FR. FRANCIS ONGKINGCO
Father, what’s a novena?” Jonathan asked.
“It’s a prayer or a spiritual offering for nine days,” I replied.
“Why nine?” he asked.
“I think there isn’t one reason why, Jonathan. At least, the most concrete is that the word novena means nine in Latin. It was closely linked to pagan traditions that mourned their dead for nine days.”
“Pagan?”
“Yes, but the Church later on gave it a richer Christian meaning. For example, it was associated to the nine months Jesus spent in Mary’s womb, or the giving up of the Holy Spirit on the ninth hour and other similar events.”
“Wow, that’s a lot of symbolism, Father,” Jonathan said.
“Why do you ask, Jonathan? Are you going to do a novena?”
“My mom wants each of us to prepare ourselves for December 8, the Immaculate Conception. And she said it would be good that we do a novena starting on the 30th of November.”
“But she must have explained to you what the novena consists of, right?”
“Actually, she only said that we offer whatever for nine days before the feast. But she didn’t say much on why nine days and like the meanings you said,” Jonathan explained.
“I see. And what do you plan to ask Mama Mary during your personal novena?”
“I don’t really know,” he scratched his head. “Maybe for my family, blessings and similar stuff?”
“Stuff?” I laughed.
“You now, Jonathan, I think it would also be useful to consider a novena as a spiritual journey.”
“A journey, Father?”
“Yes. I connect it with the meaning that the Church Fathers gave to the number nine. They considered it as a representation of the imperfection of man.”
“Why would nine symbolize imperfection, Father?”
“For the Fathers, the number ten represented God and therefore perfection.”
“As I was saying, the number nine was seen as a symbol of imperfect man turning to God in prayer. In this disposition, man is actually asking God to help him to become perfect or holy, since only God can make man holy.”
“And how is that supposed to represent a journey, Father.”
“Precisely, our life is taking steps towards perfection. So, a novena is like a snapshot of our lifetime journey. There’s really no saying how we would like to represent each day, but just the same, we may offer something special every day as it should be all the time as we travel towards Heaven.”
“What about the Immaculate Conception, Father,” Jonathan added.
“We are consoled, in this particular novena, to journey with our Mama Mary’s presence. And each day we take a step to offer Her some little token of our filial love.”
“Like good works?”
“Yes, and also little acts of piety like kissing Her image, or addressing Her with a spontaneous aspiration full of loving confidence.”
“Every day has to be different, right?”
“Not necessarily. There is no fixed rule on how to live this novena to our Lady. The best thing is that the acts or prayers must come naturally from the heart of a son to his mother.”
“Is there anything that would really please Mary?”
“I don’t know dude, but I think what She would like most is to hear us asking Her to help us love Jesus and become more like Him.”
“Really!!!”
“Yup, because that completes the novena by arriving at the tenth day, of being united with God.”
“So, it’s a novena + 1!” Jonathan concluded.
“If you say so, I think that’s a good way to putting it,” I patted him on his shoulder.
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