Novena of Thanksgiving: Infant Jesus of Prague

Hearts for Home Tuesday

Joey and Jessie come home today!!!

We have a busy weekend ahead of us since Joey has an altar boy retreat on Friday, we have a wedding to attend on Saturday and Joey leaves for his first overnight Boy Scout camp on Sunday....so for this week I would like to focus on:

1) The joy of being home together again-and trying to be patient as we all try to find what our "new routine" is over the next month.

2) Getting Joey unpacked just to repack his stuff for camp by Thursday night so that we can all enjoy Friday and Saturday.

3)  Setting up some playdates for Jessie for next week so that she won't be too jealous of Joey being away at camp.

4) Meal planning by "shopping" out of our freezer and cupboard for things that I can crockpot for supper since it is hot and I have a newborn baby to nurse.

5) Be patient with myself and my low energy level-try to focus on "to do lists" that I can actually accomplish and be thankful for those things instead of being frustrated by everything that I don't get done each day.

6)  Hug and kiss my kids each day.

Infant Jesus of Prague

Please join our family in a Novena 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 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.

Our July 2011 Testimony to the Infant Jesus of Prague:

Last November 2010 I came across information about the many miracles regarding the miraculous image of the Infant Jesus of Prague, specifically regarding the many monetary miracles.  I informed my husband that we needed to be looking for an Infant of Prague statue that we could place money under while saying the Novena Devotion Prayer for the many monetary concerns we had, specifically being able to provide for our family from our in town business.  We had just found out that we were expecting another baby, which while wonderful was going to significantly change "the business plan" we had come up with for the next year or so.  To my astonishment Jason replied that we already owned one!  His mother Debbie had bought one for us in the past year and during one of her trips to visit they had placed it in our office, keeping it in its box because we didn't have room to display it at the time.  (I had been busy nursing when they had unloaded her mini-van and had forgotten being told about the statue since I hadn't "seen" the statue.)  Jason later displayed the statue and put a quarter underneath the statue.  Just three weeks later the time share that we had been trying to sell for over a year sold and after closing costs we had the exact amount we needed to pay our ob-gyn fees for the new baby!  (Jason now upgraded our quarter taped underneath the statue to a silver dollar and we moved it from the office to our family prayer altar in our living room.)

A month later I was put on bedrest for an infection, which also meant that we were receiving much higher medical bills....plus now we had to pay more payroll costs because I couldn't work at the store and Jason had to come home early to help with supper and the kids. (Normally January-August we both work more hours to conserve our "savings" to get us through until our busier time of year which is September-December.)  I began praying in earnest for all our monetary needs, my health and the health of our baby, Elizabeth Grace-also known as "Libby."  I also began praying to the Infant Jesus of Prague for all the intentions of anyone praying for us, offering up suffering for us, bringing us meals and the Eucharist, covering our adoration hour, companionship, cleaning and/or babysitting.  Jason began praying rosaries for anyone who brought us a meal-and God provided SIX MONTHS of meals delivered about three times a week to us-many times from complete strangers and/or just acquaintances.  In God's sense of humor He also began answering the last prayer on my list: the build-up of our farm for providing for our family's needs.  I added that to our litany and two weeks later we were offered the Dexter cow that subsequently died.  (When I began praying about the farm I meant AFTER the baby was born......but God obviously had different plans for the past six months.)

During my bedrest we were able to also sell the above ground swimming pool that had come with the house when we bought it four years ago.  I was able to consign over 200 kid items this past spring, plus donate about nine more bags to Samaritan Ministries.  (Downsizing our many possessions had been one of my goals for 2011 since October 2010....we still have a lot more to do, but this is a good start.)  In May we discovered that Libby was breech, so I laid down upside down on a tilted ironing board off and on for a week while adding that prayer to our list to the Infant Jesus.  After we had confirmed by ultrasound that Libby had flipped they stopped the medication on June 1st that had been stopping the contractions I had been experiencing for the entire pregnancy.  I had been praying to the Infant Jesus specifically that "Libby would be born in the hospital right side up with Dr. Edwards (our ob) delivering as close to her due date of June 20th as possible."  (My last two babies had been born "sunny side up and I wanted to avoid that pain if possible since I have all natural childbirth.)  Libby was born on June 15th at 10:21pm after two weeks of on-again/off-again contractions.  We made it to the hospital at 9:15pm and Dr. Edwards arrived around 10:15pm-just in time to deliver her and unwrap the umbilical cord that was wrapped around her neck FOUR times.  (Earlier in the week our nine year old daughter Jessica admitted that she had put ALL her money-I believe it was around $21-under the statue so that Libby would be born BEFORE she and her brother Joey left for 18 days to stay in Wisconsin with their grandparents.  Jessie had also been praying over and over again that Libby would be able to see, hear and not die via miscarriage.....the Infant Jesus of Prague answered all of Jessie's prayers.....no miscarriage, Libby can see and hear, and both Jessie and Joey were able to be "snuck in before visiting hours" to hold Libby before they boarded the airplane the morning of June 16th.

We are very thankful to the Infant Jesus of Prague for the safe arrival of baby Libby, for the monetary blessings in unexpected ways: farm animals, the providing of meals, the selling of our "extra possessions".......for the bonding that took place in our family during this bedrest period and the new skills learned-both Joey and Jessie learned how to do laundry and some new cooking skills....they also took care of their mommy and two toddler sisters on many days when they didn't feel like doing so-they definitely learned the "corporal works of mercy" right within their own family.  God blessed us to be able to continue homeschooling throughout the illness so we won't have to play "catch up".......God granted Jason with good health and the grace to help "cover" my chores.....God granted us with good employees that willingly covered the extra hours at the store.....and once again God has blessed me with the miracle of surviving that which I didn't think I could survive....I have to admit there are many days that I wish I could have a "redo" on so that I could be more charitable and joyful towards my family members-but that is how life is unfortunately.....I am very thankful to be able to move again, even as I wait for test results to come back to find out if the infection is gone or not.....and even as I have to make myself "take it slowly" since I don't have the energy level or endurance that I had prior to my illness.....

Thank you Infant Jesus of Prague for all these things!!!!

To find out more about this miraculous statue see the official website of the original statue:

http://www.pragjesu.info/en/

(I find it very interesting that the original Infant Jesus of Prague statue is contained in the Our Lady of Victory Church in Prague....Jason has a devotion to Our Lady of Victory from having grown up just a couple of hours away from the Basilica of Our Lady of Victory....and in fact his birthday present this year from his mother and all of us was a statue of Our Lady of Victory, which is  now on the opposite corner of the prayer altar from the Infant Jesus of Prague-and this was before I realized what the name of the church is where the original statue resides.)

Infant Jesus of Prague-Pray for us!


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