Novena for the Immaculate Conception

O PURE and Immaculate Virgin, who wert dignified by thy Divine Son with that happy privilege of exemption from sin, which the God of all sanctity alone could claim, I commemorate, with the liveliest gratitude towards thy Divine Benefactor, that happy moment in which thou didst begin to live to grace. I return thanks to Him, who in the instant of thy Immaculate Conception, began to do great things to thee. (Luke i. 49.) O incorruptible Ark, which was prepared to enclose the true Manna descended from heaven! O sanctuary of the Incarnate Word! thou art among the children of Adam like the lily among thorns—thou art the most privileged of all creatures, the parent of all virgins, the most perfect image of thy Divine Creator. Thou didst not partake of that general misery, in those fatal evils which overwhelmed mankind. Ah! since thou wert chosen among all creatures to bring forth the Saviour of men, deign to distil on me some drops of that heavenly dew of grace with which thou wert replenished. Preserve me by thy powerful intercession, from yielding to those perverse inclinations which never disturbed the tranquillity of thy pure soul. Repress my fatal propensity to evil, and obtain for me such courage and perseverance in surmounting my passions, such fervour and resolution in the practice of self-denial and penance, that I may recover the treasure of innocence I have so often forfeited, and thus attain to that mansion of rest, where nothing defiled can gain admittance. Amen.