Novena to Saint John Paul II
Novena to Saint John Paul II
October 13th to 21st
First day: Love
Have the courage to live for love… A person’s greatness is not in their possession, but in who they are, not in what they possess, but in what they share with others.
“(…) This message about the purity of the heart is very relevant today. The civilization of death wants to destroy the purity of the heart. One of his methods of acting is to intentionally cast doubt on the value of man’s attitude, which we define as the virtue of chastity. It is a particularly dangerous phenomenon when the target of the attacks is the sensitive consciences of children and young people. A civilization that, acting in this way, harms or even annihilates a correct relationship between men, is a civilization of death, because man cannot live without true love. (…) Announce to the world the ‘Good News’ of purity of heart and, with the example of your life, transmit the message of the civilization of love. I know your sensitivity to truth and beauty. Today, the civilization of death proposes to you, among other things, the so-called ‘free love’. In this kind of deformation of love, we end up desecrating one of the most beloved and sacred values, because debauchery is neither love nor freedom. (…) Do not be afraid to live against fashionable opinions and proposals in contrast to the law of God. The courage of faith has a very high price, but you cannot lose love! Do not allow anyone to make you slaves! Do not let yourself be seduced by the illusions of happiness, for which you would have to pay too high a price, the price of sometimes incurable wounds or even a shattered life!”
(John Paul II, Homily, Sandomierz. June 12, 1999)
Let us pray: God, our Father, in order to return to You, we must find Your Mercy, Your patient love that in You knows no limits. Infinite is Your readiness to forgive our sins, just as ineffable is the sacrifice of Your Son. We confidently ask, through the intercession of Saint John Paul II, that you grant us this grace… Through Christ Our Lord.
Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory.
Litany:
Lord have mercy on us.
Lord have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord have mercy on us.
Lord have mercy on us.
Jesus Christ hear us.
Jesus Christ hear us.
Jesus Christ, answer us.
Jesus Christ, answer us.
God, Father in heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, who are one God, have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us.
Saint John Paul II, pray for us.
Perfect disciple of Christ, pray for us.
Generously endowed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, pray for us.
Great apostle of Divine Mercy, pray for us.
Faithful Son of Mary, pray for us.
Totally dedicated to the Mother of God, pray for us.
Persevering preacher of the Gospel, pray for us.
Pilgrim Pope, pray for us.
Pope of the Millennium, pray for us.
Model of diligence, pray for us.
Model of priests, pray for us.
That you drew strength from the Eucharist, pray for us.
Tireless man of prayer, pray for us.
Lover of the Rosary, pray for us.
Strength of those who doubt their faith, pray for us.
That you wish to unite all those who believe in Christ, pray for us.
Converter of sinners, pray for us.
Defender of the dignity of every person, pray for us.
Defender of life from conception to natural death, pray for us.
Who prayed for the gift of fatherhood for the infertile, pray for us.
Friend of children, pray for us.
Youth leader, pray for us.
Intercessor of families, pray for us.
Comforter of the suffering, pray for us.
Who valiantly endured your pain, pray for us.
Sower of divine joy, pray for us.
Great intercessor for peace, pray for us.
Pride of the Polish nation, pray for us.
Brightness of the Holy Church, pray for us.
So that we can be faithful imitators of Christ, pray for us.
So that we may be strong with the power of the Holy Spirit, pray for us.
So that we can have confidence in the Mother of God, pray for us.
So that we can grow in our faith, hope and charity, pray for us.
So that we can live in peace in our families, pray for us.
So that we may know how to forgive, pray for us.
So that we may know how to endure suffering, pray for us.
So that we do not succumb to the culture of death, pray for us.
So that we are not afraid and courageously fight the various temptations, pray for us.
So that he may intercede and obtain for us the grace of a happy death, pray for us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, forgive us, Lord!
Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, hear us, Lord!
Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on us!
Pray for us, Saint John Paul II, that we may be worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen
Second day: Truth
No one can dictate their own “truth” to another. Truth wins by its own power. Imposing your own points of view makes interpersonal relationships worse, giving rise to disputes and tensions. Thus, one of the conditions for maintaining peace in the world is to respect the freedom of conscience of others, even if they think very differently from us.
“Truth is the light of human intelligence. If since youth the human mind seeks to know reality in its various dimensions, it does so in order to possess the truth, to live the truth. Such is the structure of the human spirit. The hunger for truth is its fundamental aspiration and expression. Christ says: ‘You will know the truth and the truth will set you free’. Of the words of the Gospel, these are certainly among the most important. They refer, in fact, to the whole man. They explain the basis on which the dignity and greatness inherent to man are built from within, in the dimension of the human spirit.
The knowledge that frees man does not depend only on instruction, even if it is in college; An illiterate person can also have it; but this instruction, as systematic knowledge of reality, must serve that dignity and greatness. Therefore, it should serve the truth. (…) In this field, Christ’s words: ‘You will know the truth and the truth will set you free’ become an essential program.
Young people, if we can say so, have a congenital ‘sense of truth’. And the truth must serve for freedom: young people also have a spontaneous ‘desire for freedom’. What does it mean to be free? It means knowing how to use our freedom in truth, being ‘truly’ free. Being truly free does not in any way mean doing everything I like or want to do. Freedom brings with it the criterion of truth, the discipline of truth. To be truly free means to use one’s freedom for what is truly good (…) to be a man of right conscience, to be responsible, to be a man ‘for others’.”
(Apostolic Letter from Pope John Paul II to the young people of the world. On the occasion of the International Year of Youth 1985)
Let us pray: God, our Father, before the Church of the third millennium a vast ocean of creeds of our contemporary world opens up. Believing in You, placing my hope in Christ, I wish to imitate Him and experience the miracle of abundant fishing. Come to the aid of all Christians of our generation to launch ourselves into the depths of truth, good and beauty. Make our Holy Father John Paul II the patron of the new evangelization, and through his intercession grant us this grace… Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory.
Litany…
Third day: The Person
On this earth, be bearers of Christian faith and hope, living with love every day. Be faithful witnesses of the Resurrected Christ, never giving in to the obstacles that accumulate on the paths of your life. I count on you, in your youthful enthusiasm and dedication to Christ.
“Man cannot live without love. He remains an incomprehensible being to himself and his life is meaningless if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and if he does not make it something of his own, if he does not participates vividly. And for this reason, Christ the Redeemer (…) fully reveals man to man himself.
This is – if it is permissible to express it that way – the human dimension of the mystery of Redemption. (…) ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16). And through the Son-Word, who became man (…) God entered the history of humanity (…) one of the billions and, at the same time, Unique!
We want to look to Him, because only in Him, the Son of God, is salvation, renewing Peter’s statement: ‘To whom shall we go, Lord? You have the words of eternal life’… Through all the fields of activity where the Church asserts itself to be present, meets and consolidates itself, we must constantly tend towards the One ‘who is the Head’, towards ‘the One from whom everything comes and we we are created for Him’.
(…) The Church never stops listening to his words, continually re-reads them and reconstructs with the utmost devotion all the details of his life. (…) The Church lives her mystery and will draw from it without ever tiring, and continually seeks ways to make this mystery of her Master and Lord close to the human race: to peoples, nations, succeeding generations and each man in particular.
(…) In this dimension, man rediscovers the greatness, dignity and value inherent to his humanity. In the mystery of Redemption, man is once again ‘reproduced’ and, in some way, is created again. He is created again! (…) The man who wants to understand himself deeply (…) must (…) draw closer to Christ. He must, so to speak, enter Him with all that he is in himself, he must ‘appropriate’ and assimilate the entire reality of the Incarnation and Redemption, in order to find himself. If this profound process takes place in man, then he produces fruits, not only of worship of God, but also of profound wonder before himself. What great value must man have in the eyes of the Creator, if ‘he deserved to have such a great Redeemer’, if ‘God gave his Son’, so that he, man, ‘would not perish, but have eternal life’ (Cf. John 3:16)”.
(John Paul II, Encyclical Redemptor Hominis, 1979)
Let us pray: God, our Father, You are love and You loved us first. Your son became a man for our salvation, and revealing to his brothers and sisters the truth about love; it allowed them to understand themselves and discover the meaning of their own existence. We ask that, through Saint John Paul II, tireless defender of human dignity, good shepherd in search of souls lost in the confusion of life and plunged into despair, that you grant us this grace… Through Christ Our Lord. Amen!
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory.
Litany…
Fourth day: The Family
A family that draws its strength from God becomes the strength of man and an entire nation.
“Among these numerous roads, the first and most important is the family: a common road, even if it remains particular, unique and unrepeatable, as unrepeatable is each man; a path from which human beings cannot separate themselves. In fact, he normally comes into the world within a family, and it can be said that he owes the very fact of existing as a man to it. When the family is missing as soon as the person arrives into the world, it ends up creating a disturbing and painful lack that will later weigh on their entire life. The Church unites with affectionate concern for those who live in such situations, because it is well aware of the fundamental role that the family is called to play.
(…) The family has its origins in that same love with which the Creator embraces the created world, as stated ‘in the beginning’, in the book of Genesis. Jesus offers us a supreme confirmation of this in the Gospel: ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son’ (cf. Jn 3:16). The only-begotten Son, consubstantial with the Father, ‘God from God, Light from Light’, entered the history of men through the family: ‘By his incarnation, He, the Son of God, united Himself in a certain way with each man. He worked with human hands, (…) he loved with a human heart.
Born of the Virgin Mary, He truly became one of us, similar to us in everything except sin.
If it is true that Christ ‘fully reveals man to himself’, he does so starting from the family where He chose to be born and grow up. It is known that the Redeemer spent a large part of his life in the hidden corner of Nazareth, ‘submissive’ (Cf. Lc 2,51) as ‘son of man’ to Mary, his Mother, and Joseph, the carpenter. This filial ‘obedience’ of his is already the first manifestation of that obedience to the Father ‘until death’ (Cf. Phil 2:8), through which he redeemed the world.”
(John Paul II, Letter to Families Gratissimam Sane. 1994)
Let us pray: God, our Father, Your eternal plan of salvation reached its fullness when Your beloved Son came into the world through the Holy Family, sanctifying the entire human family by His birth. We entrust our families and all families throughout the world to You. May prayer be a part of your lives, pure love, respect for life, and a healthy concern for youth. We humbly ask You, through the intercession of the Holy Pope John Paul II, the tireless defender of family rights, that we may be strengthened by grace… Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory.
Litany…
Fifth day: Youth
You must make demands of yourself, even if others do not make demands of you. Only by making demands of yourself – contrary to the universal consensus that says: “Take the easy way out” – can you perceive other challenges from the Pope: choosing “to be more” instead of “having more”. The “being more” of a young person today is the courage to remain full of initiative – you cannot give up this, everyone’s future depends on this – faithful to a dynamic testimony of faith and hope.
“Young friends… Be blessed! Be blessed together with Mary, who believed in the fulfillment of the words that the Lord spoke to her. Be blessed! May the sign of the woman clothed in the sun walk with you, with each and every one, along all the paths of life. May it lead you to the fulfillment, in God, of your filial adoption in Christ. Truly, the Lord has performed wonders in you!
Of these ‘wonders’, dear young people, you must always be coherent and valuable witnesses in your environment, among your peers, in all the circumstances of your life. At your side is Mary, the Virgin docile to all the promptings of the Spirit, who with her generous ‘yes’ to God’s project opened the long-desired prospect of salvation to the world. Looking at her, humble servant of the Lord, today elevated to the glory of heaven, I say to you with Saint Paul: ‘Let yourselves be led by the Spirit’ (Cf. Gal 5, 16)! Let the Spirit of wisdom and intelligence, of counsel and strength, of knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord (Cf. Is 11, 2) penetrate your hearts and your lives and, through you, transform the face of the earth. (…) Clothe yourselves with the strength that springs from him, become builders of a new world: a different world, founded on truth, justice, solidarity and love. Dear friends… receive the Holy Spirit and be strong!”
(John Paul II, Homily for the conclusion VI/DM, Czestochowa, August 15, 1991)
Let us pray: God, our Father, from our youth you called us to follow you. In Your Son, youth has a Master, who teaches how to form a new person within us – with patience and persistence – to discover our own vocation, to effectively build a culture of love. We ask You for our youth, so that it does not allow itself to be enslaved by blind desires and disappointments in love. May Saint John Paul II, who sought out the young man and reciprocally loved them, be a model and patron for them, and through his intercession we ask You for this grace… Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory
Litany…
Sixth day: Sin
The greatest suffering of humanity and of each individual is sin. There is no greater pain that can be inflicted on a soul than to plunge it into a state of mortal sin.
“Sin does not end at the limits of human consciousness, it does not end there.
By intrinsic definition, it implies a reference: reference to God. However, this reference is saving! It means that I – a man – am not left alone with my guilt. And God, who in a way is an ‘eyewitness’ of my sin (eyewitness although invisible), is close to me not only to judge. You certainly judge me! Judge me with the same inner judgment as my conscience (if it has not become deaf or deformed).
However, the judgment itself is already salvific. By calling evil by its true name, in a certain way I break with it, I keep it at a certain distance from me, even when at the same time I know that this evil, sin, is still my sin. But even when my sin is against God, God is not against me. At the moment of inner tension in human conscience, God does not proclaim his sentence. Don’t condemn. God expects me to turn to Him as to loving justice, as to the Father, in the way shown in the parable of the prodigal son, so that he may ‘reveal’ sin to him. And entrust me to Him. In this way, from the examination of conscience we move on to what constitutes the very substance of conversion and reconciliation with God.”
(John Paul II, Angelus, in Rome, February 23, 1986)
Let us pray: God, our Father, sin is a sting that causes pain and kills sanctifying grace. Suffering in Your concept of salvation is the path that leads to You. Your Son, through his free will passion and death on the cross, took upon Himself all the evil of sin, and gave suffering a totally new meaning, introducing it into the order of love. In the name of this love, which was capable of taking on suffering without guilt, we ask You, through the intercession of Saint John Paul II, who, while serving the people of God, was marked with the stigmata of martyrdom, this special grace… By Christ Our Lord Sir. Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory.
Litany…
Seventh day: Mercy
Today, when selfishness, indifference and insensitivity of hearts are spreading in a frightening way, how intensely we need a renewal of sensitivity to a person, to their poverty and suffering. The world cries out for mercy. Nothing is more necessary to man than the mercy of God, that gentle, sympathetic love, lifting man above his weaknesses toward the eternal heights of God’s holiness.
“Man – each man – is this prodigal son: fascinated by the temptation to separate himself from the Father in order to live his own existence independently; fallen into temptation; disillusioned by the nothing that, like a mirage, had dazzled him; alone, dishonored and exploited as he tries to build a world just for himself; tormented, even in the depths of his own misery, by the desire to return to communion with the Father. Like the father in the parable, God waits for his son’s return, embraces him upon his arrival and sets the table for the banquet of the new meeting, with which reconciliation is celebrated.”
(John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Penitente, December 2, 1984)
Let us pray: “Jesus, I trust in You”. This prayer, beloved by many devotees of Divine Mercy, adequately expresses the posture that we also wish to assume when entrusting ourselves to Your embrace, Lord, our only Savior. How intensely You desire to be loved, and whoever ignites the feelings of Your heart within themselves, learns to be a builder of the new culture of love. A simple act of trust is enough to penetrate the curtain of gloom and sadness, doubt and despair. The rays of Your divine mercy restore in a special way the hope of those who feel oppressed by the weight of sin…
Mary, Mother of Mercy, grant that the hope we place in your Son, our Redeemer, may always remain alive. And you, Saint Faustina, also help us when we repeat with you, looking courageously at the face of the divine Redeemer, the words: “Jesus, I trust in You. Today and forever.” Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory.
Litany…
Eighth day: Mary
In the midst of this mystery, in the midst of this trust in faith, Mary stands out. “Behold the servant of the Lord… Let it be done to me according to your word.”
“Today I came to You, Our Lady of Jasna Gora, (…) to say goodbye once again and to ask Your blessing for my journey. (…) Mother of the Church! Once again I consecrate myself to You ‘in Your maternal slavery of love’: ‘Totus Tuus’! I’m all yours! I consecrate the entire Church to You – everywhere to the ends of the earth! I consecrate Humanity to You! I consecrate all men to You, my brothers. All Peoples and Nations. I consecrate Europe and all continents to You. I consecrate Rome and Poland together, through Your servant, by a new bond of love. Mom, accept it! Mother, don’t abandon us! Mother, guide us You! (…) Forgive, therefore, Mother of the Church and Queen of Poland, may we all thank You only with the silence of our hearts, may we sing to You, with this silence, our farewell ‘preface’!”
(John Paul II, First Apostolic Pilgrimage to Poland, Czestochowa, June 6, 1979)
Let us pray: God, our Father, Mary, Mother of Your Son, hear our prayer-petition: “Our advocate, turn these merciful eyes of yours to us, and after this exile, show us Jesus, blessed fruit of your womb. O clement, o pious, o sweet ever Virgin Mary!” We give thanks for the Holy Pope John Paul II, totally dedicated to Mary, faithfully and until the end fulfilling the mission given to him by the Resurrected One; accept the fruits of his life and service, granting us, through his intercession, this grace… Through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory.
Ninth day: The Eucharist
The Eucharist is the greatest gift and miracle, as the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection, the redemption of humanity, is present in it.
“The Church lives from the Eucharist. This truth does not simply express a daily experience of faith, but contains in summary the very core of the mystery of the Church. It is with joy that she experiences, in different ways, the incessant fulfillment of this promise: ‘And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age’ (Cf. Mt 28:20); but, in the sacred Eucharist, through the conversion of the bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord, he enjoys this presence with an unparalleled intensity.
(…) The Church received the Eucharist from Christ her Lord, not as a gift, although precious, among many others, but as the gift par excellence, because a gift of Himself, of His Person in sacred humanity, and also of his work of salvation. This is not limited to the past, since ‘everything that Christ is, everything that he did and suffered for all men, participates in divine eternity, and thus transcends all times and becomes present in all’.
(…) It is this truth that I wish to remember once again, placing myself with you, my dear brothers and sisters, in adoration before this Mystery: a great mystery, a mystery of mercy. What more could Jesus have done for us? Truly, in the Eucharist he shows us a love taken to the extreme (Cf. Jn 13:1), a love without measure”.
(John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia 17 April 2003)
Let us pray: God, our Father: Your Son loved us until the end and remained with us in the Eucharist. May the Amen that we say in the presence of the Body and Blood of Our Lord dispose us to humble service to our brothers and sisters who are hungry for love. May you be praised in the shining example of this love, as demonstrated by Pope Saint John Paul II. As communion with the Church of the redeemed in heaven is expressed and strengthened in the Eucharist, grant us, through your intercession, this grace… Through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory.
Litany…
