Novena for the Nativity of Our Lady

O MARY, the channel of God's tenderest mercies to man! thou wert promised from the beginning of the world to crush the serpent's head, to bring forth the Redeemer of mankind. In thy sacred birth appears the dawn of that glorious day of grace for which all nations ardently sighed. O blessed infant, already thou beginnest to accomplish the predictions of the prophets, and to satisfy the longing desires of the just; already thou hast conceived in thy heart, by the most perfect love, that adorable Being, Who was afterwards to be born of thee! O happy Virgin! who, on entering the world, didst become a victim of charity, perfectly and unreservedly submissive to the will of God, may I, even at the last hour of my life, be enriched with a share of the dispositions with which thy soul was adorned in thy earliest infancy. Thou art the dignified descendant of kings, patriarchs, and prophets, yet thy birth so little corresponds with thy rank, that even the commencement of thy life makes thee like to Him, Whom thou wert destined to resemble in all things. Inspire me, then, by thy example and intercession, with that spirit of renunciation, detachment from the world, and self-contempt, which I promised at my baptism, but which I solemnly engaged to practice at my religious profession. Thou knowest the weakness and perverse inclinations which I brought into the world, and which, unhappily, have gained strength with increasing years. I conjure thee, O immaculate Virgin! by the purity and sanctity of thy nativity, by the riches of grace and virtue which the weakness of childhood then concealed in thee, to obtain for me strength to fulfil the duties of my exalted state, to co-operate with the graces of heaven, and to advance daily and even hourly toward that perfection to which I am bound to aspire.

R. Amen.