Saint Benedict at Subiaco from the Workshop of Fra Angelico, circa 1400.
It’s that time of year again! The feast of St. Benedict is July 11 and it is time to start the Novena again.
The following is an outline of the nine themes for the nine days of prayer for the novena. The novena each day will consist of:
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Hymn
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Psalm with antiphon
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Reading with response
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Collect-type prayer
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Concluding “prayer for a happy death”
All of the prayers and readings revolve around the daily theme and are meant to be prayed like one would the Liturgy of the Hours. Following this, I will offer a reflection, as indicated for each day. This is the only point at which I am deviating a bit from the original novena format. The original novena also includes a reflection, but I will not be posting what is in the booklet and will offer my own instead.
The first day of the novena will be today and will end on July 10, the eve of the feast of St. Benedict, which is actually a memorial since the real feast falls during Lent on March 21 so the Church moved it’s remembrance of Benedict to a time when we could have a better party.
I’ll be praying this each night with my boys as a part of our usual bedtime prayer routine.