The beauty of devotion is the fidelity with which we live in relation to the person receiving love and affection. This is true, I believe, whether its one’s devotion is a friend, a wife, a child or a priest; so much so for the Blessed Virgin Mary, the most holy and blessed Mother of the Lord. Devotion is about affection for the presence of another. Devotion (piety in the true sense of the definition) is born of an experience of the maternal affection for Mary, Mother of God, Mother of Perpetual Help. This experience, I suggest, is what sparked two women and a priest that is now touching the hearts of Catholic faithful from the greater New Haven area to start a Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help 18 years ago. Think of gentle prayers and love of a few now grown to more than 200 people on the 9th Wednesday.
Novena to Our Lady grows over 18 years at Our Lady of Pompeii Church, East Haven
Judy Esposito and Carol Scussel with longtime now deceased pastor, Father Dennis Hussey, and through the years with the assistance of subsequent pastors of Our Lady of Pompeii Church (East Haven, CT) have formed the hearts and minds of many to prayerfully encounter the sweetness and beauty of Mary’s perpetual tenderness. Father John Lavorgna, current pastor of the parish, with many others, have dedicated a good amount of energy to provide the space to pray. Each of the weeks had a different preacher who also led the prayers and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
Read Mary Chalupsky article in the Catholic Transcript, “Novena to Our Lady grows over 18 years.” Be sure to look at the photo gallery.