. "I have chosen this place to favour my people." She then directed him to go to Nagapattinam and inform a certain Catholic gentleman to build a church on that spot. Sadness pervading on his face, he replied "How am I to walk, for I am lame?" The Heavenly Mother, smiled and said, "Arise and carry out my request." The boy felt new strength in the legs and he jumped with great joy. This first miracle spread confidence, love, and great devotion towards the Heavenly Mother among the people. They began to call her Mother of Health (Arokia Matha). The Catholic gentleman had a similar dream the previous night, in which the same request was made by the Heavenly Mother. A small church was erected on the spot indicated, and a beautiful statue, similar to the apparition, was placed on the altar. People soon began to gather from different places to praise and to obtain favors from their Mother of Health. |
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Novena
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| Oh Most Holy Virgin! You were chosen by the Most Adorable Trinity from all eternity to be the most pure Mother of Jesus. Permit me, your humble and devoted servant, to remind you of the joy received in the instant of the Most Sacred Incarnation of our Divine Lord and during the nine months you carried Him in your chaste womb. I wish most sincerely that I could renew, or even increase that joy, by the fervour of my Prayers. Oh! Tender Mother of the afflicted! Grant me under my present necessities that special protection You have promised to those who devoutly commemorate this ineffable joy. Relying on the infinite mercies of your Divine Son, trusting in the promise which He has made that those who ask should receive, and penetrated with confidence in your powerful prayers, I most humbly entreat you intercede for me. I beg you to obtain for me the favours which I petition for in this novena, if it be the Holy Will of God to grant them; to ask for me whatever graces I most stand in need of. (Here specify your requests) I desire by this novena, which I now offer in your honour, to prove the lively confidence I have in your intercession. Accept it, I beseech you, in honour of that supernatural love and joy, with which your Immaculate Heart was replenished during the abode of your divine Son in your womb; in veneration of which, I offer you the sentiments of my heart. (Repeat the Hail Mary nine times) and then say the following prayer:- Oh! Mother of God! accept these salutations in union with the respect and veneration with which the Angel Gabriel first hailed you, "Full of Grace" I wish most sincerely that they may become so many gems in the crown of your incidental glory, which will increase in brightness to the end of the world. I beseech you, Oh! comfortress of the afflicted, by the joy you received, when the word was made flesh, to obtain for me the favours and graces, which I have now implored through your powerful intercession. For this end I offer you all the good works which have even been performed in your honour. I most humbly entreat you for the love of the amiable Heart of Jesus, with which yours was ever so inflammed, to hear my humble prayers and to obtain my requests. - Amen. This Novena prayer will be helpful to those helpless people when everything fails, and who wants speedy and visible answers to their agony. |