What is a novena?
The tradition of praying a novena originates from the time of the early Church. When Christ had ascended into heaven, he promised the disciples to send the Holy Spirit, so that they would be clothed “with power from on high” (Lk 24:49). During this time, the apostles “were all united in prayer together with Mary the mother of Jesus, and with the women and the brothers of Jesus” (Acts 1:14). In this persistent and strong state of prayer, they all awaited the coming of the Holy Spirit. Exactly nine days separate the Ascension and Pentecost. From these great events grew a firm form of prayer: to pray for nine days while awaiting the wonderful gift from heaven. The word novena comes from the Latin word novem, which means “nine”.
Usually, a novena has a specific prayer intention that is fervently asked of God. A novena includes prescribed prayers, which may partly change from day to day. However, even more important than these is the nine-day state of prayer. This means striving to be in a deeper and closer union with God, not only during the recitation of the novena prayers, but also throughout the rest of the time. One remains in a certain kind of heightened attentiveness toward God. This state of prayer can be supported by short ejaculations of love to the Triune God such as “God, I trust in You”, “I love You with all my heart”, or “I adore and worship You, Holy Triune God”, as well as other spontaneous exclamations and expressions of gratitude inspired by love.
There are many different kinds of novenas: the most common are novenas under the intercession of a particular saint. For example, a novena to Saint Joseph or to Saint John Paul II, or of course to the Virgin Mary, who has countless titles (Mother of Mercy, Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, Our Lady of Sorrows, Mary, Undoer of Knots, etc.). This means that one’s prayer is presented to God through the intercession of a saint. Since the saints are in an unimaginably closer union with God than people on earth, they strengthen our petition and carry it straight before God together with their own prayers and merits.
Here, at this special time, we present a novena to the Holy Spirit. This is the most original novena, as we have learned, bringing us closer to the time of the Apostles, when all were united in prayer together with the Virgin Mary in expectation of the Holy Spirit. In this way, the Virgin Mary is always praying with us—she, filled with the fullness of the Holy Spirit, is in a certain sense a guarantee of the coming of the Holy Spirit. We can be sure that where the Virgin Mary is, the Holy Spirit is also present; the heavenly gift will certainly descend, since the Virgin, with her humility, purity, and love, is like a magnet to which God cannot resist. Let us therefore pray fervently like the Apostles together with the Mother of Jesus, that the Holy Spirit may come and bring us all the fullness of His grace.