The Triple Novena Begins Again!

Today is the Vigil of Our Lady's Birthday and also the feast of Blessed Frederic Ozanam, founder of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. And (drum roll please) today is the day we begin our annual Triple Novena!

That's a lot to cover in one blog post, but let's ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds with His mind and enflame our hearts with His love. While we're at it, let's ask His Spouse, Our Lady, to send angels to help us with absolutely everything! So much to say and pray, and so little time!

First off, Frederic Ozanam. If you can make time, I highly recommend this amazing essay about this amazing saint:

FOR YOUR LOVE ALONE by the wonderful Franciscan writer, Fr. Boniface Hanley, O.F.M.

Blessed Fred, pray for us! We're thrilled to have you kick off our triple novena this year!

Next, about this triple novena....A few years ago I realized there was a way to say three novenas in succession to land on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, then Padre Pio's feast day, then St. Therese day (that Day of Days in my world)....I didn't plan it to be annual, but that's the thing about a good idea - if you tell your friends, one of them might decide that once is only a beginning.

Sure enough, a dear little Rose asked the next year (I think it was), "Isn't it about time for the Triple Novena to begin?" It helped that Catholic Exchange published this article:

THE TRIPLE NOVENA TO JOIN PADRE PIO'S SPIRITUAL CHILDREN

and Padre Pio found it a good marketing plan for saving more souls.

This year we're starting today (instead of yesterday) so we can enjoy a double header (feast-day-wise) to open the season. Our dates are:

September 7th, Blessed Frederic Ozanam's feast and the Vigil of Our Lady's Nativity begin our daily prayer to Our Lady which will lead in 9 days to.....

September 15th, Our Lady of Sorrows which will conclude our first novena and start our second to St. Padre Pio which in 9 days will lead to.....

September 23rd, St. Padre Pio's feast and the beginning of our 3rd novena prayer to the Little Flower which leads to.....

October 1st (cue angels singing) the new feast of our sister St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face . . . and if you find you've gotten into the habit of praying by then, you can add on a little mini-novena for three days to get you to October 3rd, the old calendar feast of St. Therese!

If you're new here, you may be innocently wondering, "Why a Triple Novena?" and if you're old here, like me, you may be saying in a crotchety kind of way, "Why another Triple Novena?" After all, shouldn't the last one, let alone several, have covered everyone in prayer and saved the world?

Well, it's like this:

Jesus has already saved the world. We're just along for the ride, and He loves to roll down all the windows AND blast the A/C, play the music loudly (think of a favorite Bach Cantata, although lately I've had Amy Grant's "Thy Word" playing over and over in my head), and drive FAST!

You see, there have been a lot more accidents since our last triple novena, and those victims are waiting for our prayer-triage...

For instance:

Miss Marcel East (a dear friend and the one who suggested I start this blog nearly a novena-of-years ago) is currently suffering a debilitating illness and they optimistically expect her recovery to take a full year (if all goes well)! Wow, after all my years of encouraging her to walk the Little Way with me and hopefully avoid all thorns when picking roses (and definitely dodge the cross if we see it coming), I feel like I've let her down. What if I had been more like the saints and encouraged her to carry her daily crosses heroically? Could that have helped her prepare for this Mega-Cross?

I wept over this yesterday, but thankfully a new day and some time spent with Jesus and Marcel and Therese in my little buddy Marcel's book Conversations has cured me. (25 stars, incidentally, and highly recommended, as well as on sale over at the online bookstall that clickable title will lead you to!)

Today I'm all about the power of prayer. It works, and it's time to apply it to Miss Marcel East's case and the 3 new sad situations that have come to my intention (as prayer requests) in the last 18 hours. I'm not kidding! This world is a dangerous place, and I can only begin to explain how much our prayers help. You have to experience it to know, and this is your chance, so - let's go!!!

All the ins and outs of the Triple Novena are presented in the article from Catholic Exchange that is linked above. The gist is that whenever you begin and whatever days you miss, you're still covered. However many intentions you include, adding them in as you go or listing at the beginning the seven thousand and counting most crucial needs of you and yours for miracles (is it just me? Lots of need for miracles in the lives of those I love!), ALL are included, and we're borrowing St. Therese's absolute surrender and trust in God to make all these dreams into realities and all our wishes come true (you know, the ones that really matter).

You can invite friends to join, now or later, you can remember to name Miss Marcel East or just tuck her into your guardian angel's scroll of names, but what I hope you'll do (much more important than anything else you can do) is pray! I'm going to offer specific prayers along the way throughout these 27 or so days, but the key is to do what works for you. Thus, if you prefer, "Mary, help!" to the prayer I'll offer below, go for it! The saints are unanimous on this point: God loves us and hears our least prayer, His ear to our lips, as it were. Sure you've been asking for the same super important miracle for years, and you can't see His answer. There is a clear and obvious next step: 

Keep praying!

Our first novena prayer this year is to Our Lady of Tenderness. I'm not sure I believe the people who hold that all the Our Ladies are really just one, but it serves my purpose here to conflate Our Lady of Sorrows with Our Lady of Tenderness. After all, a hard-edged lady wouldn't be sorrowful the same way a tenderly loving lady would! And praise God, Our Lady who is His Mother and ours is the most tender-hearted there ever was or will be, so we can rest assured that in praying to Our Lady of Tenderness we are addressing Our Lady of Sorrows too.

But is there an Our Lady of Tenderness? Absolutely!
She was the constant companion of St. Seraphim. He had her icon (we've given you a copy of it above) and prayed before her and to her for decades until he died gazing upon her on January 2, 1833, exactly 40 years before the birth of our sister Therese! I think there's a connection here, and if there wasn't before, I'm happy to make one now.

My older son brought me back from Russia an icon of Our Lady of Tenderness, which (or whom) St. Seraphim called his "Joy of All Joys" - how smart the saints are! This icon is unusual for featuring Our Lady without Our Lord, little Jesus . . . but He is there as hidden Jesus because this image is of Our Lady right when she has told the Archangel Gabriel, "Behold the Handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to thy Word." The letters around her head spell out a quote from the ancient Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos "Rejoice, the Bride Unwedded."

So what prayer shall we say? Hearkening to our French roots here at Miss Marcel's Musings, we'll go with our favorite "An Old French Prayer for Friends."

Blessed Mother of those whose names you can read in my heart, watch over them with every care. Make their way easy and their labors fruitful. Dry their tears if they weep; sanctify their joys; raise their courage if they weaken; restore their hope if they lose heart, their health if they be ill, truth if they err, and repentance if they fall. Amen.

​Be assured that we are remembering all your intentions as well as our own - let's place our full confidence in Jesus' words from the gospel yesterday: 

"Again, amen, I say to you,
if two of you agree on earth
about anything for which they are to pray,
it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. 
For where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them."

​Draw me; we will run!!!