Know Your Novenas: A Nine-Part Series
Article 1
The United States Catholic Catechism for Adults reminds us that we are called to ceaseless prayer. This is meant to permeate every moment of our daily lives and welcome God into every aspect of our human existence. This call reminds us that God is the source of every blessing and wants to bless everything that we do. This embrace of ceaseless prayer unites us with God here on earth and eventually brings us to be with Him in eternity.
In answering this call, we must take on an attitude of devotion to God in gratitude for His abundant blessings. There are many opportunities that our Church provides for devotional prayer. Of course, the Sacraments are the pinnacle of our spiritual life. Yet, a full spiritual life includes more than the Sacraments. Sacramentals, such as the Rosary, the Stations of the Cross, Pilgrimages, Chaplets, and Eucharistic Adoration all foster devotional prayer.
Accordingly, Novenas remind us of the love that God has for us. They focus our attention and reinforce it day after day. Novenas also strengthen our soul with the intercession of the Blessed Mother and the Saints. Indeed, Novenas unite us more fully to the Body of Christ, past, present, and future!
Article 2
The Scriptural root of a Novena is found in the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 1. After the Ascension of our Resurrected Lord, the Apostles returned to Jerusalem. Chapter 13 tells us “When they entered the city they went to the upper room where they were staying. Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholemew and Matthew, James, son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas son of James. All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and His brothers.”
…And after 9 days of prayer by the early church, God answered their prayers with the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
As we know from chapter 2 of the Acts of the Apostles, God’s response was powerful. The very Spirit of God filled the whole house with a driving wind. Amid that driving wind, flames appeared over the heads of those praying the Novena. (Sometime, pause to think about the flames in a driving wind.)
This is the same opportunity that awaits us when we invite ourselves to this sacred tradition. If we do not share in experiencing the same results as the early church, perhaps it is because the present-day community of believers is not devoted with one accord to prayer.