| |
|
How to Pray the Novena
On each day of the novena, try to have a few quiet moments with yourself or with others to reflect on the scripture passage. Then, in your own time, move on to the reflection and think about what it might say to you today. Then pass on to the short prayer and make it your own. Always end with the Novena Prayer and include in it any intention you would like to make.
|
NOVENA PRAYER
|
Lord Jesus, your heart is moved with compassion when we are suffering, when we need your help, and when we pray for each other. I ask you to listen to my prayer during this Novena, and grant what I ask. (Mention your intention silently.) If what I ask is not for my own good and the good of others, grant me what is best, that I may build up your kingdom of love in our world. Amen.
|
|
(Day 1 - Thursday June 11) What do you desire? How to pray to the
Novena
|
| Scripture: |
As Jesus passed, John stared hard at him and said, 'There is the Lamb of God.' Hearing this, the two disciples followed Jesus. Jesus turned round, and said, 'What do you want?' (Jn. 1:35-37).
|
| Reflection: |
Jesus addressed the same question to you at the beginning of this novena, 'What do you want?' St Augustine said that all our desires are really a longing for God in disguise; where there is real desire, there is prayer. So, be at peace, in your desire you are already praying!
|
| Prayer: |
Lord, I come to you at the start of this novena with a muddle of desires. Give me courage, to listen to what you want to say to me about these desires and give me the strength to accept your loving desire for me and for my loved ones.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in You.
|
| End: |
Say the Novena Prayer. |
|
(Day 2 - Friday June 12) What does God desire? How to pray to the
Novena
|
| Scripture: |
So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to you; search and you will find, knock, and the door will be opened for you. For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him… (Lk. 11:9-10).
|
| Reflection: |
St Augustine said, 'For yourself you have made us, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.' I love a change a modern theologian has made in those lines - he writes, 'Your heart is restless until we rest in you'. Our God is vulnerable to our free response of love or neglect. Surely this is what the Sacred Heart is desperately trying to tell you and me.
|
| Prayer: |
Lord, you see my poverty and you love me better than I can love myself. Supply my wants according to your mercy. Help me to accept your will without seeking to understand disappointments. Help me to resign myself entirely and absolutely to you. Amen.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.
|
| End: |
Say the Novena Prayer. |
|
(Day 3 - Saturday June 13) When I find prayer difficult How to pray to the
Novena
|
| Scripture: |
When we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words. God knows perfectly well what the Spirit means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God. (Rom. 8:26-28).
|
| Reflection: |
Theresa of Lisieux (1873-97) once said that love was her vocation in life. Never was this vocation tested more than in the last nine months of her life as she lay dying of tuberculosis. She wrote a note to her sister Celine, 'Here is great love, to love Jesus without feeling the sweetness of his love - that is love pushed to the point of heroism.'
|
| Prayer: |
Jesus, I believe. Help my unbelief. Jesus, you are the real bedrock of my hope. Help me always to rely on you, especially in times of doubt and trouble.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.
|
| End: |
Say the Novena Prayer. |
|
(Day 4 - Sunday June 14) How do we look at each other? How to pray to the
Novena
|
| Scripture: |
Jesus looked at him and said, 'Sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, then come, follow me.' But his face fell at these words and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth (Mk. 10:21-22).
|
| Reflection: |
A Dominican theologian once wrote, 'A person is enlightened not when they get an idea but when someone looks at them.' How we look at another has tremendous consequences for self-esteem. The Sacred Heart looks at each one of us with deep love, understanding and compassion. We are called to look at others in the same way.
|
| Prayer: |
Jesus, you looked at the rich young man with love and yet he could not respond to your call. Help our prayer to become our looking at you, looking at us and smiling with love so that we will not run from the love that you offer.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.
|
| End: |
Say the Novena Prayer. |
|
(Day 5 - Monday June 15) Has no one condemned you? How to pray to the
Novena
|
| Scripture: |
Jesus looked up and said, 'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?' 'No one, sir', she replied. 'Neither do I condemn you,' said Jesus 'go away and don't sin any more.' (Jn. 8:10-11).
|
| Reflection: |
I read something recently which went like this: 'You do not have to be good before God will love you; you do not have to repent before you will be absolved by God. It is all the other way around. If you are good, it is because God's love has already made you so; if you want to be forgiven, that is because God is forgiving you.
|
| Prayer: |
Jesus, as I reflect upon your Sacred Heart, help me to have a deep-felt knowledge that you have already forgiven and long to forgive all my sins. Your Sacred Heart is love made visible.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.
|
| End: |
Say the Novena Prayer. |
|
(Day 6 - Tuesday June 16) Honesty in Prayer How to pray to the
Novena
|
| Scripture: |
On arriving, Jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days already. When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. She said to Jesus, 'If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you (Jn. 11:17-24).
|
| Reflection: |
St Ignatius Loyola said that we should always speak to Jesus in prayer just as one close friend would speak to another. Don't be afraid to express your real feelings to Jesus - anger, hurt, joy, sorrow etc. When you've made your complaint or expressed your joy, don't forget one thing: Listen for God's response! It may come in surprising ways.
|
| Prayer: |
Jesus, I have to be honest and tell you that there've been times when I've been angry with you and I feel that you've let me down. Help me to trust that you really do have a loving plan for me and for everyone, a plan that most times I find hard to fathom.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.
|
| End: |
Say the Novena Prayer. |
|
(Day 7 - Wednesday June 17) What strange friends you have, Lord! How to pray to the
Novena
|
| Scripture: |
Jesus noticed a tax-collector, Levi by name, sitting by the custom house, and said to him, 'Follow me'. And leaving everything he got up and followed him (Lk 6:27-28).
|
| Reflection: |
You know the old saying, 'Show me your friends and I'll tell you who you are.' Well, Jesus had the strangest set of friends: Levi (a hated tax-collector) Simon the Zealot (a revoluntionary); women in prostitution and other 'public sinners'. Maybe I'm not such bad company for Jesus, after all!
|
| Prayer: |
Jesus, you once said, 'I've come not to call the virtuous but sinners to repentance.' During your ministry, you sat and ate with sinners. This practice of yours gives me great hope that your love will bid me welcome too!
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.
|
| End: |
Say the Novena Prayer. |
|
|
|
(Day 8 - Thursday June 18) Peace be with you! How to pray to the
Novena
|
| Scripture: |
The apostles were talking when Jesus stood among them and said 'Peace be with you!' They thought they were seeing a ghost. But he said, 'Why are you so agitated? Look at my hands and feet. Touch and see for yourselves.'
|
| Reflection: |
Peace; Look; Listen; Go:Jesus greets the apostles with that soothing word, 'Shalom' (Peace) - it means I wish you the fullness of wellbeing of mind and body and soul. He then invites them to look at his hands and side. He encourages them to listen to what the scriptures say about him and then to go and preach the Good News that He is Risen!
|
| Prayer: |
Jesus, help me to listen to those four precious words you say to us all: 'Peace'; 'Look'; 'Listen'; 'Go'. Help me to appreciate their meaning in my life.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.
|
| End: |
Say the Novena Prayer. |
|
|
|
(Day 9 - Friday June 19) Thank you, Jesus! How to pray to the
Novena
|
| Scripture: |
Finding himself cured, one of the ten lepers turned back and threw himself at the feet of Jesus. This made Jesus say, 'Were not all ten made clean? The other nine, where are they?' (Lk. 17:17-18)
|
| Reflection: |
Did you know that in the Old Testament the word 'praise' has only one object - God! In the psalms, to praise is to live; not praising is the same as not living, not living the life which is God's gift, to be returned in praise. A Jewish rabbi has written, 'It is difficult to feel depressed when you remember fairly constantly that life is a gift. Faith teaches us to make a blessing over life. Making a blessing over life is the best way of turning life into a blessing.'
|
| Prayer: |
I want to say 'thank you, Jesus' for these nine days of prayer, of talking and listening to you more closely than usual. Thank you especially for all the things in my life that I just take for granted every day, forgetting that they are pure gift. Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.
|
| End: |
Say the Novena Prayer.
|
|
|
