Nine Day Novena for Brother Priests

Day One: Suffering

God wants to transform us into Himself, mold us into His image, regardless of our opposition. That obstruction in us, impeding and sometimes blocking the flow of God's divine love, is sin..

God's first decree regarding man's divinization is nullified by the historical reality of original sin. God then chooses to incarnate the eternal Word. He enters history, becoming a man like us with a body, a dimension, a way of thinking. According to Gaudium et Spes [#22], the Word enters fully into our history so that we may enter into the history of God. This is a fundamental Christian concept already articulated in the first century by St. Athanasius. "God becomes Man so that man may become God." 3

God's love is all the more extraordinary when we realize that He - - Who could have used an infinite number of other options - - chooses the most absurd in order to overcome our resistance. He becomes flesh in order to die on a cross, Priest and Victim. Consistent with the "law of paradox" often found in God's divine way of acting, God - - Who could have saved us through the least of means - - chooses instead to use the utmost. For humans, it is the willingness to suffer that substantiates love, makes love credible. God chooses the redemptive decree "per crucem" to manifest His love. He becomes one of us and suffers like us.

God does not become man out of a whim for humiliation or suffering, but simply to conform Himself to our human condition. Moreover, Christ does not come to bring suffering but to participate in ours thereby giving suffering a transcendental quality. In Him, Priest and Victim, our suffering acquires infinite value.

St John Vianney Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession. Pray for me during this novena especially for ... (mention silently your special intentions).”

Our Father…Hail Mary…Glory be…

Day two: Poverty

He is born in a cave, grows up in a laborer's house of poverty, and works for His daily bread. He spends His public life with nowhere to lay His head, though even foxes have lairs, and suffers the tragic death of crucifixion. He is a man who keeps nothing for Himself; out of love, He is spent for others. Such is the lesson stressed by Jesus in the Cenacle; the last supper.

The Apostles, if they truly wish to represent Christ,  must not forget the great lesson of love, humility, and service that Jesus gave them at the moment of His solemn farewell and their priestly consecration.

St John Vianney Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession. Pray for me during this novena especially for ... (mention silently your special intentions).”

Our Father,   Hail Mary… Glory be…

Day Three: Unity

Christ has an infinite and unifying love. He wishes to communicate it to us so that we may base our relations with one another on it. Our love is to reach the magnitude of self-giving service; our unity is to be modeled on the Trinity.

St John Vianney Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession. Pray for me during this novena especially for ... (mention silently your special intentions).”

Our Father,   Hail Mary….Glory be

Day Four; Prayer;

Another tenet of the Church, also born of the Cenacle, is prayer. Of those that have been made known to us, Jesus' longest and most explicit prayer is His priestly prayer which is found in John's account of the Last Supper. Jesus prayed, and still prays, for the Church, and we must pray with Him.

This overview invites us to enter the reality of the Cenacle. The Cenacle is not just an episode or sequel; in fact, though it is both a starting point and summit, it is much more. It is not so much a place as it is spirituality, the spirituality of the heart of Christ. As such, it is the model of spirituality for the Church, for the priesthood, and for each one of us.

It must also be said - - especially regarding priests - - that the Cenacle is the expression of Maximalism (maximum love) when all reaches its peak: "Desiderio desideravi, cum dilexisset suos qui erant in hoc mundo, in finem dilexit eos." "He had loved His own in this world, and would show His love for them to the end." 16

St John Vianney Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession. Pray for me during this novena especially for ... (mention silently your special intentions).”

Our Father,….Hail Mary….Glory be…

Day Five: Eucharist

A third tenet of the Cenacle is the Eucharist, the Bread that is broken. Here Christ takes us into the heart of the Church. In fact, we must be aware that the Church is born of the Eucharist. Wherever there is an altar on which the bishop, a priest, breaks Bread, there is the particular Church., together, a source of grace; a sign and source of unity for the people of God.

St John Vianney Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession. Pray for me during this novena especially for ... (mention silently your special intentions).”

Our Father..Hail Mary…Glory be…

Day six: Love

The second fundamental teaching given by Jesus in the Cenacle is the commandment of love. "In hoc cognoscent omnes quia discipuli mei estis" - - "This is how all will know you for My disciples: your love for one another."  Thus the Church is based on charity because it is rooted in the Spirit, who is love.

Charity was the defining characteristic of the early Church. In the second century Tertullian reports the deep admiration of others for Christians because of "how they love one another."  It is from this commandment, born in the Cenacle, that the great heroes of love and charity, that is the saints, have been generated,

St John Vianney Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession. Pray for me during this novena especially for ... (mention silently your special intentions).”

Our Father, Hail Mary…Glory be…

Day seven: Service

Cenacle from which Christ, through the successors of the Apostles and in the light of the Holy Spirit, was again sending to the world His message of service, love, and unity.

The Last Supper begins with the washing of the feet, a fundamental gesture that needs to be highlighted. It is not merely a gesture of humility nor a didactic gesture on the duty of service and charity. This action demonstrates within itself the deep reality that Christ is, by nature and by birth, the "Servus," the Servant. In the Cenacle, Christ teaches that the entire Church must be service, that the Eucharist is service, and that the priesthood is service. How often the Lord Jesus reiterates the duty to serve! "It cannot be like that with you. Anyone among you who aspires to greatness must serve the needs of all."

St John Vianney Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession. Pray for me during this novena especially for ... (mention silently your special intentions).”

Our Father, Hail Mary…Glory be…

Day Eight: Intimacy with Christ

 Vatican II Council message for service, love and unity for bishops and priests is a call to return to the sacrificial love of the Good Shepherd who gives His life for His sheep. Yet this message cannot be fully understood nor authentically lived unless it is integrated with the Last Supper, for the Cenacle is like an X-ray machine that reveals to us the heart of Christ and the legacy of Jesus the Good Shepherd. We must return to the Cenacle to listen to the Master's voice, to experience such intimacy with the Master that the hearts of those whom He configures with His priestly mystery might be formed and animated by His Spirit. (Chapter 2 Cenacle)

By tasting anew the tenderness Jesus expressed to His disciples during the Last Supper, and by allowing the fire of the Cenacle to fill them again, priests will return to the world as renewed shepherds ready to follow the immolate example of the Divine Shepherd.

St John Vianney Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession. Pray for me during this novena especially for ... (mention silently your special intentions).”

Our Father, Hail Mary…Glory be

Day Nine: Immolation

Immolation:

At the Last Supper, on the night He was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of His Body and Blood. This He did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the ages until He should come again, and so to entrust to His beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of His death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us" [S.C. #47].

“I desire to follow you one day. Until then, I hear you saying to me:
"You should work and fight as long as you are in the world."
Teach me then to work for the salvation of my soul, to spread the good news and good example and to do good towards those around me in order that I will receive the happiness of the Elect with you.

 St John Vianney Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession. Pray for me during this novena especially for ... (mention silently your special intentions).”

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be.

Concluding  Prayer: A Priest's Prayer

Father, we are mystically in the heart of the Cenacle
with Your Son, the Eternal High Priest.
We lift up our prayer of thanksgiving and petition
which we offer for ourselves and for those who share
the bond of sacramental brotherhood with us.

You called us to be ministers consecrated to Your love.
We want to remain faithful to the ministry
You have entrusted to us.

Make us one in the unity of the Trinity,
fill us with the strength and the light of the Spirit,
help us minister the mysteries of the Last Supper,
especially the consecrated Bread and Wine.

May there be love and fraternal unity among us,
as well as fidelity to those You have chosen to be
the rock and pillars of Your Church.

Grant us the joy and peace that Christ, Our Lord,
has brought us.
In hours of sadness or loneliness, teach us,
as You taught John, to lay our head on the Heart
of the Master.

Multiply around us people who listen to Your Word,
and make us all - - priests and laity - - a family of love
striving to journey toward holiness.

May Mary, Mother of Christ and of the Church,
unite our hearts, and may You, Father, teach us
to invoke her with childlike simplicity.
Mary, Mother of priests, pray for us.

Bishop Giaquinta