Novena to St. Margaret of Antioch

Novena to St. Margaret of Antioch
(One of the Fourteen Holy Helpers)
PREPARATORY PRAYER Almighty and eternal God! With lively faith and reverently worshipping Your Divine Majesty, I prostrate myself before You and invoke with filial trust Your supreme generosity and mercy. Illuminate the darkness of my intellect with a ray of Your Heavenly light and inflame my heart with the fire of Your Divine Love, that I may contemplate the great virtues and merits of the Saint in whose honor I make this novena, and following their example imitate, as they did, the life of Your Divine Son. Moreover, I beseech You to graciously grant me, through the merits and intercession of this powerful Helper, the petition which through them I humbly place before You, devoutly saying, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." Vouchsafe graciously to hear it, if it is to Your greater glory and the salvation of my soul. Amen.
PRAYER IN HONOR OF ST. MARGARET O God, grant us through the intercession of Your holy virgin and martyr Margaret, the graces necessary to undauntedly confess the Faith, carefully observe chastity in our state of life, and overcome the temptations of the world, the devil, and the flesh, and thereby escape the punishments of eternal damnation. Amen. INVOCATION OF ST. MARGARET St. Margaret, holy virgin and martyr, faithfully did you preserve the robe of holy innocence and purity, valiantly resisting all the flattery and allurements of the world for the love of your Divine Spouse, Jesus Christ. Help me to overcome all temptations against the choicest of all virtues, holy purity. Help me to remain steadfast in the love of Christ, in order to preserve this great gift of God. Implore for me the grace of perseverance in prayer, distrust of myself, and flight from the occasions of sin. Finally, I beg that you obtain for me the grace of a good death, so that in Heaven I may "follow the Lamb wherever He goes." Amen. PRAYER My Lord and my God! I offer up to You my petition in union with the bitter passion and death of Jesus Christ, Your Son, together with the merits of His Immaculate and Blessed Mother, Mary ever Virgin, and of all the Saints, particularly with those of the Holy Helper, St. Margaret, in whose honor I make this novena. Look down upon me, merciful Lord! Grant me Your Grace and Your Love, and graciously hear my prayer. Amen.