Day 3: The Christ Child

The third day of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Novena turns to the Christ Child held in His Mother's arms in the icon. The Catholic Marian theology has always understood that Marian devotion is, properly, devotion to the Mother who holds the Son. We come to Mary not to bypass Christ but to be brought, by her hand, to Him.

Today's invocation

O Mother of Perpetual Help, behold us prostrate at thy feet... (the full opening prayer)

Today's meditation

The iconographic position of the Christ Child in the Hodegetria icon is theologically precise. The Child is held in the Mother's left arm, with His face turned somewhat to her, but His eyes directed to the angel showing Him the cross. He has run to His Mother for protection (the loose sandal indicates the speed of His coming), but He has not closed His eyes against the reality of the Passion that awaits Him. The icon is a contemplation of the Lord Jesus in His full Sacred Humanity: child enough to need His Mother, mature enough to know what is to come.

The Catholic Christological tradition has insisted, from the Council of Ephesus (431) onward, that Mary is the Theotokos, the Mother of God. She is mother not of the divinity of Christ (the Father alone is the eternal source of the Son in the Trinity) but of the Person of the Word made flesh. To honor Mary holding the Christ Child is to confess the Council of Ephesus's dogma in the form of contemplative prayer.

Today's intention

Today, ask Our Lady of Perpetual Help for the grace of a deeper love of Christ through her. Mother of Perpetual Help, you who held the Christ Child in your arms, lead me to your Son. Teach me to love Him as you loved Him in the days of His earthly life. Bring also your principal intention to her, with explicit awareness that you are bringing it through her to her Son.

Reflection

The Catholic Marian devotion has always insisted that Marian piety is Christocentric. The reformer's complaint that Marian devotion replaces Christ misunderstands the structure: Mary is honored as the Mother who points to her Son, and every Marian prayer concludes (or should conclude) in the love of Christ. The Hodegetria icon is the visual catechesis of this principle: Mary's right hand is open and pointing to the Christ Child she holds, in the classical iconographic gesture "He is the Way."

A Catholic spiritual practice that flows from this meditation is the brief prayer often called the aspiration: a one-line prayer that names Mary leading the soul to Jesus, prayed many times throughout the day. The traditional aspiration is Jesus, Mary, Joseph, I love You; save souls. The brief mention of all three Persons of the Holy Family in a single breath is the lived form of the Catholic conviction that Mary always brings the soul to Jesus, and that Jesus is always loved in the same act in which Mary is honored.

Closing prayers

Pray three Hail Marys, the Memorare, and the closing invocation:

Mother of Perpetual Help, lead us to your Son, in whom we trust.