Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center

Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center

Novena for Hope

A NOVENA FOR

HOPE

prepared for Advent 2021 by the Passionists at Mater Dolorosa, Sierra Madre, CA

Welcome to our novena for Hope. Hope is an often-misunderstood gift from God, frequently confused with optimism in the secular world. Yet, it is so much more than this. 

The novena for Hope will help you explore the many facets of God’s gift to us, how it affects our lives, and ways to enrich our spiritual relationship by exploring different themes each day. 

A novena is a nine-day prayer format consisting of a different meditative theme for each day, a supporting prayer, and a repeating response prayer for the entire novena. We recommend a morning prayer time to see how the novena is playing out in your day. 

To begin, click on the images below. There is a short (3 minute) introduction to the novena, which may be helpful if this is your first time using the novena prayer form.

God Bless,

Mike Cunningham OFS
Retreat Center Director and Co-Director Passionist Programming

DAY 1—MOVING CLOSER

  1. Pray: Dear Lord, let my understanding of Hope move from a desire to receive my wishes and personal needs to those which bring my heart closer to you.
  2. Reflect in silence for a few moments
  3. Pray the following response ten times

  4. Reflect in silence

DAY 2—NEVER DESPAIR

  1. Pray: Jesus, let me not despair in my times of need. Let my heart have the confidence that you will always provide. Let me recognize the gift of Hope, which eternally flows towards me, even when I do not see it. Turn my heart towards you, so I will do, or be ready to do your will.
  2. Reflect in silence for a few moments
  3. Pray the following response ten times

  4. Reflect in silence

DAY 3—DURING TIMES OF SPIRITUAL DRYNESS

  1. Pray: Holy Spirit, you are always in my life, ever-present but not always recognized by me. So let me greet you like the unexpected visitor who comes just when they are needed. I am grateful for the gift of Hope, which always connects me to you, and let me bask in Hope during those unexpected times of spiritual dryness when often I need you most.
  2. Reflect in silence for a few moments
  3. Pray the following response ten times

  4. Reflect in silence

DAY 4—OFFERING OF HEART AND MIND

  1. Pray: God, help me surrender my soul to you in the only way I know-how. Dear Lord, I offer my mind and heart to you in all things, no matter how difficult I find it, to make this humble and vulnerable offering.
  2. Reflect in silence for a few moments
  3. Pray the following response ten times
  4. Reflect in silence

DAY 5—A BROKEN HEART IS AN OPEN HEART

  1. Pray: Jesus, my broken heart is an open heart, which faces you fully and with the love you have donated. Let my heart be open and bleed to your liturgy of love, which you give me daily through the channel of Hope.
  2. Reflect in silence for a few moments
  3. Pray the following response ten times
  4. Reflect in silence

DAY 6—LET IT BE DONE ACCORDING TO YOUR WILL

  1. Pray: Dear Mother Mary, I pray through you to show me how to feel Hope as complete confidence in God’s work through me, in whatever form that should take. Let it be done according to your will.
  2. Reflect in silence for a few moments
  3. Pray the following response ten times
  4. Reflect in silence

DAY 7—BECKONING HOPE

  1. Pray: Dear Lord, let me decrease so you may increase. Let me get myself out of the way, so I may become the instrument you always wanted. Have me see that by removing my intentions, that yours may flow, with bounty, into my life, and the lives of those around us.
  2. Reflect in silence for a few moments
  3. Pray the following response ten times
  4. Reflect in silence

DAY 8—RETURNING HOME, WITH HOPE

  1. Pray: I am your prodigal son/daughter walking up a cedar-lined street to return to you, my father. Let my expectations be filled with the confidence that you will be ready to accept me, with all my faults and gifts, to fall into your loving arms.
  2. Reflect in silence for a few moments
  3. Pray the following response ten times
  4. Reflect in silence

DAY 9—ALL WILL BE WELL

  1. Pray: In the reassurance of Hope, let me always to open to you, my beloved. That I may know that “All will be well, All manner of things will be well” and that Hope springs eternal from your font of eternal life and grace.
  2. Reflect in silence for a few moments
  3. Pray the following response ten times

  4. Reflect in silence
Click Here for a downloadable version of "A Novena for Hope."