Novena of Grace of St Francis Xavier

4-12 March

O most kind and loving saint,
in union with you I adore the most divine majesty.
The memory of the favours
with which God blessed you during life,
and of your glory after death,
fills me with joy.
And I unite with you in offering to him
my humble tribute of thanksgiving and praise.
I implore of you to secure for me,
through your powerful intercession,
the all-important blessing of living and dying
in a state of grace.
I also ask you to obtain the favour I ask in this novena . . .

(here pause to ask the favour you seek)

But if what I ask
is not for the greater glory of God,
or the good of my soul,
obtain for me what is most conducive to both.
Amen.

Let us pray
O God, who was pleased to gather to your Church
the peoples of the East
by the preaching and miracles of St Francis Xavier,
mercifully grant that we,
who honour his glorious merits,
may also imitate the example of his virtues,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Our Father . . .
Hail Mary . . .
Glory be to the Father . . .

Devotion to Francis (Francisco) Xavier has always been immensely popular as he fires the imagination with his heroic travels to distant peoples and lands across the globe.

This novena is nine days of prayer, in the company of St Francis Xavier, through the letters he wrote. As a Jesuit, Francisco underwent and then, in turn, led others through the Spiritual Exercises of his great friend St Ignatius Loyola.

His writings reflect the spiritual insights and preoccupations of the Spiritual Exercises. We pray to know ourselves better, to discern the will of God for each of us in the daily unfolding of our lives, to hear and generously answer Christ’s call to follow him, whatever the cost, and to understand that everything is unmerited gift from God, poured out lavishly upon us “as rays from the sun or waters from the spring.”

‍The Novena of Grace is traditionally prayed either from 4th to 12th March (the day Francis was declared a saint in 1622) or from 25th November to 3rd December (St Francis Xavier’s feast day). But it is a devotion that may be prayed at any time.

‍Download the text of the Novena below.

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We gather regularly in the Holy Name Church to seek God’s light through personal and community prayer. Catholics pray together regularly by celebrating the Death and Resurrection of Christ in the commemoration of his Last Supper with his disciples, which we call the Eucharist (thanksgiving) or Mass (Sending).

When the Church is open, many people enter to pray quietly or to contemplate the beauty of the space.