NOVENA PRAYERS
1⃣ NOVENA TO ST. PATRICK
2⃣ NOVENA TO ST. JOSEPH
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1⃣ NOVENA TO ST. PATRICK
DAY 7 - MARCH 14
REFLECTION: Despite his experience in Ireland as a slave, St. Patrick loved the Irish people. As a bishop, he was willing to return to them and to risk his life to bring the Irish the Good News of Jesus Christ. How painful it would be for St. Patrick to walk the roads of Ireland today and witness the divisiveness and injustices that continue to feed a festering anger and mistrust in Northern Ireland.
PRAYER: Today, God, I pray that peace will come to Ireland. I pray for an end to prejudice, discrimination, and other injustices that pull the people of Northern Ireland apart. I pray also that all the people of Ireland will be blessed with open hearts and love for one another. I ask, Lord, that all the people of Ireland will soon know the joy of true peace in their land.
Our Heavenly Father sent St. Patrick to preach the Gospel and bring the Holy Eucharist to the people of Ireland. By St. Patrick's intercessory prayer and saintly example, may we always enjoy his protection from every evil. May he always lead us to the truth of the Triune God and the human face of Divine Truth, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(State your intentions here…)
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be...
O Glorious Saint Patrick, pray for us and seek my intention through this Novena but may “God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.
V. Pray for us, O glorious St. Patrick
R. And obtain for us the intention of this Novena.
LET US PRAY: O God, Who didst send Thy blessed servant St. Patrick to instruct and save Thy people, and didst infuse into his heart so great a share of Thine own tenderness, charity, and zeal, listen, we beseech Thee, to the prayers which we now offer up in union with the prayers of this glorious patron and father in heaven, and grant us, through his intercession, the intentions of this Novena, and the grace rather to die than to offend thee. Amen.
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2⃣ NOVENA TO ST. JOSEPH
DAY 4 - MARCH 14
PRAYER BEFORE THE NOVENA: Great Saint Joseph, prostrate at thy feet with feelings of unlimited confidence, we beg thee to bless the Novena that I pray in thy honor. I will meditate upon thy virtues; grant that I may learn fully to appreciate them. The knowledge of them will be the source of great confusion for me because of the poverty and destitution of my soul. Great dispenser of the heavenly treasures, assist me in my poverty, help me to display thy virtues in my own soul. "Thou art never invoked in vain," says the seraphic St. Teresa of Jesus; be thou to me what thou hast been to that Spouse of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; graciously hearken to me as thou didst hearken to her. Amen.
SAINT JOSEPH, MODEL OF PURITY
"How beautiful is the chaste generation!" (Wisdom 4) "The whole weight of gold is as nothing in comparison with a pure soul." (Eccles. 25). St. Joseph was preeminent in purity because he feared God and faithfully observed His holy law; because he safeguarded his virtue by fear of the Sovereign Good and by prudence; because he sheltered it under the virginity of Mary, and felt the influence of Jesus, the divine Son of all sanctity.
How pure must he have been who was to become the worthy spouse of the Immaculate Virgin!
How holy must he have been whose relations with the thrice holy God were so intimate.
(State your intentions here…)
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be...
PRAYER: St. Joseph, help me to understand the excellence of purity and how dear it is to the heart of God. Teach me to preserve carefully this delicate virtue and the shadow of the fear of God; to safeguard it by prayer, by vigilance, by shunning the world, by careful watch over my heart and my senses. Grant that I may hence forward close my heart to all disorderly affections; that I may deserve to enjoy like thee upon earth the friends and intimacy of Jesus, and that it may be given to me one day to sing in Heaven the canticle reserved for Virgins. Amen.
Joseph, most chaste: Pray for us!
Joseph, most prudent: Pray for us!
Joseph, most strong: Pray for us!