Week 6: Faithful Citizenship Novena

The Office of Human Life and Dignity and Catholic Charities-Social Concerns are collaborating to offer the sixth of seven weeks of prayer, study and action as we prepare for upcoming elections.

Prayer is one of the first steps in acting for justice in our world. The following novena—nine days of prayer—is rooted in the biblical tradition and the Church’s social teaching. It is intended to promote justice and peace in our neighborhoods, our country and our world.

May this novena help to give hope to the poor who suffer from injustices and hope in your life that you may know the peace of Jesus Christ.

Pray

(Opening prayer and novena prayer to be said daily)
 

Opening Prayer:

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in us the fire of your love.
 

Novena Prayer:

Immaculate Heart of Mary, help us to conquer the menace of evil, which so easily takes root in the hearts of the people of today, and whose immeasurable effects already weigh down upon our modern world and seem to block the paths toward the future.

From famine and war, deliver us.

From nuclear war, from incalculable self-destruction, from every kind of war, deliver us.

From sins against human life from its very beginning, deliver us.

From hatred and from the demeaning of the dignity of the children of God, deliver us.

From every kind of injustice in the life of society, both national and international, deliver us.

From readiness to trample on the commandments of God, deliver us.

From attempts to stifle in human hearts the very truth of God, deliver us.

From the loss of awareness of good and evil, deliver us.

From sins against the Holy Spirit, deliver us.

Accept, O Mother of Christ, this cry laden with the sufferings of all individual human beings, laden with the sufferings of whole societies. Help us with the power of the Holy Spirit to conquer all sin—individual sin, the “sin of the world” and sin in all its manifestations.

Let there be revealed once more in the history of the world the infinite saving power of the redemption: the power of merciful love.

May it put a stop to evil.

May it transform consciences.

May your Immaculate Heart reveal for all the light of hope. Amen.

For the novena’s daily readings, reflections and prayers, go to cutt.ly/FaithfulCitizenshipNovena.

Act

Share this novena with a friend or family member to pray with you. Pray for our community and our nation. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20). †