June 27 marks the annual feast day of Our Mother of Perpetual Help (OMPH). For more than 150 years, the Icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help has been a treasured source of prayer, hope, and consolation for millions of Catholics throughout the world. Painted in the Byzantine style and believed to have originated on the island of Crete around the 13th or 14th century, the icon depicts the Blessed Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child as angels present the instruments of His future Passion. Mary’s steady gaze invites all who suffer, fear, or seek comfort to come to her Son with confidence and trust. Today the Icon is permanently enshrined in the Redemptorists’ Church of Saint Alphonsus, where the official Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help is prayed weekly.

In 1866, Pope Pius IX entrusted the icon to the Redemptorists with the famous command: “Make her known throughout the world.” Since that day, the Redemptorists have carried the message of Our Mother of Perpetual Help to countless people through missions, novenas, parishes, and ministries across the globe. The icon has become not only a symbol of Mary’s loving intercession, but also a powerful reminder of God’s abundant mercy and redemption offered to all people through Jesus Christ.

The Redemptorist Congregation of priest and brothers are the only religious order currently entrusted by the Holy See to protect and propagate a Marian religious work of art. In the Eastern Orthodox Church iconography, the image is known as the ”Virgin Theotokos of the Passion” due to the instruments of the Passion of Jesus Christ present on the image.

Each June 27, the Redemptorists give special thanks to the Mother of God for her maternal care of our missionary congregation. She has truly been our guiding star in preaching Jesus’ redemptive love by pointing us to the Incarnate Word she holds out to us in the icon. The flat pointing right hand points directly into the heart center of the child, while her penetrating eyes and contemplative gaze teaches us to contemplate the gospel of Jesus in our daily eyes. Through this icon Mary becomes the instrument of abundant redemption through Jesus to all who call upon her.

We hope that each of you will experience in your silent gazing on this icon of love, the miraculous exchange of motherly love. Through this icon Mary becomes the instrument of abundant redemption to all who call upon her. The OMPH app was a very special project of Br. Dan Korn in which he combined teachings from his book Embracing the Icon of Love, with his many years of experience conducting retreats on the Icon to Our Mother of Perpetual Help. Please download this free OMPH app by clicking the link below.