Novena's and their purpose

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Ive been Catholic for over a year now and still learning many awesome things. One thing I dont know a whole lot about are Novena’s and their purpose. I have heard them spoken about but don’t really understand their purpose. Can somebody enlighten me? Thank you!
 
t68ware said:
Ive been Catholic for over a year now and still learning many awesome things. One thing I dont know a whole lot about are Novena’s and their purpose. I have heard them spoken about but don’t really understand their purpose. Can somebody enlighten me? Thank you!
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Ooh Wee! 👍

Ok… I really don’t know the answer to this one, but I’m a recent revert to the Church, myself.

Novenas are prayers in sets of nine: nine hours… nine days… nine weeks… even nine months. The “nine” has significance, but I can’t recall what it is. 😊

With a Novena, you are praying methodically and with a purpose. As with any prayer, they are communication with God. With a Novena, there is a special purpose… something that ~can’t be handled~ in a regular ‘conversation’ 😛

One of the more recent Novenas is the Divine Mercy Novena. This begins on Good Friday and ends the Sunday after Easter. Nine consecutive days, and each prayer has a particular purpose: priest and religious is one, Luke Warm souls is another.

There are many booklets with Novenas. The Novena to the Infant of Prague, the St. Joseph Novena. Some Novenas are for events and holidays, some are for needs, such as a sick person or for a happy marriage.

I have not done many Novenas. Only the Divine Mercy one (I found it several times on the internet and even in a downloaded program for my computer). 😃

I heard some where that Mother Theresa did a Novena where she said the Memorare nine consecutive times.

A person is not any more or less Holy… or Catholic… based on the number of Novenas they do. 🙂
 
9=# of days between the Ascention of our Lord and the day of Pentacost when the Holy Spirit came…

Novenas are symbolic of those 9 days that Our Blessed Lady and His disciples were praying for the decent of the Holy Spirit…

Hope this helps! 🙂
 
Marie5890 said:
9=# of days between the Ascention of our Lord and the day of Pentacost when the Holy Spirit came…

Novenas are symbolic of those 9 days that Our Blessed Lady and His disciples were praying for the decent of the Holy Spirit…

Hope this helps! 🙂
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I have not heard this before.
I believe the nine comes from the latin word novenus which means ninth or consisting of nine.
 
=t68ware;6982613]Ive been Catholic for over a year now and still learning many awesome things. One thing I dont know a whole lot about are Novena’s and their purpose. I have heard them spoken about but don’t really understand their purpose. Can somebody enlighten me? Thank you!
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:)Welcome Home! Happy to.

A Novena is simply another form of prayer.

It is often effective [depending on what we are asking for; because it requires discipline, dedication and reflection. Normally a novena takes place over a period of time. Never just one day.

[COLOR=“Blue”]www.EWTN/novenas.com list these; but there are mny others as well: or GOOGLE “Catholic novenas”

MARIAN NOVENAS

Our Lady Of Good Remedy
3 Hail Marys Novena
Miraculous Medal Novena
Our Lady Of The Rosary
Our Lady Of Sorrows Novena
Our Lady of Hope Novena
Our Lady of Lourdes Novena
Our Lady of Lourdes Novena (Short)
Immaculate Heart Novena

Novena For Peace
Our Lady of Hope Novena
Immaculate Conception Novena
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Novena
Our Lady of Pompei
Annunciation Novena

SACRED HEART NOVENAS

Novena to the Sacred Heart
Sacred Heart of Jesus Novena
Novena of Confidence to the Sacred Heart

Sacred Heart Mediation and Novena
Two Hearts Novena
SAINTS NOVENAS

Little Flower Novena
St. Peregrine Novena
St. Benedict Novena
St. Blaise Novena
St. John Bosco Novena
St. Anthony Novena
Novena to St. Philomena
St.Therese’s 24 Glory Be to the Fathers
Novena to St. Joseph
Novena to St. Joseph (Short)
St .Jude Novena
St. Ann Novena
St. John Vianney Novena
St. Gerard Novena
Maximilian Kolbe Novena
St. Edith Stein’s Holy Spirit Novena

SPECIAL NOVENAS

Divine Mercy Novena
Christ the King Novena
Corpus Christi Novena
Christmas Novena
Ascension Novena
Assumption Novena
Novena to Our Lord of Transfiguration
Holy Family Novena

Novena for Pope Benedict XVI
7 Gifts of Holy Ghost Novena
Holy Spirit Novena
Novena For Priests
Holy Cross Novena
Novena for Grace
For the Souls in Purgatory

Love and prayers,
Pat
 
PJM said:
Normally a novena takes place over a period of time. Never just one day.
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Not to quibble (because I agree with all the great comments in this thread), but they can be just one day. The Infant of Prague novena is often said over 9 hours in one day, and Mother Theresa used the Memorare 9 times right after the other for the express novenas. (And here’s a great story I just found about that: catholicdaily.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=20721&start=0).

I love novenas because they do take time and discipline, so they make me focus for more than just one prayer period.
 
Momofmyangels said:
I have not heard this before.
I believe the nine comes from the latin word novenus which means ninth or consisting of nine.
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Yes. This is true. But WHY the nine? I think that the days between the Ascension of Christ and the Descent of the Holy Spirit is correct and then other things are in nine because of that. 🙂
 
Apryl said:
Yes. This is true. But WHY the nine? I think that the days between the Ascension of Christ and the Descent of the Holy Spirit is correct and then other things are in nine because of that. 🙂
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Yes, I absolutely agree. I had never heard that before and I thank Marie5890 for the links she provided. I love it when I come across new information that makes things make so much more sense! :):)🙂
 
There is also the triduum in the West or three days of prayer and nine is also “3 x 3.”

In the Greek Church, prayer for the dead is made in accordance with multiples of three so Divine Liturgy is served on the third day of death, the ninth and the fortieth, then afterwards after the third month, the sixth month, ninth month and then the yearly anniversary. All this in devotion to the Most Holy Trinity.

Interestingly, the Servite Rosary of 63 Hail Mary’s comes out to “nine” or six + three. The Franciscan Rosary of the seven Joys of our Lady has 72 Hail Mary’s which also comes out to nine.by adding those two numbers.

Asian prayer beads often have 108 beads which, when added, come out to nine as well. divided in half, there are 54 or 5+4. Divided again, 54 comes out to 27 or 2+7. And 27 is three x nine. Doubling 108, one gets 216 or 2+1+6. Tripling the number, one gets 324 or 3+2+4.

In the Christian East, rather than novenas, people will pray for an intention for forty days. The first forty days following a person’s death are important and it is crucial to pray for them then as the end of that period is when their soul will receive the judgement by Christ and will be assigned to a place until His Second Coming. Psalm 118 especially should be read daily by family members and friends.

Alex
 
Alexander_Roman said:
There is also the triduum in the West or three days of prayer and nine is also “3 x 3.”

In the Greek Church, prayer for the dead is made in accordance with multiples of three so Divine Liturgy is served on the third day of death, the ninth and the fortieth, then afterwards after the third month, the sixth month, ninth month and then the yearly anniversary. All this in devotion to the Most Holy Trinity.

Interestingly, the Servite Rosary of 63 Hail Mary’s comes out to “nine” or six + three. The Franciscan Rosary of the seven Joys of our Lady has 72 Hail Mary’s which also comes out to nine.by adding those two numbers.

Asian prayer beads often have 108 beads which, when added, come out to nine as well. divided in half, there are 54 or 5+4. Divided again, 54 comes out to 27 or 2+7. And 27 is three x nine. Doubling 108, one gets 216 or 2+1+6. Tripling the number, one gets 324 or 3+2+4.

In the Christian East, rather than novenas, people will pray for an intention for forty days. The first forty days following a person’s death are important and it is crucial to pray for them then as the end of that period is when their soul will receive the judgement by Christ and will be assigned to a place until His Second Coming. Psalm 118 especially should be read daily by family members and friends.

Alex
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Alex, Thanks sooo much for that very informative and interesting explanation as to the prayer traditions of our other Catholic rites!

We must never forget we are all part of the universal church even though we differ in some of our ways!. 👍
 
Dear Marie,

Well, thank you!

But I’m afraid many of my Eastern Catholic friends consider me to be “Latinized” since I love so many Latin Catholic devotions (as did many Orthodox saints).

The Rosary and other chaplets, the Stations of the Cross, the recitation of the Hail Mary at the turn of every hour, the Little Office of the BVM - these and more were popular among such Orthodox saints as: Dmitri of Rostov, Tikhon of Zadonsk, Peter Mohyla and others.

The great St Seraphim of Sarov (who is now on the Catholic calendar) prayed a version of the Rosary daily and insisted that all Christians pray it. He even said that it was revealed to him that the Rosary is THE most important daily prayer for all Christians to say in order to obtain the protective intercession of the Most Holy Mother of God over our lives.

Amen to that!

Alex
 
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