The Novena to St. Francis of Assisi begins Sept 26 through Oct 4. NOVENA TO SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI Glorious Saint Francis, who voluntarily renounced all the comforts and riches of your home to follow more perfectly the life of poverty and abnegation of Jesus Christ: obtain for us, we pray, a generous contempt of all things in this world, that we may secure the true and eternal things of heaven. Say the Glory be.... O glorious Saint Francis, who during the whole course of your life continually wept over the passion of the Redeemer, and labour most zealously for the salvation of souls: obtain for us, we pray, the grace of weeping continually over those sins by which we have crucified afresh Our Lord Jesus Christ, that we may attain to be of the number of those who shall eternally bless His supreme mercy. Say the Glory be.... O glorious Saint Francis, who, loving above all things suffering and the cross, merited to bear in your body the miraculous stigmata, by which you became a living image of Jesus Christ crucified: obtain for us, we pray, the grace to bear in our bodies the mortifications of Christ, that we may merit one day to receive the consolations which are infallibly promised to all those who now weep. "If we be dead with Christ Jesus, we shall live also with Him," says the Apostle; "if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him." [2 Tim. 2:11-12] Pray for us, Saint Francis, that we may obtain the graces and favours we ask for in this novena; pray for us, especially, that we may obtain the grace of perseverance; of a holy death and a happy eternity. Say 5 times the Our Father..., the Hail Mary... and the Glory be.... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE MEDITATION PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS My God and My All! Prayer in Honor of the Sacred Stigmata of Saint Francis of Assisi O Lord Jesus Christ, Who when the world was growing cold, in order that the hearts of men might burn anew with the fire of Your love, did in the flesh of the most blessed Francis reproduce the stigmata of Your passion: be mindful of his merits and prayers; and in Your mercy vouchsafe to us the grace ever to carry Your cross, and to bring forth worthy fruits of penance. -To all the faithful who, upon the five Sundays which immediately precede the feast of the sacred stigmata of Saint Francis of Assisi, or upon any other five consecutive Sundays during the year, shall exercise themselves either in pious meditation, or in vocal prayer, or in any other work of Christian piety, in honor of the said sacred stigmata, a plenary indulgence is granted once a year, on each of the five Sundays, on the usual conditions. -Pope Leo XIII, 21 November 1885
