A stupid question from a heretic

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Sorry guys, another stupid question.

What is a novena? Is this a prayer said to a specific saint? What is it for? What does it do?
 
Novenas at sometimes are prayers said to a saint for a specific favor. And there are some that have a regular novena prayer that you can get by searching online…Like to St.Joseph or St. Therese etc. Or there are novenas to the Sacred Heart etc.

While such a favor is a lovely reminder of this saint’s intercession, there is something of which you should be careful. If you approach this novena from the perspective that, if you pray it in exactly the right way, you will be rewarded with a rose in answer to your question, you are engaging in superstition.

The *Catechism *warns, “Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition” (2111).

A novena is simply the pious practice of praying for a particular intention nine times. It is usually done with one prayer over a nine-day period but can be done by praying the same prayer nine times in a row. Any formal, informal, or spontaneous prayer done in a set of nine times constitutes a novena. You may use a formal novena that is approved for devotional use or you may put together your own set of prayers for your private use. The only requirement is that the prayers not be said with the intention to manipulate an answer from God. Whatever they are—if they are said faithfully and with trust in God that he will answer your prayer in the manner he wills to do so—they are fine.

So, in short, no, you don’t have to start over this novena; but you must abandon any thought that saying a novena will be automatically rewarded with the response you have specified.

catholicdoors.com/prayers/novena.htm

Here’s a whole collection of them.
 
Sorry guys, another stupid question.

What is a novena? Is this a prayer said to a specific saint? What is it for? What does it do?
A novena is a period of nine days (or a series of nine devotions offered over s specific period of time) in which one prays for a particular intention.

You may have seen the novena of rosaries being offered for the upcoming election. People will pray the rosary every day for nine days for the intention of our nation.

We get the number nine because in the Bible, in the Acts of the Apostles, the disciples are recorded as being “of one mind and in constant prayer with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers” for nine days following Our Lord’s ascension into heaven when the Holy Spirit came upon them as tongues of fire and they all began to speak in the languages of all the nations who were in Jerusalem for the Pentacost.
 
So, in short, no, you don’t have to start over this novena; but you must abandon any thought that saying a novena will be automatically rewarded with the response you have specified.

catholicdoors.com/prayers/novena.htm

Here’s a whole collection of them.
Thank you for the information. I have not started a novena, since without knowing what one was how could I? But I have seen the phrase used here and other places online as well as in the newspaper about thanks to St Jude for this or that novena.
 
Thank you for the information. I have not started a novena, since without knowing what one was how could I? But I have seen the phrase used here and other places online as well as in the newspaper about thanks to St Jude for this or that novena.
I see your signature says that you are Protestant. Although novenas, per se are not generally part of Protestant devotional practice, people DO launch prayer campaigns for specific periods of time (often 40 days) – pretty much the same idea.

I always chuckle when the anti-Catholic types launch out at Catholics for the “unbiblical” practice of praying novenas. 😛
 
I see your signature says that you are Protestant. Although novenas, per se are not generally part of Protestant devotional practice, people DO launch prayer campaigns for specific periods of time (often 40 days) – pretty much the same idea.

I always chuckle when the anti-Catholic types launch out at Catholics for the “unbiblical” practice of praying novenas. 😛
No, Novenas are not. But I am searching and researching and desire to go home to rome so to speak so I am asking and learning.

I agree with you that it seems odd to lambast someone or group for the ‘sin’ of praying. We shouldn’t pray over and over but it’s ok to repeat the last chorus of whatever contemporary christian song is popular with the praise team 5 or 10 times. Blech.
 
No, Novenas are not. But I am searching and researching and desire to go home to rome so to speak so I am asking and learning.

I agree with you that it seems odd to lambast someone or group for the ‘sin’ of praying. We shouldn’t pray over and over but it’s ok to repeat the last chorus of whatever contemporary christian song is popular with the praise team 5 or 10 times. Blech.
😃
 
I agree with you that it seems odd to lambast someone or group for the ‘sin’ of praying. We shouldn’t pray over and over but it’s ok to repeat the last chorus of whatever contemporary christian song is popular with the praise team 5 or 10 times. Blech.
First, you’re not a heretic. Second…nice observation… :o
 
Yeah MarcoPolo is right. The very fact that you are open to the truth and seeking with good will to follow it where ever it leads, is evidence that you do not have the obstinance to be a heretic. 🙂
 
I see your signature says that you are Protestant. Although novenas, per se are not generally part of Protestant devotional practice, people DO launch prayer campaigns for specific periods of time (often 40 days) – pretty much the same idea.

I always chuckle when the anti-Catholic types launch out at Catholics for the “unbiblical” practice of praying novenas. 😛
Haha, me too, of course, with the novena being so solidly based on the scriptural episode of the Apostles praying fervently during the nine days between the Ascension and Pentecost!
 
Sorry guys, another stupid question.

What is a novena? Is this a prayer said to a specific saint? What is it for? What does it do?
read the Bible you will find your answer there… remember the walls of Jericho?

:bowdown: :byzsoc:
 
No, Novenas are not. But I am searching and researching and desire to go home to rome so to speak so I am asking and learning.

.
Welcome home my friend, may the Holy Spirit guide you and protect you on your journey.
 
The idea of a novena is, in fact, based on the Bible. In the book of Act of the Apostles, we see what happens after Jesus ascended into Heaven. The Apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary prayed intensely for nine days. On the tenth day, Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon them.

So novenas are indeed biblical.

Oh, and to the OP, no question asked in earnest with the honest desire to learn is ever stupid. After all, there was a time when I did know what a novena was either.
 
Your self-effacing humor tells me that you’re not a very good heretic! 😉 😃
 
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