Daily Mass / Novena

[jediknight]

Another poster / thread reminded me of my problem with going to Daily Mass, which is rather weird… at first my problem was getting up out of bed in the morning, then I developed a strong issue with scruples , so then once I got over those two things , I realized that once I got back home from mass for the day, I felt depressed again… an being unemployed has a lot to do with it, but I just don’t know… I have one place a homeless shelter I can volunteer at in town but honestly it drains me hard emotionally, sometimes spiritually, sometimes physically, sometimes all three… and im like come on that is just an excuse an more over I can use that as a cause for mortification / works to offer up in conjunction with my prayer life , etc…

It is almost a bipolar feeling to go to daily mass and be filled with joy to leave and go home an become depressed or filled with despair … I dunno what to make of it… I would talk to my spiritual director but unfortunately he is going to be extremely busy this month…

Then I have a question regarding a Novena I found in Perpetual Adoration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus ( side rant, are we actually praying to Jesus, or his physical heart which I mean if we are praying to His physical heart, how does one pray to an organ ? or is it the Holy Spirit that is the Heart of Christ ? ) side rant aside, it was a printed out piece of paper folded an it containted the prayers to say, but it thus requested to print out so many copies which are to be left behind daily in Church I assume for daily mass, and or I assume at Perpetual Adoration would suffice as well.

So how is this not a chain mail, that when growing up children I knew would make silly chain mail letters saying some rubbish on like " if you read this and do not make x amount of copies and give it to your friends you will have bad luck ".

how is this copied folded novena I found , an actual form of praying and not some chain mail letter that is going to be considered invalid if I don’t make the copies and leave it behind as instructed ???

Is there a way to pray a novena with out going through this process of leaving behind more copies or is there an explanation to this reasoning ???

lastly I am rather afraid to enter into a novena, I know God does not always answer prayers in the way we expect, but in the way we need, and thus comes into play how much do I really trust Christ and God… and thus I enter this loop of yes I Trust, an here comes the BUT I know God probably wont answer my prayer in the way I expect and I am going to have to keep my eyes open an my heart… now I just sound lazy sheesh…

okay that is all for now folks.

ty.

 

[RoseMary131]

Is there a way to pray a novena with out going through this process of leaving behind more copies or is there an explanation to this reasoning ???

You can pray a novena and NEVER have a need to make even one copy or leave a copy any place.

God does not require us to “copy and leave” prayers.

How would God have expected someone to do this years ago if they had no paper or ink?

 

[jediknight]

Ty for the response in regard to the Novena, I figured it to be rather odd as if the prayer or novena would be I guess invalid if one did not make the paper copies as instructed… I figured Novenas’ in general never require such an act but as I said I found this one by chance in adoration and it looks home made and stated to copy and leave copies… so I wasn’t really sure , I don’t take praying to be taken litely so… there ya have it…

Also I take it a novena can be said to any saint, to Mary, and of course to Christ, but are there specific prayers or does one pray the nine days in their own manner of prayers ?

 

[Dorothy]

You can do a novena in your own words as well…like having a reverent chat with a saint. It is always good to add an Our Father and other prayers also…

 

[Mary_Ellen]

There was another post, yesterday or so, that asked about a 9 day novena to St. Jude that required 9 copies be placed in church each day of the novena (forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=820110). These chain-letter type requirements attached to a novena are superstitious and just clutter churches with more trash that needs to be cleaned up after.

Novenas are wonderful disciplines in prayer but, please, skip the copies.

 

[Dorothy]

We do not have to bribe the Lord by doing certain things. (except practice virtue of course! ).

We need humility and trust and prayer.