Among the preparations for the forthcoming canonisation of Blessed John Henry Newman on October 13 is a special novena, or nine days of prayer.
The Birmingham Oratory, which is organising the event, has described the novena as “a time of special grace for us to join together and form links in a great chain of prayer, where we call upon the soon-to-be-saint to crown our prayers with his intercession in heaven.”
“We encourage you to form links in that chain by joining in our Novena with Newman,” says the Newman Canonisation website (newmancanonisation.com/novena). Parishes, prayer groups and schools are being asked to join the novena by email via a portal on the website and in return, from October 3 (the eve of the first day of the novena), they will receive the first of a series of daily reminders and the texts of prayers to be said.
The novena involves daily meditation on the writings of Cardinal Newman on such themes as sin, the Passion, the Holy Eucharist, the Resurrection, Divine Providence, and the Persons of the Trinity. Each concludes with a prayer of intercession and an Our Father, Hail Mary and a Glory Be.
