St. John of the Cross Novena 2022, Day 7: Charity

SCRIPTURE READING
Luke 1:39–45

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

READING
The Dark Night, Chap. 22, no. 11

Charity also empties and annihilates the affections and appetites of the will of whatever is not God and centers them on him alone. Thus charity prepares the will and unites it with God through love.

NOVENA PRAYER

O Saint more blessed than tongue can say
Who walked the ways our Savior trod
And bore his cross along the way
That leads to peace and rest in God.

O Saint of Christ’s redeeming Cross,
The road of life is dark and long;
When sorrow comes, and pain and loss,
Teach us to be resigned and strong.

Oh, win for us the joy of grace,
The light of life, the peace of prayer,
That we may reach God’s dwelling-place
And live with you forever there.

(Mention your request)

Lord,
You endowed our Father St. John of the Cross
With a spirit of self-denial and love of the cross.
By following his example
May we come to the eternal vision of your glory.

Our Father…

Hail Mary…

Glory be…

Saint John of the Cross, pray for us!

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Carmelite Quotes welcomes Father Quang D. Tran, S.J., who prayerfully composed our 2022 St. John of the Cross Novena; he also wrote our novena to St. Elizabeth of the Trinity. Father Tran is a Jesuit priest of the Central Southern Province. He is originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, and is currently a doctoral candidate in counseling psychology at Boston College. His love for St. John of the Cross and thorough theological training enable him to lead our Novena reflections in the light of scripture and the writings of the Mystical Doctor. You can follow Father Tran on Instagram at @lemetellusumtin.

All scripture references in this novena are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America as accessed from the Bible Gateway website.

John of the Cross, St. 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Revised Edition, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K and Rodriguez, O with revisions and introductions by Kavanaugh, K, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Don’t become discouraged and give up prayer, says St. John of the Cross. We offer varying novenas to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as novenas to St. Joseph, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, and St. Edith Stein.

Let us unite in prayer