On each day you will beg My Father, on the strength of My passion, for the graces for these souls."
This Feast, which had already been granted to the nation of Poland and had been celebrated within Vatican City, was granted to the Universal Church by Pope John Paul II on the date of the canonization of Sr. Faustina on April 30, 2000. These papal acts represent the highest endorsement that the Church can give to a private revelation and is an act of papal infallibility proclaiming the certain sanctity of the mystic. The endorsement further granted a universal feast for Divine Mercy Sunday, as requested by Our Lord to St. Faustina.
A novena of prayer is the fourth and final form, and this is where our story began. This novena is a series of prayers given for nine straight days and is offered as a devotion to God with a special request given by the person saying the novena. Various kinds and types of these novenas exist and can be prayed to our Lord, to the Virgin Mary, and to several different saints. I chose to pray the novena to St. Therese of Lisieux. St. Therese advocated that it is not the great things that we do that are important, but the great love that we have for other people. She became known as the Carmelite nun of “the little way”, or “the Little Flower” and taught an awareness of one’s gifts and the wholehearted giving of what one has, however great or small.
The Novena to St. Therese was started by Father Putigan, a Jesuit Priest, on December 3, 1925, asking the Saint for one great favor. For nine days he recited the "Glory Be” twenty-four times commemorating the 24 years of her life on earth and thanking the Holy Spirit for the favors and graces showered on St. Therese. The priest asked Saint Therese, that as a sign that his novena was heard, he would receive from someone a freshly plucked rose. On the third day of the novena, an unknown person sought out Father Putigan and presented him with a beautiful rose.
Father Putigan began the second novena on December 24 of the same year, and as a sign, asked for a white rose. On the fourth day of this novena one of the Sister-nurses brought him a white rose saying:
“St. Therese sent you this.” Amazed, the priest asked, “Where did you get this?” "I was in the chapel," said the Sister, "and as I was leaving I passed the altar above which hangs the beautiful picture of Saint Therese. This rose fell at my feet. I wanted to put it back into the bouquet, but a thought came to me that I should bring it to you."
Father Putigan received the favors he had petitioned of the Little Flower of Jesus, and promised to spread the novena to increase devotion and honor to St. Therese.
My nine days of praying the novena to St. Therese of the Little Flower were very calming for me. I felt a sense of peace and tranquility and happiness about my questions and special request. This sustained and fueled me through a busy schedule, challenges at work, and general responsibilities of life. I enjoyed the direction that the novena provided for my prayer life and it helped me keep an appointment in communication with God that can be easy to get away from in the hectic pace of our daily lives.
No matter what form it takes, prayer is the active effort to talk to God to offer praise, make a request, seek guidance, confess our sins, or express one’s thoughts and emotions. Prayer includes raising the heart and mind to God to gain these things, and to make use of them in union with God in our daily lives. We have to pray, but not because God doesn’t know what we need (Mt 6:8); we pray to give our needs definite form and to concentrate our whole attention on whatever it is that we want to communicate with God.
In the words of St. Therese, “From afar it seems easy to do good to souls, to make them love God more, to mold them according to our own ideas and views. But coming closer we find, on the contrary, that to do good without God's help is as impossible as to make the sun shine at night."