The Messenger - May 2008 - Novena to the Sacred Heart
By Brendan Comerford, SJ - 01 May 2008
A Novena?
The origin of the idea of praying for a special intention for nine days is very attractive and worth thinking about - it comes from the alleged length of time that Mary and the eleven remaining disciples spent praying together in the upper room, waiting for the Spirit to come upon them at Pentecost. In our imitation of them in these nine days we’ll surely be in good company, especially with Mary, the one who shows us what our attitude in prayer should be: she always trusted, despite confusion; she continued to hope, despite the seeming darkness. The disciples were a small community of fragile yet hopeful trust, of confusion yet deep desire within their hearts. In short, they were probably very much like ourselves at the beginning of this novena.
On each day of the novena, try to have a few quiet moments with yourself or with others to reflect on the scripture passage. Then, in your own time, move on to the reflection and think about what it might say to you today. Then pass on to the short prayer and make it your own. Always end with the Novena Prayer and include in it any intention you would like to make.
Novena Prayer
Lord Jesus, the needs of your people open your heart in love for each of us. You care for us when we are lost, sympathise with us in loneliness, and comfort us in mourning; you are closest to us where we are weakest. You love us most when we love ourselves least; you forgive us most when we forgive ourselves least; and you call us to spread your love in whatever way we can.
Lord Jesus, your heart is moved with compassion when we are suffering, when we need your help, and when we pray for each other. I ask you to listen to my prayer during this Novena, and grant what I ask. (Mention your intention silently). If what I ask is not for my own good and the good of others, grant me what is best, that I may build up your kingdom of love in our world. (Fr. Frank Doyle, S.J.)
First Day (Thursday 22 May) What do you desire?
Scripture: As Jesus passed, John stared hard at him and said, ‘There is the Lamb of God’. Hearing this, the two disciples followed Jesus. Jesus turned round, and said, ‘What do you want?’ (Jn.1:35-37).
Reflection: Jesus addresses the same question to you at the beginning of this novena, ‘What do you want?’ St. Augustine said that all our desires are really a longing for God in disguise; where there is real desire, there is prayer. So, be at peace, in your desire you are already praying!
Prayer: Lord, I come to you at the start of this novena with a muddle of desires. Give me courage, to listen to what you want to say to me about these desires and give me the strength to accept your loving desires for me and for my loved ones.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you
Second Day (Friday 23 May) What does God desire?
Scripture: So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to you; search and you will find, knock, and the door will be opened for you. For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him… (Lk.11:9-10).
Reflection: St. Augustine said, ‘For yourself you have made us, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you’. I love a change a modern theologian has made in those lines - he writes, ‘Your heart is restless until we rest in you’. Our God is vulnerable to our free response of love or neglect. Surely this is what the Sacred Heart is desperately trying to tell you and me.
Prayer: Lord, you see my poverty and you love me better than I can love myself. Supply my wants according to your mercy. Help me to accept your will without seeking to understand disappointments. Help me to resign myself entirely and absolutely to you. Amen.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.
Third Day (Saturday 24 May) When I find prayer difficult
Scripture: When we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words. God knows perfectly well what the Spirit means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God. (Rom 8:26-28).
Reflection: Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-97) once said that love was her vocation in life. Never was this vocation tested more than in the last nine months of her life as she lay dying with tuberculosis. She wrote a note to her sister Céline, ‘Here is great love, to love Jesus without feeling the sweetness of his love - that is love pushed to the point of heroism’.
Prayer: Jesus, I believe. Help my unbelief. Jesus, you are the real bedrock of my hope. Help me always to rely on you, especially in times of doubt and trouble.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.
Fourth Day (Sunday 25 May) How do we look at each other?
Scripture: Jesus looked at him and said, ‘sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, then come, follow me.’ But his face fell at these words and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth. (Mk.10:21-22)
Reflection: A Dominican theologian once wrote, ‘A person is enlightened not when they get an idea but when someone looks at them’. How we look at another has tremendous consequences for self-esteem. The Sacred Heart looks at each one of us with deep love, understanding and compassion. We are called to look at others in the same way.
Prayer: Jesus, you looked at the rich young man with love and yet he could not respond to your call. Help our prayer to become our looking at you looking at us and smiling with love so that we will not run from the love that you offer.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.
Fifth Day (Monday 26 May) Has no one condemned you?
Scripture: Jesus looked up and said, ‘Women, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, sir’, she replied. ‘Neither do I condemn you,’ said Jesus ‘go away and don’t sin any more.’ (Jn.8:10-11).
Reflection: I read something recently which went like this: ‘You do not have to be good before God will love you; you do not have to repent before you will be absolved by God. It is all the other way around. If you are good, it is because God’s love has already made you so; if you want to be forgiven, that is because God is forgiving you.
Prayer: Jesus, as I reflect upon your Sacred Heart, help me to have a deep felt knowledge that you have already forgiven and long to forgive all my sins. Your Sacred Heart is love made visible.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.
Sixth Day (Tuesday 27 May) Honesty in Prayer
Scripture: On arriving, Jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days already. When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. She said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you. (Jn.11:17-24).
Reflection: St. Ignatius Loyola said that we should always speak to Jesus in prayer just as one close friend would speak to another. Don’t be afraid to express your real feelings to Jesus - anger, hurt, joy, sorrow, etc. When you’ve made your complaint or expressed your joy, don’t forget one thing: Listen for God’s response! It may come in surprising ways.
Prayer: Jesus, I have to be honest and tell you that there’ve been times when I’ve been angry with you and I feel that you’ve let me down. Help me to trust that you really do have a loving plan for me and for everyone, a plan that most times I find hard to fathom.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.
Seventh Day (Wed. 28 May) What strange friends you have, Lord!
Scripture: Jesus noticed a tax-collector, Levi by name, sitting by the custom house, and said to him, ‘Follow me’. And leaving everything he got up and followed him (Lk.6:27-28).
Reflection: You know the old saying, ‘Show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are.’ Well, Jesus had the strangest set of friends: Levi (a hated tax-collector) Simon the Zealot (a revolutionary); women in prostitution and other ‘public sinners’. Maybe I’m not such bad company for Jesus, after all!
Prayer: Jesus, you once said, ‘I’ve come not to call the virtuous but sinners to repentance.’ During your ministry, you sat and ate with sinners. This practice of yours gives me great hope that your love will bid me welcome too!
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.
Eighth Day (Thursday 29 May) Peace be with you!
Scripture: The apostles were talking when Jesus stood among them and said ‘Peace be with you!’ They thought they were seeing a ghost. But he said, ‘Why are you so agitated? Look at my hands and feet. Touch and see for yourselves.’
Reflection: Peace; Look; Listen; Go: Jesus greets the apostles with that soothing word, ‘Shalom’ (Peace) - it means I wish you the fullness of wellbeing of mind and body and soul. He then invites them to look at his hands and side. He encourages them to listen to what the scriptures say about him and then to go and preach the Good News that He is Risen!
Prayer: Jesus, help me to listen to those four precious words you say to us all: ‘Peace’; ‘Look’; ‘Listen’; ‘Go’. Help me to appreciate their meaning in my life.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.
Ninth Day (Friday 30 May) Thank you, Jesus!
Scripture: Finding himself cured, one of the ten lepers turned back and threw himself at the feet of Jesus. This made Jesus say, ‘Were not all ten made clean? The other nine, where are they? (Lk.17:17-18)
Reflection: Did you know that in the Old Testament the word ‘praise’ has onlyone object - God! In the psalms, to praise is to live; not praising is the same as not living, not living the life which is God’s gift, to be returned in praise. A Jewish rabbi has written, ‘It is difficult to feel depressed when you remember fairly constantly that life is a gift. Faith teaches us to make a blessing over life. Making a blessing over life is the best way of turning life into a blessing.’
Prayer: I want to say ‘thank you, Jesus’ for these nine days of prayer, of talking and listening to you more closely than usual. Thank you especially for all the things in my life that I just take for granted every day, forgetting that they are pure gift.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.