The Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary (cf. Luke 1:26-37) and born in Bethlehem. It is so awesome to think of our dear Lord as a sweet Infant!
“Devotion to the Holy Child Jesus is a long-standing tradition in our Catholic spirituality. The early Church Fathers, like St. Athanasius and St. Jerome, had a special devotion to the Holy Child Jesus.
“Some of the later great saints, including St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus (the Little Flower), St. Francis of Assisi, St. Anthony of Padua and St. Teresa of Avila, helped popularize this devotion to the Holy Child….
“In the 1300s, sculptures of the Holy Child usually made of wax or wood also grew in popularity. Keep in mind that even though the Gospels do not relate much information regarding our Lord’s childhood, ‘the hidden life at Nazareth allows everyone to enter into fellowship with Jesus by the most ordinary events of daily life’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #533)” (Fr. William Saunders).
The Baltimore Catechism tells us: “It is right to show respect to the statues and pictures of Christ and of the saints, just as it is right to show respect to the images of those whom we honor or love on earth.
“We honor Christ and the saints when we pray before the crucifix, relics, and sacred images because we honor the persons they represent; we adore Christ and venerate the saints. We do not pray to the crucifix or to the images and relics of the saints, but to the persons they represent.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church further explains: “The divine injunction included the prohibition of every representation of God by the hand of man…. Nevertheless, already in the Old Testament, God ordained or permitted the making of images that pointed symbolically toward salvation by the incarnate Word: so it was with the bronze serpent, the ark of the covenant, and the cherubim.
“Basing itself on the mystery of the incarnate Word, the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea (787) justified against the iconoclasts the veneration of icons–of Christ, but also of the Mother of God, the angels, and all the saints. By becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new ‘economy’ of images.
“The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, ‘the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype,’ and ‘whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it.’ The honor paid to sacred images is a ‘respectful veneration,’ not the adoration due to God alone:
“‘Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is’ (St. Thomas Aquinas)” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 2129-2132).
The full history of the statue known as the Infant of Prague is a beautiful one. The original wax statue is in the town of Prague in the Czech Republic. Our Lord has granted many graces and blessings through the devotion to His Holy Infancy. “The image of the Child Jesus known as the Infant Jesus of Prague is of Spanish origin. In the 17th century, this beautiful statue was brought by a Spanish princess to Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) and presented to a Carmelite monastery. for many years this statue has been enshrined on a side altar in the Church of Our Lady of Victory in Prague… It is about 19 inches high, clothed in a royal mantle, and has a jeweled crown on its head. Its right hand is raised in blessing; its left hand holds a globe signifying sovereignty” (Dr. Warren Carroll).
The Infant of Prague novena can be prayed for nine consecutive days, nine consecutive hours, or as long as you’d like. We should approach the Infant Jesus with love and childlike simplicity.
In this Infant Jesus novena, we ask the Divine Infant Jesus for whatever we need and place our cares in His little hands, knowing that He can do more than we can even desire or understand (cf. Ephesians 3:20). And we honor and praise His Holy Infancy. We suggest that you pray this novena to the Infant Jesus for an end to the great evil of abortion.
Novena to the Infant Jesus of Prague for an Urgent Need
O Jesus, Who said, “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you,” through the intercession of Mary, Your most holy Mother, I knock, I seek, I ask that my prayer be answered. (Mention your request.)
O Jesus, Who said, “All that you ask of the Father in My Name He will grant you,” through the intercession of Mary, Your most holy Mother, I humbly and urgently ask Your Father in Your Name that my prayer be granted. (Mention your request.)
O Jesus, Who said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass away,” through the intercession of Mary, Your most holy Mother, I feel confident that my prayer will be granted. (Mention your request.) Amen.
Then pray the following prayer of thanksgiving:
Prayer of Thanksgiving for Graces Received from the Infant Jesus
I prostrate myself before your holy image, O most gracious infant Jesus, to offer You my most fervent thanks for the blessings You have bestowed on me. I shall incessantly praise Your ineffable mercy and confess that You alone are my God, my helper, and my protector. Henceforth my entire confidence shall be placed in You! Everywhere I will proclaim aloud Your mercy and generosity, so that Your great love and the great deeds which You perform through this miraculous image may be acknowledged by all. May devotion to Your most holy infancy increase more and more in the hearts of all Christians; and may all who experience Your assistance persevere with me in showing unceasing gratitude to Your most holy infancy, to which be praise and glory forever. Amen.
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