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How to Pray the Novena
This Novena is to help you prepare for the Feast of The Sacred Heart on 24 June, 2022. You may pray the Novena privately or with others - members of your family, neighbours or friends - over the nine days.
Read the scripture meditation slowly, pausing when something strikes you. A prayer takes up the theme of the day, and you end with the Novena Prayer. You may include in it any intention you like to make, for yourself or for others.
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CLOSING PRAYER (to be said each day)
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Lord Jesus, your Sacred Heart is always open in love to each of us, especially when we are suffering. To all who come to you seeking your help, you show your compassion and healing power. You care for us when we are lost, sympathise with us in loneliness and comfort us in mourning; you are closest to us when we are weakest. You reach out your hand to us when we stumble and have most need of your help. I ask you to listen to my prayer during this Novena, and grant what I ask. ...
If what I ask is not for my own or other's good, grant me always what is best, that I may build your kingdom of love in our world. Amen.
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Day 1 - Thursday 16 June : God sustains my life How to pray the Novena
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| Scripture: |
Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! When I look at the heavens, the work of Your hands, the moon and the stars that You have established; what are human beings that You are mindful of them, mortals that You care for them? (Ps. 8).
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| Reflection: |
Stay with the idea of your dignity as a child of God for as much time as you can manage today. Thank God for this. Notice what moves in your heart and your soul as you ponder these things.
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| Desire: |
That I may know my utter dependency on God for my being and that I may wonder at the miracle of my own personal existence.
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| End: |
Say the Novena Closing Prayer. |
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Day 2 - Friday 17 June : God's faithfulness to me
How to pray the Novena
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| Scripture: |
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters; He restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for His name's sake. (Ps. 23).
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| Reflection: |
Note any new awareness, or repetition of an awareness you already have, of God's care for you. What was happening in your own personal life when this inner knowledge became real for you? If, at this moment, you feel a deepening of that awarenss, however little, stay with it.
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| Desire: |
That I may know a deep confidence in God's caring for me, as I continue to wonder at my own personal existence.
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| End: |
Say the Novena Closing Prayer. |
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Day 3 - Saturday 18 June : God gives Himself to me, to us ...
How to pray the Novena
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| Scripture: |
When Jesus turned and saw them following, He said to them, ‘What are you looking for?' They said to Him, ‘Rabbi' (which means teacher), ‘where are you staying?' He said to them, ‘Come and see.' (John 1:35-39).
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| Reflection: |
Gently think about ways in which you've sensed God's call, and indeed, God's challenge to you. Ask to know that more deeply, more authentically; ask, too, for the grace to respond generously, that you may not be deaf to His call. Stay with whatever emerges in your reflection as long as you can; offer you desires to the Heart of Christ and, if a conversation with Christ grows out of your prayer, let it happen.
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| Desire: |
That I may be more aware of how God calls me and of my freedom to respond.
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| End: |
Say the Novena Closing Prayer. |
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Day 4 : Sunday 19 June : Resistance to God's call
How to pray the Novena
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| Scripture: |
Jesus straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?' She said, ‘No one, sir.' And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.' (John 8:1-11).
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| Reflection: |
Become as honest as you can be about your own selfishness, too much self-regard, too much self-righteousness and not enough humility, not enough openness to other people and their goodness. In your prayer, speak to Jesus about these things; let Him respond to you with mercy and compassion.
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| Desire: |
Ask for a profound, peaceful, personal sorrow for any infidelity to God‘s call.
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| End: |
Say the Novena Closing Prayer. |
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Day 5 - Monday 20 June : God's attitude towards us
How to pray the Novena
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| Scripture: |
He began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David,have mercy on me!' Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!' Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.' (Mark 10:46-52).
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| Reflection: |
Have you ever thought of yourself as a ‘loved sinner'? Or have you felt more a condemned sinner, wedged irretrievably in the consequences of sins, hopelessly caught up in your own sinfulness and that of the world? Our honesty and humility in prayer can help us to realise that we are not trapped and that it is God‘s desire to forgive, not to condemn. Speak, in your heart, to God about how much you want to know that fact interiorly. St Ignatius suggests, in a wonderful passage of the Spiritual Exercise, that I might ask for the grace to express a 'heartfelt cry of wonder' at the forgiveness and mercy that has been given to me.
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| Desire: |
A joyful awareness that I am a loved sinner, a heartfelt knowledge of God's compassion.
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| End: |
Say the Novena Closing Prayer. |
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Day 6 - Tuesday 21 June : Knowing the person of Jesus
How to pray the Novena
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| Scripture: |
He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord‘s favour (Luke 4:14-32; Is. 61:1-2).
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| Reflection: |
Take a few moments to think about how Jesus described His mission. He has something more than just an impressive display to offer. His care was for those in need and this led to the rejection He experienced, not least in His own hometown, but everywhere.
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| Desire: |
That I may know that Jesus who became human for me more intimately, that I may love Him more intensely and follow Him more closely.
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| End: |
Say the Novena Closing Prayer. |
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Day 7 - Wednesday 22 June : Jesus moves towards His cross
How to pray the Novena
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| Scripture: |
As they led Him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus. (Luke 23:26-26)
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| Reflection: |
Later in the passion account, Jesus was clearly seen and heard to forgive, from the very cross, moments before his death by execution. His physical agony would have been intense. Yet he could, at that moment, still speak of mercy. We can ask for an interior knowledge of what He was going through. We can ponder, also, the ways in which His heart will continue to go through agonies today. Reflect, then, on where He is crucified in our times, in the innocent, the poor and weak for whom He came into our history.
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| Desire: |
That I may feel sorrow with Christ sorrowful, anguish with Christ in anguish, and that the reality of the mercy of God might reveal itself to me in the Passion of Jesus.
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| End: |
Say the Novena Closing Prayer. |
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Day 8 - Thursday 23 June : Jesus as He continues to His cross
How to pray the Novena
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| Scripture: |
These things occurred so that Scripture might be fulfilled, 'None of his bones shall be broken.' And again, another passage of Scripture says, ‘They will look on the one whom they have pierced.' (John 19:34).
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| Reflection: |
One of the soldiers, we hear, pierced the side of Jesus with his lance, penetrating to His heart, and out of His pierced side flowed blood and water. There is a tradition in the Church of thinking of this outpouring, from the Heart of Christ, as a fountain of sacramental life. We can ask, also, His mother Mary, one of the very few who remained close to the cross when most of the others had fled, to share with us what was in her heart at this moment, the sword that pierced her heart.
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| Desire: |
That I may know that Jesus, who became human for me, more intimately, love Him more intensely and follow Him more closely. That I may feel His sorrow and anguish with Him.
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| End: |
Say the Novena Closing Prayer. |
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Day 9 - Friday 24 June : Risen Christ, risen Christian!
How to pray the Novena
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| Scripture: |
We can ponder on any of the appearances of the risen Christ in this time, perhaps particularly the Emmaus Road encounter (Luke 24:13-35) and how, for the two former disciples trudging wearily homewards, their great adventure apparently having failed, something unmistakably marvellous happened in their hearts. This sudden moment of consolation, not of their own doing, changed everything for them. Look also at the next passage, Luke 24:36-43, when He offers peace to His frightened friends.
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| Reflection: |
We cannot imagine what the actual Resurrection was like becuase it is too much for us, but what we can imagine is how it must have been for those dejected followers who, after the events of Calvary, had thought everything was over. Think of the way Jesus appeared to the disciples many times. Imagine the Risen Christ offering His peace to the world and to you. Talk to Him; tell Him what you feel you need.
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| Desire: |
To experience, interiorly and deeply, joy with Christ risen, the joy He wants to share with His friends as He comes back to them, having overcome all darkness, all sin.
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| End: |
Say the Novena Closing Prayer.
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