June 27 + Our Lady of Perpetual Help

In the novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, we pay tribute to the Blessed Virgin Mary in asking for her assistance.

First placed in the Church of San Matteo in Rome in 1499, the original icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help was thought to be lost at one point after Napoleon’s armies sacked the church in 1798. Fortunately, it was in the care of the Augustinian fathers until Pope Pius IX ordered that the icon be given to the Redemptorist Order at the Church of St. Alphonsus in Rome in 1866 for public viewing once again. Since then, it has been copied and venerated in churches and homes all over the world.

In the images of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Jesus is safely cradled in his mother’s arms but looks anxiously at St. Gabriel the Archangel, who holds the cross and nails for His Crucifixion. St. Michael the Archangel, at left, holds the lance, spear, and the vessel of vinegar and gall for our Lord's Passion as well.

When we pray the novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, we are not choosing to worship her over her Divine Son. She is "our Mother on the order of grace,” and all the graces Mary gives us come directly from Our Lord. She is always ready to intercede on our behalf, but never for anything contrary to His wishes.

Mary’s last spoken words in the Gospels concerned her Son when she said at the wedding feast at Cana, “Do whatever He tells you.” (John 2:5) If we persevere in our intentions to do Christ’s will for us, we are doing hers as well.

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Oh Mother of Perpetual Help, grant that I may ever invoke your powerful name, the protection of the living and the salvation of the dying. Purest Mary, let your name henceforth be ever on my lips. Delay not, Blessed Lady, to rescue me whenever I call on you. In my temptations, in my needs, I will never cease to call on you, ever repeating your sacred name, Mary, Mary. What a consolation, what sweetness, what confidence fills my soul when I utter your sacred name or even only think of you! I thank the Lord for having given you so sweet, so powerful, so lovely a name. But I will not be content with merely uttering your name. Let my love for you prompt me ever to hail you Mother of Perpetual Help. Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for me and grant me the favor I confidently ask of you. (Then say three Hail Marys)