St. Joseph Novena 2023, Day 8: Pleasing to God

SCRIPTURE READING
Wisdom 4:10–11

There were some who pleased God and were loved by him,
and while living among sinners were taken up.
They were caught up so that evil might not change their understanding
or guile deceive their souls.

READING
RP6 9r

You are not dreaming. The sublime mysteries Mary has just revealed to you are the simple truth: if you knew how to grasp them, far from unjustly amassing perishable riches, you would esteem poverty as the greatest of treasures. You would seek only what would make your soul pleasing to God.

NOVENA PRAYER

Saint Joseph, you are the man who dreams,
teach us to recover the spiritual life
as the inner place where God manifests himself and saves us.
Remove from us the thought that praying is useless;
help each one of us to correspond to what the Lord shows us.
May our reasoning be illuminated by the light of the Spirit,
our hearts encouraged by his strength,
and our fears saved by his mercy.
Amen.

(Mention your prayer requests)

Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory Be…

V./ Pray for us, holy Father St. Joseph
R./ That we may become worthy of the promises of Christ.

Father,
you entrusted our Savior and his holy Mother
to the care of St. Joseph.
By the help of his prayers
may your Church continue to serve its Lord, Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.
Amen.

This year’s daily novena meditations are drawn from Pious Recreation 6, The Flight into Egypt, written by St. Thérèse of Lisieux for the 21 January 1896 feast day of her sister Pauline, Mother Agnès of Jesus, O.C.D. The complete edition of the plays of St. Thérèse, which were written as short plays or skits to be performed by members of the community at recreation on special feast days, has been published by ICS Publications, Washington DC.

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.

of Lisieux, T 2008, The plays of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux: “pious recreations”, translated from the French by Conroy S and Dwyer D J, 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