Yes, it’s fine. Just don’t get so overloaded on vocal prayer that you leave no time for mental prayer (heart-to-heart conversation with God in your own words).Does anyone know?: Is it okay to “overlap” novenas? I am on day 5 of the Little Flower Novena and would also like to start the novena to St. Francis Xavier, which begins tomorrow (11/25) and finishes on his feast day (12/03). I wasn’t mindful of this overlap in dates and would have planned better had I realized it.
Thank you!
No, there’s nothing magical about it. It’s just praying for something for nine days in a row (often the nine days preceding the feast of a saint whom you are asking to join you in prayer).I don’t really understand Novenas. Is it supposed to be something that magically answers a question?
I guess I’ve heard of some things which I thought people called Novenas in which the person would ask something, like a yellow rose, to appear in reference to a particular answer to a question.No, there’s nothing magical about it. It’s just praying for something for nine days in a row (often the nine days preceding the feast of a saint whom you are asking to join you in prayer).
A novena is modeled after the nine days before Pentecost, when the Apostles were gathered in the upper room in prayer for nine days. In fact, one important novena is a novena to the Holy Spirit which begins nine days before Pentecost.
Some people pray a novena to St. Therese of Lisieux (“the Little Flower”) and expect that they will receive a rose if their prayer is to be answered. But my personal view is that all prayer should be grounded in trust in God, and that we should not generally be seeking physical signs to prove that He is listening.I guess I’ve heard of some things which I thought people called Novenas in which the person would ask something, like a yellow rose, to appear in reference to a particular answer to a question.
I agree!Some people pray a novena to St. Therese of Lisieux (“the Little Flower”) and expect that they will receive a rose if their prayer is to be answered. But my personal view is that all prayer should be grounded in trust in God, and that we should not generally be seeking physical signs to prove that He is listening.