Novenas, anyone? For non-Catholics too

I'm really hoping that my non-Catholic readers won't just blow off this post when they see that it's about something so obviously Catholic as novenas. Please try to see this through to the end - it's about PRAYER!

Being a relatively new Catholic (2010) I'm just learning things that are probably second nature to everyone else, one of those things being the efficacy of novenas. For you non-Catholics out there, a novena is a prayer prayed for nine days, the point being that our importunity has weight with God (see Luke 11:5-8, Luke 18:6-8, and of course "ask, seek, knock"). I've prayed several intercessory novenas this year and have been astounded at how effective this method of praying is. If you're not familiar with novenas, and want to read some stories about their effectiveness, buy "Nothing Short of a Miracle" by Patricia Treece (my new favorite book that I think everyone should read).

The description says it perfectly: "God doesn't need humans to work miracles for Him, but it certainly seems His good pleasure to perform great miracles by means of human prayers and human hands."

Since the Church has been using this method of prayer for a couple of thousand years, there are hundreds novenas that already exist in printed form. Many of them are prayers directly to God the Father, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, and many of them ask the help of specific saints as prayer partners and role models for the specific situation you're praying about. You don't have to use an existing novena prayer, or ask any saints to be your prayer partner. The main thing is to show God by your actions that this issue is REALLY important to you and you're desperate for an answer. So none of the "oh Lord won't you buy me a brand new Cadillac" kinds of prayers here. Most novenas are intercessions for someone who is really ill, or in dire straights, or in danger of some sort.

Since I'm just learning about the many saints we have as role models, I'm wanting to learn about their lives and find out who can be most helpful with specific issues. I have a wonderful book on saints, Voices of the Saints, by Bert Ghezzi, with stories of 365 saints who really come alive through his short (1 page each) but excellent biographies. I've bought several books on saints since I got this one, and this is by far the best compendium. It's definitely worth getting as a hardback, since it's a great book for the whole family to read from on a daily basis. The Pirate and I started reading this every day before we became Catholic, and found it to be an inspiring book about brothers and sisters in Jesus who faced the same difficulties we face today, plus some that we will never have to deal with!

So, back to the novenas. I've got a couple of questions, for any of you readers who have engaged in praying novenas. Rather than asking a single saint for prayer support, I figure why not assemble a prayer team? Maybe because for decades I was on intercession teams in the protestant world, but it makes sense to me that "in a multitude of counselors there is safety" and my experience has been that prayers tend to be more focused and deeper in a group than one's individual prayers. Have you ever made a novena with more than one saint? And have you ever created your own novena rather than using an existing one? I'm sure hoping that someone will take the time to respond!

BTW, I found an excellent general-purpose novena that acknowledges the good example of a specific saint (of your choosing) but is directed to Father God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. This would be a novena that could be used pretty easily by non-Catholics who want to try out this ancient way of praying. The problem is - which you'll know if you followed the link - it's in spanish. However if anyone would like a translation of this prayer, I'd be glad to send you one. Just leave your email address in the comment box, or click on my profile which will take you to Google+ and you can click the "email" icon there and send me an email directly.

3 Reasons, September edition

I was so dismayed to find out that I had completely spaced out on the date, that I wasn't ready with a post for my FAVORITE linkup, 3 Reasons I Love Catholicism. I have been so discombobulated this past week - things have not been connecting properly in my head. Maybe it's due to having had 4 Tropical Storms come through here in a week and a half.

Anyway, here are my favorite three for this month:

SHARING PRAYERS.

I've done a post on how my understanding of prayer has changed since becoming a Catholic, but one aspect of this has been a real comfort to me today, and that is that Catholics know that often it's hard to find the words when praying, so they are generous in composing and sharing prayers for specific occasions. Today was the day of fasting for Syria, and I was spinning my wheels, spiritually speaking, in finding a means of praying that I knew was of the depth and breadth that the situation deserved. "Oh God, help the Syrians" wasn't enough. Happily the US Conference of Catholic Bishops put a prayer on their website for us tongue-tied people to use, and I was SO thankful, because it covered aspects of this situation that need our prayers that I, of course, had completely ignored in my own attempts to pray. I have come to love the prayers that others who are more spiritual and articulate than I have made available for the rest of us to use.

SHARING SUFFERINGS.

Since this is the world-wide day of fasting and prayer, it's a good time to be thankful that the Catholic Church identifies with people who are suffering, whether or not they are part of the Catholic family. Of course, christians in general are like Christ in this, but the message becomes so much stronger when it is focused and acted out under the banner of the largest group of christians in the world. The Church keeps her family aware of the sufferings that various members are undergoing (as well as the sufferings of those who are not part of the same family), and calls us to pray regularly for them. We, as a body, pray for those who are suffering at every mass, but as the Pope did in calling for a specific day of prayer, we are often called to special prayer for those who are suffering. And of course, the cloistered monks and nuns throughout the world have prayer for the suffering as their daily work, 24/7/365.

SHARING GLORY.

The Catholic Church understands the amazing gift that God has in store for us - sharing in His glory - because it sees in Mary what that means, what it looks like. All the things about Mary that protestants get the willies over are for ALL of us: her purity (we will be clothed in white), her importance in the redemption of mankind (God made us to be co-workers with Him), her queenship (we will reign with Him). If we can't look at these things made visible in Mary, we are missing the joy that comes from truly laying hold of the hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. She is what we will be, and that's not something to be sneered at, but received with awe.

For more wonderful things about the Catholic Church, click yourself over to Micaela's blog.

7 Quick Takes from Mexico

I'm joining up with Jen and the gang at Conversion Diary for Seven Quick Takes with the hope of getting some bits and pieces of things up and out of my list of draft posts.

[1] I went to Holy Hour this evening before mass, and just as I got there it sounded like all the fire engines and ambulances in town were racing to what must have been a giant emergency. About 10 minutes before mass started, they came racing back the other way, horns and sirens blaring. A minute later ALL the bomberos (volunteer fire department), including the junior group of bombero trainees and the Cruz Roja (Red Cross) people, marched into the church. What was going on? They sat down around me and remained through the end of Holy Hour.

When the mass started, Padre welcomed them all and announced that they were there to give thanks to God and the mass was dedicated to honoring their service in the community. I was trying to imagine all the members of the Mendocino Volunteer Fire Department, of which my son Matt is one, going to church together to give thanks to God and have the pastor bless them - NOT going to happen in our lifetime! At the end of the mass Padre went outside with them where their vehicles were parked and blessed the whole group. And of course, I didn't have my camera with me because you don't need a camera in church...RIIIGHT! (I'll try not to make THAT mistake again).

[2] Last week I did a series of posts about a trip we made to mainland Mexico. Our priest had invited us to come stay with him and his family (mom, brothers & sisters, and MANY nephews) while he was on vacation, and we were delighted and honored, so off we went. However, I forgot to do a post of the day we spent exploring Padre's home city of Leon (BAD FAIL!). Leon is the leather capital of Mexico, and I've never seen so many shoe stores! Whole shopping malls of stores selling only leather goods, entire mercados with hundreds of tiendas filled with purses, streets with shoe stores on all four corners. However, as this link describes, that's not what the people of Leon are most proud of (it's a great story!)

We went to the cathedral and I fell in love with this statue of Mary, holding her Son's crown of thorns. Unfortunately I didn't get a clear enough photo, so I guess I'll just have to go back to take another one!


[3] Something else that really impressed me was an altar in the cathedral museum. It was made by a famous Mexican artisan for Pope Benedict to use when he visited Leon last year. The entire thing is silver, and it was made as an act of love, not because the Pope asked for it (I can't even imagine that humble man asking for anything!) So now that it's in a museum we all get to enjoy the amazing craftsmanship of this piece.


[4] I was praying the rosary recently and when I got to Jesus being crowned with a crown of thorns God showed me something I had never seen before. Jesus is the King, so it is right that he was crowned. If the people who crowned him did it to mock him, that doesn't affect the fact that the King should have a crown. It's not the intent of the giver that matters; it's the significance in God's eyes that counts. Even though the soldiers put a crown on Jesus to shame him, his dignity in suffering showed that he was worthy to wear it. Here's an image from the Cristo Rey monument we visited, in which a huge crown of thorns encircles the entire interior of the church.


[5] Back at home, we've been working on our "outside house" - a huge palapa-covered patio (a palapa is a roof of palm leaves) - to make it more usable, since the hot weather has finally arrived and it's actually cooler under the palapa than in the house. The outdoor kitchen and dining areas needed work. Two of the four chairs in our dining area had been wrecked by being out in the rain - the woven esparto grass seats had fallen apart - so I painted them and wove new seats using colored strapping tape. Here's a pic of what the chairs looked like before (with the woven grass seats) and what they look like now.


[6] As a birthday present (my birthday is Sunday), David made me a cabinet for our outdoor kitchen because I had nowhere to put pots, pans, plates, etc. I made a mosaic top from tiles left over from our guest suite construction, and today I grouted it.


[7] Well, I can't top Jen's scorpions (although we have them down here, but apparently nowhere near as many) but here is an interesting bug that just showed up on our living room floor. It's not poisonous, just big with VERY long antennas.


With that great ending (?) I'm sure you'll want to find better images to fill your mind, so fly on over to Jen's and see what else is there - a plethora of options, I assure you.

Monday Musings: prayers of the saints

Our church is located along one side of the town plaza where all the community events occur. A few days ago when we arrived for the evening mass we discovered that there was going to be a free dance that evening on the plaza, and a band was setting up and practicing as we entered the church to pray the rosary before mass. The noise continued throughout the rosary and during the mass, which the priest shortened because the noise was so distracting.

I started to get huffy in my thoughts - "Why aren't they considerate? Why didn't someone in the local government (offices across the plaza from the church) tell them to wait until mass was finished?" Then I remembered the christians in Syria...in Nigeria...in Egypt...in Pakistan who, when they hear a disturbance outside, are hearing bombs and gunfire. They have good reason to expect martyrdom when they hear loud noises. All we had to expect is a community dance!

This thought led me to pray for all those christians in dangerous situations, and to commit to a day of prayer for them every week, especially for the priests and bishops who must guard their flock as best they can. It's times like this that I most clearly see the hand of Mother Mary teaching me how to pray as she prays, so that I might join with her and with all the saints in their prayers for us who are still fighting the battle. That is also something I pray for daily - her guidance in learning to pray more like her.


As a protestant, I knew I was drawn to prayer and intercession. I always spent a lot of time in prayer, and was involved in intercessory groups. But all that I learned about prayer in 40 years of devoting myself to it was pretty minimal compared to what I have learned through the examples of the saints since I became Catholic and gave myself permission to read their stories. And to find the treasures in written prayers! As a protestant I thought that the only prayers that God heard were the spontaneous ones, because only they could be "from the heart". How far off the mark that was! O the depths of the riches of the prayers than have been created from the hearts of the saints and prayed for centuries! The structure of these prayers is like a guideline into the depths of the human heart, deeper than I could ever go on my own, even after 40 years of trying. Just as lectio divina does in meditating on the scriptures, the prayers of the saints that we have had handed down to us draw us into reflecting on the mysteries and glories of God, and serve especially to teach us how to intercede for others "in the name of Jesus" (in the same way that He does).


Another amazing aspect of the prayers we have received from the saints is that people all over the world are praying the same prayers. And if you have a daily prayer devotion such as the Liturgy of the Hours (otherwise known as the Divine Office) or the rosary or the chaplet of divine mercy, you can be sure that many people around the world are praying the same prayers WITH you at the same time. Now THAT's the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace made manifest in the Body of Christ!


That's not to say that spontaneous prayers have no place - of course they do! They're our conversation with our Father and with the other members of our spiritual family. But some of the "set" prayers, because they don't require our minds to focus on the words, serve as our spiritual breathing in and breathing out. The classic example of this is the Jesus Prayer, much favored in the Eastern Church: "Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner". The Hail Mary, the chaplet of Divine Mercy, and numerous other short prayers can serve the same purpose - enabling us to "pray without ceasing", even as we give our outward attention to the tasks before us.

I'll end with the first verses of Psalm 5, which were turned into a song that we sang a lot in the 70s. It's still one of my favorites, and because of the melody the psalm is embedded in my memory and my heart.

Give ear to my words, O Lord
Consider my meditation.
Hearken unto the voice of my cry
My King and my God
For unto thee will I pray
My voice shalt thou hear in the morning.
O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer
Unto thee and will look up.

He heeded their prayer, because they put their trust in Him (1 Chronicles 5:20b)

Monday Musings: the prayers of the Church

I've been learning all I can about the prayers of the Church. Until we became Catholics, corporate prayer was basically saying the Lord's Prayer during the service, along with some miscellaneous other prayers that someone up in front prayed and we answered with "Lord, hear our prayer" (at least, that's how we did it when we were in the Presbyterian church). Corporate prayer was missing totally in the nondenominational churches we attended, unless you count the congregation listening to people praying personal prayers out loud.


I actually didn't even know there was such a thing as "the prayers of the Church" until, as a Catholic, I began praying the Divine Office (actually only parts of it). At the front of the book of the Liturgy of the Hours that I purchased, there was a whole section devoted to explaining the difference between personal prayer and prayers of the church. You can find basically the same information in the EWTN library.

My Spanish-language Liturgy of the Hours book puts it this way (my translation):
'The purpose of the prayer of the Church is not the same as that of personal prayer, which is the conversation of a believer with God, but it is the dialog of the Church with her Spouse, of the people of God with their Father who has chosen them, of the community of those who have been sanctified by the blood of Christ with their Savior. This praying community is the Church in its fullest sense - the universal Church, the one who merits the title of "bride of Christ, radiant, without spot or blemish".'


To realize that throughout the entire world, literally millions of people each day are praying the same psalms and the same biblical passages, to know that the faithful have been praying in this same way for two thousand years, is truly wonderful (it fills me with wonder at the majesty of the unity that God calls us to). To know that people are not "reading" these psalms, these passages, but praying them (lectio divina) - and to take my place in this choir of prayer - is a taste of the eternal community of which we are participants. This is so much deeper and higher than the reading of the Bible in group Bible studies that I have been used to.



Not to say that group Bible studies aren't useful or important - they are - but they correspond more to the Bride reading a letter from her beloved, rather than participating in a conversation with Him. And of course, I'm not contrasting personal prayer or Bible reading with the prayer of the Church. All these are rich means of approaching God. I thank Him that He has provided multiple means of communing with Him, since not all who seek Him can read; not all can gather with other believers; not all have access to a Bible.

I know I have only touched the "hem of the outer garment" of the presence of Christ in the prayers of His spouse. I would love to hear from anyone who has been praying the Divine Office for long enough to give me further insight into this treasure of the Church.