Novenas - Totus2us

Day 1, Novena to Mary, Mother of our faith. Quote from Papa Francisco's encyclical on faith, Lumen Fidei: "The light of faith: with this expression, the tradition of the Church has indicated/shown the great gift brought by Jesus, who, in the Gospel of John, presents himself thus: "I have come as light into the world, that everyone who believes in me may not remain in darkness" (Jn 12:46). Saint Paul also expresses it in these terms: "And God who said ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ shines in our hearts" (2 Cor 4:6). In the pagan world, hungry for light, the cult to the Sun god developed, Sol Invictus, invoked each day at sunrise. Yet though the sun was born anew each morning, it was clearly incapable of radiating its light on man's entire existence. The sun, in fact, does not illuminate the whole of reality, its beam cannot pierce through to the shadow of death, there where the human eye is closed to its light. "No one — affirms Saint Justin (the) Martyr — has ever been ready to die for his faith in the su