Aside to Catholics
Friday, March 19, 2010 at 4:35AM Happy Gorton's Fisherman/Macaroni and Cheese Day to you. So, listen. If you've felt the need to...you know... pray for anything this weekend...or ever... anything at all... consider busting out this-here one-day novena.
This is a fast food option of novenadom, which are typically nine-day affairs. But peep this: Here's a last-ditch, oh-crap, just-remembered-the-paper's-due-today alternative. Each installment is extremely quick-- about a minute or so.
This novena is to be said at the same time every hour for nine consecutive hours. Set your cell phone, alarm, or computer clock to remind you. (Today, I am praying it on the :45 mark of each hour from 6:45 AM to 3:45 PM, should you care to join me. Or, just freak me out by calling at those times: "MARY BETH, SHUT UP AND STOP BOTHERING ME. GHOSTBUSTERS 3 WILL ONLY BE MADE IF IT IS MY WILL.")
Powerful Novena of Childlike Confidence
(Say at the same time every hour for nine consecutive hours.)
O Jesus, Who hast said, "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you." Through the intercession of Mary, Thy Most Holy Mother, I knock, I seek, I ask that my prayer be granted.
(Make request.)
O Jesus, Who hast said, "All that you ask of the Father in My Name, He will grant you," through the intercession of Mary, Thy Most Holy Mother, I humbly and urgently ask Thy Father in Thy Name that my prayer be granted.
(Make request.)
O Jesus, Who has said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away but My word shall not pass," through the intercession of Mary, Thy Most Holy Mother, I feel confident that my prayer will be granted.
(Make request.)
requesting at: mbe@drinktothelasses.com
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Catholic Fun Fact: Today is the Solemnity of St. Joseph, so we CAN eat meat! (It's Cannon 1251 in the Code of Cannon Law - we've been debating this in my family for a couple days, and finally turned to google for the final verdict.)
And thanks for the novena - I've never seen a nine-hour one before.
I just read that elsewhere, about the meat! I don't know, though... it feels like cheating. Kind of like relaxing the Lenten give-ups on Sundays. It's not like Jesus came in from the desert once a week for some Miller and a haircut.
I'm an open-minded Catholic-turned-Agnostic, but I still think this makes *way* more sense than the asinine http://dailygrail.com/blogs/red-pill-junkie/2010/3/Office-Witchcraft" rel="nofollow">'cleansing ceremony' my boss performed earlier this week to grant him more money.
I'll try to follow up, if I can just remember how this praying business used to be done.
Just read. Once an hour. Read it to yourself or out loud and mean it. That's all you need.
Thanks for clearing up the novena thing for me - thought for years it was a small nova, which made no sense, since how can anyone measure the size of an exploding sun?
It is also probably the name of a pending Twilight character, but don't let that stop you.
Not Catholic but confused - how is this different from just praying about something?
Good question. I can see how this would seem confusing to someone who is not Catholic. The Church is very big on structured prayer. (Not that "direct conversation" and "free flowing" prayers are discouraged or not done; this is just the most popular avenue for many.) Novenas like this offer a structured framework for urgent prayer, and the hourly "appointments" ensure that the petitioner is in constant prayerful contact with God. I don't know about anybody else, but it's extremely easy for me to get distracted during prayer, and something like this makes me feel as if I am accomplishing something, even if it's in someone else's words. Sometimes I need a little bit more than just "oh please" and there is a certain soothing, meditative quality to the repetition, much like as is found in the Rosary.
As an Agnostic, I still think there's something really powerful about the union of a group of people praying together; maybe it's not as outlandish as what Dan Brown suggests in his novel The Lost Symbol, but there seems to be some kind of influence in the material world caused by thought energy focused during prayer time.
Or, if you want to see it this way, through prayer we're kindling that part of God which is inside every one of us.
Anyway, I hope it helped. I didn't make it all the way through, though —got to the 5th hour, but we had family visits.
The good thing about this type of prayer is that you can always try, try again right away. My past is littered with broken novenas....