Walk with us toward the celebration of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
(August 15) with this novena.

Chapel of the Mother House in Paris

Spend a few moments each day contemplating Mary and praying with her.

"As the Religious of the Assumption journey in faith,
Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is there.
In her, one like themselves,
the sisters discover how great
is a woman's capacity for love.
In Mary, all was adoration.
She allowed the Life of the Trinity
gradually to pervade her whole being
until the moment when
the glory of God broke through her weakness
in the mystery of the Assumption."

- from the Prologue of the Rule of Life of the Religious of the Assumption

Prayers for each day of the Novena

Lord Jesus Christ, You gave Marie Eugénie the grace of belonging entirely to You.
You filled her with an ardent desire to know You and make you known,
to love You and make You loved.

Grant us all the grace to live as she did, in holiness and love,
faithful to our particular vocations for Your glory
and the salvation of the world.

Amen.

I pray you, St. Marie Eugenie,
do not permit that, from now on,
we leave you frozen under the halo of your sainthood.

May your personality

with its lively intelligence,

its spirit of enterprise,

its missionary faith

remain for each of us always living and stimulating.

Breathe into us the spirit of discernment,

beyond the easy answers and the lukewarm discussions.

May the Lord be our sole guide,

our single road of Truth and of Life.

Accompany us when the situation

requires determination

and valiant perseverance on our part.

Following your example,

let us know how to observe wisely the society of our time.
Sustain us by your tender but demanding nature,

so that we may commit all our strength

to humanizing the world

so that God can make it divine.

May the careful attention and respect

to all those who are confided to you

move us to extend this family spirit,

the mark of the Assumption of which you are the foundress.

Holiness is not a question of peaceful repose;

rather, following you, we make it happen,

day after day.

Amen.

(Prayer composed by Francoise Plas, editor of "Assumption 17")

O Jesus,
give me the love which is most truly love,
the love of the cross,
not those grand heroic crosses which lift us above our ordinary selves,
but the common, inglorious crosses, which, alas, we are so reluctant to bear:
the everyday crosses life is so full of,
the ones we stumble on in the middle of the road –
forgetfulness, opposition, misjudgment, failure, physical illness, mental confusion, loss of heart –
only then will you know that I love you,
even though I may not know it myself,
and that is enough for me.