Something New

Last week’s blog was all about being an Easter person. Someone who focuses on possibility, newness, and hope. I’m trying to stay focused on celebration and living life with greater joy and hope. I have recently found a new source of hope in an age-old Catholic form of devotional prayer that I was reminded of in a Firstfruits Well Time session last week. It has really taken me by surprise.

The prayer form is the Novena.

By definition, a novena, derived from the Latin novem, or “nine”, is an ancient tradition of devotional praying, consisting of private or public prayers repeated for nine consecutive days or weeks. The nine-day or nine-week prayer focuses on a specific intention, often asking for special graces, divine intervention, or a saint’s intercession.

Growing up Catholic, I had heard of novenas, but thought that was something the nuns did in endless hours of prayer. It sounded boring and rote. And it seemed very contrived and almost superstitious in nature with designated starting dates to coincide with holidays or feast days of saints and the emphasis on nine days as the “magical” number. What if I said the prayers for ten days, does that still count? Or what if I miss a day, do I start all over? I let my misconceptions leave me in the dark as to the meaning and power in a novena.

Then at Well Time last week the topic was novenas and after our discussion I had a new understanding of the practice and heard from other women about their positive experiences with praying novenas, so I decided to give it a try. For my first foray into praying a novena, I chose a novena to St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes. I have a few situations in my life that I have been praying about for a long time and they have become, in my mind, lost causes. So, I thought this was a good place to start. I could use a new infusion of hope for these situations, and much to my surprise and delight, that is just what I have found in the novena.

I’m also finding it much easier than I thought it would be to stick to the nine days of prayer. With modern technology you can sign up for novenas online and get reminder emails daily. And most of the novenas are only a couple minutes long. Who can’t fit two or three minutes of prayer in their day?

Best of all, it doesn’t feel magical or superstitious. It feels right. It feels like I am doing something concrete to face the difficulties in life, and as a result I have a renewed sense of hope that things can change.

These days following Easter, when we are supposed to be celebrating the Resurrection, is the perfect time to find something new to resurrect your prayer life. I would encourage you to try a novena if you never have before. I recommend the website praymorenovenas. It’s a great place to start learning more about this ancient prayer practice.

Keep enjoying these days of celebration!
Joan