Day 3 — The New and Eternal Covenant

By the sign of the Holy Cross, from our enemies deliver us, Lord our God. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Opening Prayer for All Days

O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin prepared a worthy dwelling for your Son, we beseech you that, as you preserved her from every stain in foresight of the death of your Son, you would also grant us, through her intercession, to attain the purity that leads us into your presence. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer of the Day

Hail, Mary, Spouse of the Holy Spirit: you are the New Covenant between God and men. We give you thanks because you were faithful to the Covenant of Sinai and merited to be the Mother of the New Covenant, Jesus Christ. May we, through your intercession, be faithful to the covenant sealed in the Blood of your Son.

Biblical Reading

"Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant I made with their fathers... I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Jeremiah 31:31-33).

Meditation

Mary is the figure of the New Covenant. As the Ark of the Covenant held the tablets of the Law, the manna, and the rod of Aaron, Mary carried in her womb the Incarnate Word, the living Bread come down from heaven, the eternal High Priest. Her purity is the purity of the Ark of the Covenant made human.

Petition

Here the particular petition desired is made.

Final Prayer for All Days

O Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, by the singular grace of your Immaculate Conception, obtain for us the grace to imitate your purity and your fidelity to God. May we, like you, always know how to say "yes" to the will of the Father. Amen.

(Our Father, Hail Mary, and Gloria, three times each).

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.