The Nine-Day Novena
Introductory Prayer to Recite Each Day
(to be recited at the beginning of each daily prayer)
Come to me as Father and friend, Jesus, and do not leave me alone. Lord, abide with me!
I am just a pilgrim wandering in a world enveloped by darkness; bestow on me your light and your grace. Lord, abide with me!
In this precious moment, embrace me; let this union between us last forever. Lord, abide with me!
Accompany me along life’s journey; I need your presence. Without you I become faint and fall. Lord, abide with me!
Evening is coming and I am racing like a river towards the deep sea of death. Lord, abide with me!
Be my strength in sorrow and in happiness, while I live and until I die within your embrace. Lord, abide with me!
First Day
O glorious and holy Padre
Pio, we are at your feet, turn your gaze to us. We are devoted to you;
we admire your life and follow your teachings, and have experienced the
power of your intercession. While you lived in this world, multitudes of
people arrived every day in San Giovanni Rotondo to recognize and
behold your credence, to receive pardon through your word, to hear your
teachings and to invoke your intercession. With this same love and
conscious of the glorious power of your prayers before God, we are
prostrate at your feet.
Pray for us. We entrust
ourselves to you, certain that you will obtain for us from God the
graces of which we are in need. We ask this in the name of Christ our
Lord. Amen.
Intentions:
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That the Lord grants to the world and to the Church responsible, faithful leadership. Let us pray.
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Second Day
O glorious Padre Pio,
from infancy you offered yourself to God as an instrument of reparation.
With your impoverished family you began to grow in age, wisdom and
goodness. Your father, dreaming of a better tomorrow, left for Argentina
and you, who said, “My father went far away from his wife and children
in order to provide all of us with something to eat,” recognized the
courage of this gesture. Your mother undertook the task of providing for
the family by working in the fields so that nothing would be lacking.
We have your testimony that you left us to serve as a lesson: “From
early childhood we worked with commitment… We worked for our daily
bread… Our affection devolved on our parents… With them we struggled in
the great battle of life…”
May the Lord grant to us
sons and daughters: dedication to good works, devoutness, and a close
relationship with our families. This we ask through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Intentions:
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Third Day
O holy Padre Pio, you
flourished in a profoundly religious family. One day your father called
you close to himself and asked a momentous question: “My son, would it
not appeal to you a become a friar or a priest?”
From reading interviews
of children on the subject of their future, we see that they do not even
consider the possibility of a consecrated life. When asked what they
want to be when grown up, they want to become members of the armed
forces, doctors, fashion designers or teachers, and life as a Religious
in not in their plans. Why? Still the greatest honor for a family is to
have a son that God has chosen to be a Religious or a priest. We ask you
to safeguard the Church so that numerous vocations are born and that
there will be many holy Religious. We ask this in the name of Christ our
Lord. Amen.
Intentions:
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Fourth Day
O holy Padre Pio, in the
friary you began a new life, the results of which you already knew, as
you yourself said: “I was only 16 years old but I knew what I must
become to take on the life of a Religious… I had to dedicate myself in
order to know even better the call of my voluntary commitment and to
become competent in philosophy and theology. It was a communal life that
demanded a strong spiritual enrichment…” No one mislead you. You
mother, when you left for the friary, said: “Knowingly you have come
along to the door of your new house… Now, with your Brothers, return to
the work as always. Remember me in your prayers and never forget that,
above all, you are a son of God and St. Francis. How much is asked, but
you do not merit grief for your own loved ones, if that does not give
you joy to have found the true way of life…” Thus began your life as a
Religious.
Instill in the Church a generous spirit capable of leaving all to follow Christ. We ask in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.
Intentions:
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Fifth Day
O holy Padre Pio, your
life was simple and far from easy. You were tried by suffering and
temptations and the pain rendered your heart like a pruned grapevine.
Never did you desire that your suffering become visible exteriorly and
you preferred to suffer in silence. To be seen wounded was not important
because you knew that it was God who wounded you; you have learned well
that to accept suffering does not mean neither to be sorry, neither to
love suffering but rather to accept that it therefore humbles one, as
the earth accepts rain from the heavens that penetrates to its depths.
In this way you coped, Padre Pio, and were able to hide your suffering
with the rose of serene acceptance.
Teach us to have an
authentic Christian attitude toward suffering so that its purifying and
evangelistic action can be completed in us. We ask this in the name of
Christ our Lord. Amen.
Intentions:
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Sixth Day
O holy Padre Pio, from
childhood you offered yourself as a victim for others. God accepted your
aspiration, and at San Giovanni Rotondo, you became “another Christ”
suffering. Of your interior struggles you said: “Who will be able to
discover the interior martyrdom that I suffer? A single memory of those
inner battles makes my blood run cold in my veins. I heard the voice
that called me to obey you, O God, but your enemies tyrannize me, wrench
my bones and contort my entrails…” One day, on your body, appeared a
stigmata. You desired to be a victim for all, for those that you knew
and for those that you didn’t know for the just and the unjust. For the
time of your discharge from military service you had become aware of
much evil in the world, and you offered yourself for the Church and you
asked God that He discharge on you His punishments for these evils as
necessary propitiation: you wanted to bear the punishment for the sins
of others.
Grant to us from God the
ability to accept sufferings and to make them an offering of love. We
ask this in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.
Intentions:
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Seventh Day
O holy Padre Pio, man of
faith and prayer, the multitudes of yesterday and today have come and
continue to come to you: Why? They see a man of God, a man of great
faith, a man become prayer, a man of suffering, one crucified without a
cross… and they remain mute, contemplating your passing hours and hours
on end in the choir loft, before the crucified Lord and at the feet of
Our Lady of Grace. Who are you to those who come to you, you were asked
one day, and you replied: “Among you I am a human being, on the Altar a
victim, and in the Confessional a judge.” Your Mass was something
magnificent! The people crowded close around the Alter, saw you
transfigured by love and suffering, and believed! The intensity of the
ardor, with all proclaiming that you lived the Passion of Christ and
that you were immolated with Him, was marvelous. Pope Paul VI recognized
you with these words: “Look at the renown and the world wide following
he has brought together around himself! Why? Because he celebrated Mass
with humility, heard confessions from morning to evening, and was a man
of God.”
Most dear Padre Pio,
intercede for us before God, that we may live our faith as you lived
yours, that Mass may become the source and the summit of our ardor and
that our life passes into a constant, living communion with Him. We ask
this in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.
Intentions:
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Eighth Day
O holy Padre Pio, for
Christians suffering is a necessary test of faith. God chose you to be a
victim and you became a sacrificial lamb as an offering for love. You
offered yourself to God so that others may have life everlasting.
Concern for the well being of others is a hallmark of Christian life.
You bear your love to bring among men the presence of God, and thus
profess your devotion to Him: “We must love others because they are
visible images of God and to love them as God loves them… If God has
willingly overwhelmed us with gifts, we cannot lock them up in a trunk
without forsaking the good fruits that they must produce.” Your love of
God and humanity moved you to suffer with those who are suffering. It
was impossible to eliminate suffering but you saw that you could bring
relief and felt obligated to do something. Thus the great work to
alleviate suffering was brought into being – The Home for the Relief of
Suffering – your hospital!
We want to learn from you
this sensibility. Never must we pass indifferently by our suffering
brothers. We ask this in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.
Intentions:
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Ninth Day
O holy Padre Pio,
crucified without the cross, your existence, marked by the
preternatural, was humanly inexplicable. Your whole life was on of total
dedication to God and your fellow man and, like Christ, always doing
good. The crowds rushed to you, to your Mass, to your Confessional, for
your blessing, to your devotional practices… and returned home comforted
and content. Today you continue to be our defender before the throne of
God and, every year, millions of people visit your tomb seeing grace or
giving thanks for miracles obtained through your intercession.
Dear Padre Pio, with
great trust we turn to you to beg your intercession and to seek refuge.
Pray for us; obtain from God the graces we need. We ask this in the name
of Christ our Lord. Amen.
Intentions:
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