Novena: Our Lady of the Atonement

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Medal of the Rosary League of Our Lady of the Atonement

Father Paul Wattson

The Devotion to Our Lady of the Atonement began in the Episcopal Church with Father Paul Wattson, the visionary Franciscan of Graymoor who conceived of the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity and also promoted devotion to Our Lady of the Red Mantle that is, Our Lady of the Atonement.   

   Mother Lurana of Graymoor

When Father Paul and his company of Franciscan faithful left the Episcopal Church and entered the Catholic Church, they brought this devotion with them.  It was embraced and honoured by the Holy Father and the Octave for Christian Unity gave rise to the worldwide week of prayer for Christian unity.  The Franciscans of the Atonement in the Catholic Church are the order founded by Fr. Paul Wattson.

The Novena to Our Lady of the Atonement will begin this year on June 30th (Saturday).

On each day, if possible, assist at Holy Mass, and go to Confession and Communion at least once during the Novena. The following prayers are recommended to be said daily:

NOVENA

In the Name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

ONE DECADE OF THE ROSARY
(One Our Father, ten Hail Marys, one Glory be.)

MEMORARE OF ST. BERNARD (said by all, together)

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession, was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother. To thee do I come; before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy, hear and answer me. Amen.

THE THREE-FOLD SALUTATION (said by all, together)

We salute thee, Holy Mary, Daughter of God the Father, and entreat thee to obtain for us a devotion like thine own to the most sweet Will of God.

We salute thee, Virgin Mother of God the Son, and entreat thee to obtain for us such union with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, that our own hearts may burn with love for God and an ardent zeal for the salvation of souls.

We salute thee, Immaculate Spouse of God the Holy Ghost, and entreat thee to obtain for us such yielding of ourselves to the Blessed Spirit, that He may, in all things, direct and rule our hearts, and that we may never grieve Him in thought, word, or deed.

THE LITANY

Lord have mercy upon us.
Christ have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us; Christ hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us. 

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God, the Father of Heaven, have mercy upon us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy upon us.
God, the Holy Ghost, have mercy upon us.
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy upon us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Daughter of God the Father, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Mother of God the Son, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Spouse of God the Holy Ghost, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, standing by the Cross, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, given to us as a Mother, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, our Mediatrix, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, firm Hope, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, sure Refuge, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Mother of Divine Love, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Shepherdess of the wandering sheep, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, pillar of Unity, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Mother of Conversions, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Mother of the outcast, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Star of the pagans, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Mother of missionaries, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Mother most sorrowful, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Lily of Israel, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Model of resignation, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Haven of peace, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Comfort of the afflicted, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Guide of the doubtful, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Welcomer of the pilgrims, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Handmaid of the Father, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Mirror of the Son, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Queen of the Precious Blood, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, true Model, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, strong Protectress, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, hailed by the Archangel Gabriel, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Splendor of Heaven, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Delight of the Saints, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Strength of the weak, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Comfort of the dying, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, triumphant with Jesus, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Queen of the Universe, pray for us.

Our Lady of the Atonement, Queen of the Children of the Atonement, pray for us.

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
Have mercy upon us.

Pray for us, O Blessed Mother;
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray. O God, who didst deign that we, thy children, should invoke our Mother Mary under the title of Our Lady of the Atonement; grant that through her powerful intercession we may obtain the fullness of thy blessings; through thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end.  Amen.
  

+Ora pro nobis!

Father Paul Wattson and the Quest for Unity in Christ

From an article in The Living Church

In the Episcopalian magazine The Living Church, there is an article on Fr. Paul Wattson and the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity. Fr. Paul Wattson and Mother Lurana are beloved by Roman Catholics of Anglican Heritage. From Fr. Wattson the entire Catholic Church has been blessed with the beautiful devotion to Our Lady of the Atonement.

To read The Living Church article, click HERE. The following is the conclusion of that article on Father Wattson:

The 1920s and ’30s were building years for the order, which constructed a seminary, a printery, shrine chapels and St. Christopher’s Inn, a treatment center. The numbers of sisters and friars burgeoned. Always the message was the same: unity is the hallmark and sustenance of the work. But as Fr. Wattson began to slow (he died in 1940), his allies in the nascent ecumenical movement picked up the charge. In Belgium, Dom Lambert Beaudoin founded in 1925 a Benedictine community that took shape at Chevetogne for the express purpose of praying for unity—originally with the Orthodox, but now with all Christians.

From the Archdiocese of Lyons, France, Father Paul Couturier (1881–1953) spread the message of prayer for unity “as God wills it and by the means that he wills.” Fr. Couturier changed the tenor of the prayer, however, away from reunion of all others with Rome by reflection on a once-shared past to a more concerted effort on the part of all Christians to work toward future unity par cum pari—literally, on equal footing. This, he said, could only be done together; it could not be expected that non-Romans would simply see the light. This plea was heard by Trappistines in Grottaferrata, Italy, and some began, in the late 1930s, to devote their prayer lives to building religious bridges. When temporal unity finally occurs, it will rest on the storehouse of supernatural graces stocked by so much fervent prayer.

Fr. Wattson’s Spirit and Ordinariates

The theme for this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is “You Are Witnesses of These Things” (Luke 24:48). Coinciding with the Scottish centennial celebration of the World Mission Conference at Edinburgh, widely acknowledged as an ecumenical milestone, the theme strikes at the soul of collaboration between churches: what we memorialize together, what we work on, what we anticipate through God’s grace. Whether we speak in a prophetic voice, like the Paul Wattsons of a prior generation, there is always a call to set aside a passive stance and move.

Action of some sort never negates a stillness of mind and heart, but flows from it. Achieving that quietude comes from asking ourselves sometimes difficult questions: What do I believe? To whom shall I turn? Who am I? What is impressive about the path Fr. Wattson took is not so much his rather spectacular conversion or the issues attendant upon it, as much as the authenticity of its genesis, together with its manifold fruits. Roman Catholics cannot ignore the abiding fealty Fr. Wattson had toward the purest elements of the Anglican spirit, since part of that is its desire toward the vocation of unity. In an era of ordinariates, Roman Catholics will do well to observe how a new injection of Anglican culture into their midst will serve to heal and make whole again a body broken for too long.

In speaking of ordinariates today, canon lawyers refer to “extra-territorial” sees or “non-territorial particular churches,” which serve as instruments for service to the people of God that have, for purposes of identification, no visible boundaries but a clear governance structure that is necessarily flexible to meet extraordinary circumstances. One reason for the recent Anglicanorum Coetibus, the apostolic constitution of Pope Benedict XVI establishing personal ordinariates for those Anglicans entering a new relation with the Roman Catholic Church, is to supply a flexible response to legalistic questions. Both communions will do well to study whether the ecclesiological principles articulated in the constitution will be in service to the great challenge of ecumenism in our time, particularly as it conforms or departs from the legacy of visionaries like Fr.Wattson.

Among these principles is a recognition of the action of the Holy Spirit working as “a principle of unity” to establish the singular “Church as a communion.” What appears to some to be a wayward cluster of Anglican congregations may actually hold promise as a vehicle for tutelage and mutual understanding, on all sides, in rendering a new vista for ecclesial unity.

Patrick J. Hayes has a doctorate in theology from the Catholic University of America and has taught at Fordham University and St. John’s University in New York. He is at work on a study of Roman Catholics in the New York Archdiocese between 1865 and 1938.

Our Lady of the Atonement, pray for us.

+Laus Deo.

Father Paul's prayers for the Octave for Christian Unity

Antiphon: That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in me and I in Thee; that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me.

V. I say unto thee, thou art Peter;
R. And upon this rock I will build my Church.

Here recall the intention for the day's prayer.

January 18
For the return of the "other sheep" to the One Fold of our Lord Jesus Christ.

January 19
For the return of the Eastern Orthodox Christians to communion with the Apostolic See.

January 20
For the return of the Anglicans to the authority of the Vicar of Christ.

January 21
For the return of all Protestants throughout the world to the unity of the Catholic Church.

January 22
That Christians in America may be one, in union with the Chair of Saint Peter.

January 23
That lapsed Catholics will return to the Sacraments of the Church.

January 24
That the Jewish people will be converted to the Catholic Faith.

January 25
That missionary zeal will conquer the world for Christ.

Let us pray.
O Lord Jesus Christ, who saidst unto Thine Apostles: Peace I leave you, My peace I give to you; regard not our sins, but the faith of Thy Church, and grant unto her that peace and unity which are agreeable to Thy Will; Who livest and reignest ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

Father Paul and Mother Lurana, please pray for us.