Day 1 – What Do You Desire?

Gospel:   The next day, John was there again with two of his disciples.  When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”  When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.  Turning around, Jesus saw them and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi, where are you staying?”   “Come, “he replied, “and you will see.” (John 1.35-39)

For Reflection:  Jesus addresses the same question to all of us at the beginning of this novena: “What do you want?” St. Augustine said that all our desires are really a longing for God in disguise; where there is real desire there is prayer. So be at peace in your desire, you are already praying.

Day 2 – What Does God Desire?

Gospel: ‘So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; search and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.’ (Luke 11.9-10)

For Reflection: St. Augustine said, ‘For yourself you have made us, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.’ A writer changed this sentence to the following: “God’s heart is restless until we rest in Him.” Our God is vulnerable to our free response. We long to be present with Him and, most importantly, He longs to be with each of us.

Day 3 – When I Find Prayer Difficult

Scripture:  The Spirit helps us in our weakness: for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is in the mind of the Spirit. (Romans 8.26-27)

For Reflection:  St. Thérèse of Lisieux once said that love was her vocation in life. Never was this vocation tested more than in the last nine months of her life as she lay dying with tuberculosis. She wrote a note to her sister Céline –‘Here is great love, to love Jesus without feeling the sweetness of his love –that is love pushed to the point of heroism.’

Day 4 – How Do We Look At Each Other?

Gospel:  Jesus looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing: go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When he heard this he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. (Mark 10.21-22)

For Reflection: ‘A person is enlightened not when they get an idea but when someone looks at them.’ How we look at another has tremendous consequences for self-esteem. The Sacred Heart looks at each of us with deep love, understanding and compassion. We are called to look at ourselves and others in the same way.

Day Five – Has No One Condemned You?

Gospel: Jesus straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said ‘no one, sir.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’ (John 1.35-37)

For Reflection: You do not have to be good before God will love you; you do not have to repent before you will be absolved by God. It is all the other way around. If you are good, it is because God’s love has already made you so; if you want to be forgiven, that is because God is forgiving you.

Day Six – Honesty In Prayer

Gospel:  Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again. Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ (John 11.17-24)

For Reflection: St. Ignatius Loyola said that we should always speak to Jesus in prayer just as one close friend would speak to another. Don’t be afraid to express your real feelings to Jesus –anger, hurt, joy, sorrow, etc. When you’ve made your complaint or expressed your joy, don’t forget one thing: listen for God’s response! It may come in surprising ways.

Day Seven – What Strange Friends You Have Lord!

Gospel: ‘But I say to you that listen, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.’ (Luke 6.27-28)

For Reflection: You know the old saying, ‘Show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are’? Well, Jesus had the strangest set of friends: a hated tax collector; Simon the Zealot—a revolutionary; women in prostitution and ‘public sinners’. Maybe we are not such bad company for Jesus after all!

Day Eight – Peace be with you.

Gospel: While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ They were startled and terrified, and thought they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ (Luke 24.36-39)

For Reflection: Peace; Look; Listen; Go. Jesus greets the apostles with that soothing word, ‘Shalom’ (peace)—it means I wish you the fullness of well-being of mind and body and soul. He then invites them to look at his hands and sides. He encourages them to listen to what the scriptures say about him and then to go and preach the Good News that he is Risen.

Day Nine – Thank You Lord Jesus!

Gospel: Then Jesus asked, ‘Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ (Luke 17.17-18)

For Reflection: In the Old Testament the word ‘praise’ has only one object – God! In the Psalms, to praise is to live; not praising is the same as not living, not living the life which is God’s gift, to be returned in praise. A Jewish rabbi has written, ‘It is difficult to feel depressed when you remember fairly constantly that life is a gift. Faith teaches us to make a blessing over life. Making a blessing over life is the best way of turning life into a blessing!’