Below are some questions and answers about novenas in general and the Perpetual Novena at home in particular. Those who have some knowledge of Novenas may wish to skip some of the questions.
The first Novena is the Novena in honour of the Holy Spirit. It recalls the prayers of Our Lady and the apostles between Ascension Thursday and Pentecost. It is prayed from the Friday of the sixth week of Easter to the day before Pentecost Sunday.
A perpetual Novena is a prayer service that is held once a week throughout the year. This allows a devotee to start a Novena whenever a need arises, though many people attend year round.
Why say the Perpetual Novena at home?
There are a number of reasons why you might say the Perpetual Novena at home.
- There may not be a Perpetual Novena in a Parish near you
- You may not be able to get to a parish Novena because of age, illness or lack of transport.
- The Parish Novena may be at a time when you are at work
Who can say the Perpetual Novena at home?
Anyone can say the Perpetual Novena at home, you can say it alone, however, we encourage you to invite a few friends and/or fellow parishioners to join you.
Who will want to say the Perpetual Novena at home?
Some of your friends and certainly some of the members of your parish will have a great love for Our Lady and they will jump at the opportunity of being able to share a weekly Novena, praying for their families, for their children and grandchildren.
Other friends and parishioners will be grateful for the opportunity to come together in a small community of faith to pray for their own special needs. They can bring all their worries about their health or their financial situation to Our Lady. And as they offer all these worries in prayer they will experience Our Ladies powerful intercession. That is why the Church calls her Our Mother of Perpetual Succour, or Our Mother of Perpetual Help, always ready to help us.
Again, other friends will be very concerned about the state of the world and about the places in our world which are being ravished by terrorism of all kinds. They will welcome the opportunity to have a special time with Our Lady asking her to intercede for all those troubled places on our planet.
A prayer of petition is one asking for a specific need, it can be for yourself or for others. It would generally be a concern about something that is affecting someone physically, spiritually, emotionally or psychologically. Some people worry about getting the wording right. It is common experience to learn prayers but not learn how to pray. God knows what is in your heart and what you are asking, do not get tied up worrying over semantics.
You can bring all your needs to the Novena. You can send us your special intentions via our 'Petitions and Thanksgiving page' we will post them, anonymously, on the Home Novena website and invite all other Home Novena Groups to pray for your intentions. In this way you will receive the prayers of thousands of people whom you have never met but who are united with you in prayer as you make the Novena.
Please note that we ask that petitions do not contain personally identifiable information, if they do we will remove such information before posting. Intentions that are really spam or contain inflammatory language or requests will not be posted.
What is a prayer of thanksgiving?
A prayer of thanksgiving is one where you acknowledge needs that have been answered and express your gratitude.
When you receive an answer to your prayers please send us your words of gratitude to Our Lady via our 'Petitions and Thanksgiving page' and we will post them, again anonymously, on the website. When others read about the answer you received through the Perpetual Novena they will be inspired to a deeper faith and trust in the powerful intercession of Our Lady.
If the prayer of thanksgiving contains personally identifiable information, this will be removed before posting on the site.
Where can I find a copy of the icon?
Where can I find out how to pray the Perpetual Novena at home?
We have provided a suggested format for a Novena service in the resources section, however, you may add additional Marian prayers or hymns. The suggested format contains a Novena prayer - but we have also provided some alternate Novena prayers that you may prefer, including a Novena and Thanksgiving prayer written for children. Check out our Click here resources section.
What can I do if my home group has become too large?
There are a couple of options, the group could split into two smaller groups, or alternatively you could approach your Parish priest about the possibility of holding the Novena in the parish hall or even in the Church.
I would prefer to attend an organised Novena in a Parish, can you help?
In some places you may be lucky enough to have an organised Perpetual Novena, below is a list of the places where we know that there is a weekly Novena or a Mass with the Novena prayers. If you know of any others in the UK please let us know.
- St Mary's Clapham Saturdays at 7pm
- Bishop Eton Liverpool Wednesdays at 7.30pm
- Erdington Abbey Birmingham Wednesdays at 7pm
If there is no organised parish Novena in your area, your Parish Priest may be reluctant to start one without any evidence that there is a need. In this case you could start with a home Novena and if numbers are appropriate then approach the Parish Priest to consider the idea.