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What is a Novena
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A Novena is a prayer in which we ask God for a specific intention. It is repeated for nine consecutive days.
Novenas date back to the time of the Apostles. The origin can be found in the Acts of the Apostles where the Blessed Mother and the disciples prayed in the upper room prior to the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
Please join us as we pray daily for each other's intentions.
Each month we will post a new Novena Prayer as well as a link to have your intentions included.
This March we will pray to Saint Joseph, Patron of the Church, fathers, unborn children, workers, immigrants, and a happy death. We will pray especially for those who have been impacted by the pandemic.
“Always invoke him, especially in difficult times, and entrust your life to this great Saint.” ~ Pope Francis
(Pope Francis has declared a year to Saint Joseph from December 8, 2020 to December 8, 2021)
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Saint Joseph’s Storyfrom Franciscan Media
The Bible pays Joseph the highest compliment: he was a “just” man. The quality meant a lot more than faithfulness in paying debts.
When the Bible speaks of God “justifying” someone, it means that God, the all-holy or “righteous” one, so transforms a person that the individual shares somehow in God’s own holiness, and hence it is really “right” for God to love him or her. In other words, God is not playing games, acting as if we were lovable when we are not.
By saying Joseph was “just,” the Bible means that he was one who was completely open to all that God wanted to do for him. He became holy by opening himself totally to God.
The rest we can easily surmise. Think of the kind of love with which he wooed and won Mary, and the depth of the love they shared during their marriage.
It is no contradiction of Joseph’s manly holiness that he decided to divorce Mary when she was found to be with child. The important words of the Bible are that he planned to do this “quietly” because he was “a righteous man yet unwilling to expose her to shame” (Matthew 1:19).
The just man was simply, joyfully, wholeheartedly obedient to God—in marrying Mary, in naming Jesus, in shepherding the precious pair to Egypt, in bringing them to Nazareth, in the undetermined number of years of quiet faith and courage.
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