8 of the most popular novenas

[Michie]

A novena is a traditional form of Catholic prayer lasting nine days. Typically, novenas focus on asking God for a specific intention and many are prayed through a saint’s intercession. Novenas are a beautiful way to grow in prayer and nurture your spiritual life.

Here are eight of the most popular novenas:

Novena to the Holy Spirit​

Also known as the Pentecost Novena, this was the first novena ever prayed by Jesus’ disciples and the Blessed Virgin Mary after Jesus ascended into heaven. Catholics pray this novena during the nine days that fall between the feast of the Ascension and the feast of Pentecost. The novena asks for the Holy Spirit’s seven gifts: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.

Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus​

The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was started by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque after experiencing apparitions of Jesus to spread this devotion. It is also said that St. Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio) prayed the Sacred Heart novena prayer every day. The Sacred Heart Novena is traditionally prayed during the nine days leading up to the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is always 19 days after Pentecost.

Novena of Divine Mercy​

The Divine Mercy Novena was given to St. Faustina Kowalska by Jesus. He told the Polish nun that the novena was to start on Good Friday and gave her an intention to pray for on each day. The novena consists of praying a Divine Mercy Chaplet followed by the daily prayer intentions. While this novena can be prayed during any time of the year, it is recommended to begin on Good Friday in preparation for the feast of Divine Mercy, which is celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter.

Novena to the Holy Family​

Continued below.

8 of the most popular novenas

Novenas are a traditional form of Catholic prayer and are usually prayed for nine straight days — there are exceptions, however.

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[RileyG]

Thanks for posting

 

[The Liturgist]

Interesting, I did not reallze there was more than one Novena. In this respect, they seem to resemble the Byzantine Rite tradition of the Akathists.

Indeed, stylistically, they look somewhat like the Akathists (the oldest Akathist is that dedicated to the Theotokos, the Blessed Virgin Mary), which follow the extremely ancient type of Byzantine hymn known as the Kontakion (of which the Canon, which consists of nine Odes, which are nine Biblical Canticles on some occasions in Lent, and on other days, consist of Odes based on the canticles (usually two odes outside of Lent and Eastertide, using the Octoechos, with the hymn being based on the tone, or echos, of the week) and three odes during Lent and Eastertide, contained in the service books appropriately called the Triodion and the Pentecostarion or Flowery Triodion. More substantial canons are found on those major holy days, for example, those in the Festal Menaion, however, usually Ode Two, which is from Deuteronomy and is extremely penitential in nature, is used only on certain very penitential occasions within the Great Lent.

The Syriac Orthodox also loved the format of the Canon, and translated Greek canons and wrote their own (the word being Qanone in Syriac).

Canons are also reminscent of Novenas in terms of their themes, however, I think the Novena is closer, stylistically, to the Akathist, which is an example of a very long Kontakion, something that was once common but which was largely replaced by the Canon, except for very short Kontakions, typically consisting of just one part, which along with the Troparion, are the two standard hymns which are composed in honor of every saint and for every possible liturgical day.

Everything I have written applies to the Eastern Catholic Churches using the Byzantine Rite, such as the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which I really love, as well as the Eastern Orthodox. Speaking of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, it has an extremely talented contemporary composer named Roman Hurko, who is one of the best composers of liturgical music alive today (Avro Part might come to mind; he is an Estonian Orthodox composer who has composed both settings of the Mass and Western canticles like the Te Deum Laudamus, and Eastern liturgical music, for example, canons, but much of his work is liturgically impractical, whereas everything written by Roman Hurko is ready for immediate use, and he has composed two settings of the Divine Liturgy, as well as Vespers, a Pannikhida for the victims of Chernobyl, and Matins for Good Friday in Church Slavonic, and another setting of the Divine Liturgy in English.