MIRACULOUS MIRACLES^™

Prayer — Novenas

Novena to the Infant Jesus of Prague

by Attributed to Fr Cyril of the Mother of God, OCD (1590–1675)

Nine days of the prayer of Father Cyril of the Mother of God, the Carmelite who found the broken statue in 1637 — 'O Child Jesus, I have recourse to Thee' — as the Discalced Carmelite Fathers printed it for American homes, with the Church's permission and without a copyright line.

The Prayer

English · Original

Each day for nine days: the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory be, and then —

O Child Jesus, I have recourse to Thee; by Thy Holy Mother I implore Thee to assist me in this necessity (here mention your request), for I firmly believe that Thy divinity can assist me. I confidently hope to obtain Thy holy grace. I love Thee with my whole heart and my whole soul. I am heartily sorry for my sins, and I entreat of Thee, O Good Jesus, to give me strength to overcome them. I make the resolution of never again offending Thee, and I resolve to suffer everything rather than displease Thee. Henceforth I wish to serve Thee faithfully. For the love of Thee, O Divine Child, I will love my neighbour as myself. O Jesus, most powerful Child, I again implore Thee to assist me on this occasion. Grant me the grace of possessing Thee eternally, with Mary and Joseph, and of adoring Thee with the holy angels and saints. Amen.

When the Prayer is Said

The nine days before the coronation feast (first Sunday of May) or before Christmas; the nine days before the twenty-fifth of any month; in any need.

History & Background

Father Cyril of the Mother of God was the Luxembourg Carmelite who, returning to the plundered friary of Prague in 1637, found the wax Child behind an altar with its hands broken and heard the words 'Give me my hands and I will give you peace.' The Carmelite tradition credits him with the prayer that has been the devotion's daily prayer ever since, and the old leaflets go further and call it 'revealed by the Blessed Mother of God to Ven. Father Cyril'. The title Venerable is the order's courtesy; no decree of heroic virtue has been found for him. The prayer is his in the sense that the order has prayed it in his name for three centuries.

The text here is the English of the Discalced Carmelite Fathers of San Antonio, printed in their Novena to the Miraculous Infant Jesus of Prague 'with permission of the Ecclesiastical Authority' as the concluding prayer of each day; the leaflet carries no date and no copyright notice. The Carmelites of Prague print a freer modern version on their own site. The nine days are the nine days before the coronation feast on the first Sunday of May, or the nine before Christmas, or any nine in need; the Carmelite leaflets add an Our Father, a Hail Mary and a Glory be to each day.

Two things this novena is not. It is not the 'powerful novena in urgent need' — 'O Jesus, who hast said, ask and you shall receive' said nine times in nine hours of one day — which circulates on cards everywhere and whose author and date nobody has established; and it is not a bargain. The Raccolta's own novena to the Child Jesus, indulgenced by Pius IX in 1846 for the nine days before the twenty-fifth of any month, offers the Father five mysteries of the Nativity and asks for nothing in particular, which is the older and better pattern.

A novena is nine consecutive days (or nine consecutive weeks of one fixed day) of the same prayer for the same intention; a day missed breaks it, and it is begun again. Confession and Communion during the nine days, or on the last, were the ordinary conditions for the plenary indulgence.

Related Miracles

The Infant Jesus of Prague

1628 (given to the Carmelites); 1637 (found and restored)