Novenas

A novena is a prayer said on 9 consecutive days, alone or with others, to prepare for a feast day or to ask God for special graces.

Like so many forms of popular devotions, novenas started in the Middle Ages, with triduums and septenarii, in preparation for a solemnity, or otherwise to enhance the richness of the octaves following a solemnity.

Some confraternities would equip themselves with a proper calendar, rich with all sorts of devotions, in the margin of the liturgical year. The first known novenas were to the Immaculate Conception and for Christmas; both give special attention to the Virgin Mary, but are meant to turn the heart of the faithful towards the mysteries of salvation wrought by Jesus Christ. The "Great Antiphons" sung at Vespers before Christmas in the Catholic Church are a vestige of just that. The faithful having then a limited access to the riches of the liturgy, novenas were a precious means of personal preparation for the important feast days.

The Holy Scriptures (Acts 1:14) tell us that for 9 days, the apostles, with Mary and a few women, waited to be endowed with "the power from on high". This is how the Pentecost novena came about, a novena by which the faithful meditate and prepare for the gift of the Spirit, like the prayers of the Church at that time invited them to do.

Father Vincent Bedon