Catholic Novenas
Nine days of prayer, offered together for a single intention. The novena is one of the oldest and most beloved forms of Catholic devotion, prayed by the apostles and the Blessed Virgin in the Upper Room between the Ascension and Pentecost (Acts 1:14) and continued in the lived tradition of the Church for two thousand years.
What is a novena?
A novena (from the Latin novem, nine) is a nine-day prayer of petition for a specific intention. The structure has its scriptural root in the nine days the Apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary spent in prayer in the Upper Room awaiting the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Catholic tradition has multiplied the form: novenas to particular saints, novenas to the Mother of God under her many titles, novenas to the Sacred Heart, the Holy Spirit, the Divine Mercy, and novenas anchored to the great solemnities of the liturgical year.
The structure of a novena is simple. Each day, the Catholic prays a brief set of prayers (typically including the day's particular prayer for the intention, three Hail Marys or a decade of the Rosary, and the Our Father), naming the intention each time. The discipline is for nine consecutive days; if a day is missed, the practice is to begin again from day one, since the unbroken sequence is itself part of the prayer.
Why pray a novena?
Catholics pray novenas for the same reasons they pray any prayer of petition: because the Lord Jesus invites the persistent prayer of His disciples (Luke 18:1-8), because the Communion of Saints includes the intercession of the saints in heaven for the souls on earth (Catechism of the Catholic Church 956-962), and because the nine-day discipline deepens the soul's interior life beyond what a single act of petition can do. The novena is, in many cases, more transformative of the soul praying it than of the outward circumstances for which it is prayed.
The novenas of the Catholic Church
Each of the novenas below is a complete Catholic devotion in itself. Each has its own theological foundation, its own historical origin, its own daily structure, and its own particular fruit. Read the overview, then pray the nine days at your own pace.
How to pray a novena well
A novena is most fruitful when prayed in the ordinary disciplines of Catholic life: in a state of grace, with frequent recourse to the sacraments, and with a real intention named at the start. Many of the great Catholic spiritual writers recommend writing the intention at the top of the prayer, so that the soul does not drift from the specific request into general petition. The Our Father, Hail Mary, and the Glory Be are commonly added at the close of each day's prayer, with the explicit petition for the intentions of the Holy Father (which is also part of the conditions for many indulgences).
For a treatment of the Catholic doctrine of the Communion of Saints that lies beneath the novena tradition, see the Communion of Saints. For the Catholic theology of intercessory prayer more broadly, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraphs 2634-2636 and the magisterial development of the doctrine in Lumen Gentium chapter 7.