Encountering Christ through Marian Novenas

We encounter Christ our hope through prayers. The prayer menu of many Catholics is rich with assorted Novenas. The average ardent Catholic has prayed at least one novena. The Catholic Treasury of prayers is stupendously rich with novenas. There is a novena for almost every situation. But what is a novena?

At the rudimentary level, it is a prayer or set of prayers said over nine days in honor of a saint and/or a cause. It owes its etymology to the Latin root for the number nine and dates originally to the Pentecost experience where the apostles and Mary waited in prayer for nine days. Novenas are often prayers revealed by Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary to a holy man or woman for specific causes. Novenas are often popularized by these holy men and women. They are prayed over nine days for particular needs and causes. 

Abby Frederickson's blog on how to pray a novena details the fundamental same  of a novena. https://hallow.com/blog/how-to-pray-novenas/

Prayer comes from faith. It is because of our belief in God, our trust in God that we turn to Him. This turning to God reinforces our faith and also our hope. When we pray, we grow in hope too and are sustained in hope. As Spes Non Confundit (SNC) n.4 tells us “May we learn to pray frequently for the grace of patience which is both the daughter of Hope and its firm foundation.” Throughout the Holy Year then we must grow in our practice of frequent prayer. One way of doing this is through Novenas - Marian Novenas. 

The problem as it were with novenas is the fact that they have been “instrumentalized” to be miracle wielding or yielding. People rate or flock to novenas if they yield miracles. What comes to mind when novenas are mentioned is the magic mentality. We seem to pray novenas when we are in need of something. Novenas are like some top shelf liquor which we pull down when an august guest comes knocking. It becomes a form of “quid pro quo” whereby we pray in exchange for something. After all St Paul invites us in Phil 4:6 - Do not be anxious but in prayer, petition and thanksgiving ask God for anything. While the prayer of petition is inherent in the logic of novenas, prayer is also always about getting to know and love God. Our best way to encounter Christ is in and through prayers like the novena. And so when we pray novenas, we must ask the fundamental question: How they help us to know and to love God?

In a bid to promote frequent prayer through Mary, we have selected 13 Novenas, one per month for the 13 months the Jubilee Year covers. Our first three Novenas - 

Mother of God (Dec. 24th 2024 to January 1st 2025)
Our Lady of Hope (Jan. 9th - Jan. 17th 2025)
Our Lady of Lourdes (Feb. 3rd - Feb. 11th 2025)
eloquently express the point  In the first novena for the jubilee Year, we chose the Novena to Mary, Mother of God which is solemnly celebrated on January 1st every year. Of course, the importance of this celebration has been eclipsed by the overemphasis on the New Year. Prior to now, I had never heard of this novena. It is not one of the popular Marian novenas especially given that it is not attached to a particular Marian apparition and even more so it is not addressing a peculiar distressing human emergency such as an illness, misfortune and you name it. But the proclamation of Mary as Mother of God came as a result of a “dispute” over whether Jesus is fully God and fully man. At the council of Ephesus, the Church affirmed and proclaimed that Christ has a human and divine nature and is one person. Mary is the mother of Christ and therefore the mother of God. Hence, when we pray this novena over the nine days of Christmas, we celebrating both Christ and the Mother, Mary. 

Our second Novena is that to Our Lady of Hope from January 9th through January 17th. This is also another little known novena even though it is attached to an apparition of Our Lady to the village of Pontmain. If hope is the central theme of this jubilee Year, a novena to Our Lady of Hope is quite appropriate. In 2020, Pope Francis added the title “Mother of hope” to the Litany of Loreto. Our hope is anchored in Christ through the intercession of His mother, mother of hope who comes to our aid amid the tempests of this life, comes to our aid, sustains and encourages us. (N.24). We all need hope and novenas sustain our hope. 

Our third novena is the popular novena to Our Lady of Lourdes, France. 11th February is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and is celebrated as World Day of the sick. Here we find a combination of an apparition and a specific cause. Lourdes has become a famous Marian shrine. Mary brings healing to the sick. 

Hence, a good way of encountering Jesus Christ through Marian novenas is by praying one novena every month. 

Marian Novenas for the Jubilee Year 2025

24th Dec. 2024 to January 1st 2025: Novena to Mary, Mother of God

January 9th 2025 - January 17th, 2025: Novena to Our Lady of Hope 

February 3rd, 2025 - February 11th, 2025: Our Lady of Lourdes

March 17th - March 25th, 2025: Novena of the Annunciation 

April 18th - April 27th 2025: Divine Mercy Novena

May 5th - May 13th, 2025: Our Lady of Fatima 

May 30th - June 8th, 2025: Novena to the Holy Spirit 

June 18th - June 27th, 2025: Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

July 8th - July 16th, 2025: Our Lady of Mount Carmel

August 6th - August 15th, 2025: Novena in honor of the Assumption

Sept. 6th - Sept. 14th, 2025: Novena to Our Lady of Sorrows

Sept. 28th - October 7th, 2025: Novena to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary

Nov. 20th - Nov. 28th 2025: Our Lady of Kibeho

Nov. 30th - Dec. 8th 2025: Novena to Immaculate Conception 

Given that the Holy Year is cast as a year of Hope, three other novenas are worth engaging namely: 

St Rita of Cascia - May 14th to May 22nd 2025
St. Jude Thaddeus - Oct. 20th to Oct 28th 2025
Our Lady Undoer of Knots should be prayed every quarter, March, June, September and December 2025. It is a special novena made popular by Pope Francis.
Without spiritually constipating anybody, I highly recommend the 54 Day Rosary Novena, the Surrender Novena and Mother Teresa of Calcutta's Memorare Emergency Novena.