THE NOVENA OF GRACE, A DEVOTION IN HONOR OF SAN FRANCIS XAVIER
MARCH 4/12

PRAYER FOR THE NOVENA OF GRACE
FAVORITE PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER
DEVOTION TO ST. FRANCIS XAVIER IN THE SOUTHWEST
PRAYER FOR THE CANONIZATION OF PADRE KINO

This world-wide devotion was introduced in this region by Father Eusebio Francisco Kino,  the 17th century Jesuit missionary.  The nine days of prayer originated in Naples, Italy, in 1633 when a young Jesuit priest, Marcello Mastrilli, was asked to oversee the decoration of the Viceregal church for the feast of the Immaculate Conception.  While he was adorning the altar, a hammer slipped from the hand of a craftsman working in the dome. Striking him on the temple, it knocked him to the ground.  For several  days  he lingered near death; the attending physicians  despaired of his recovery.  At a crucial moment, St. Francis Xavier appeared to Mastrilli to remind him of his promise to go to the missions of the Orient.   Before the apparition ended, Xavier assured him that “all who would earnestly ask his intercession with God for nine days in honor of his canonization  would infallibly experience the effects of his great power in heaven and would receive whatever they asked that would contribute to their salvation.”
Immediately, Mastrilli rose up to find himself  completely cured.  He fulfilled his vow  by accepting a missionary assignment to Japan,  and in the ensuing years,  he  spread the devotion he had learned personally from the apparition of Xavier. Prior to his departure for Japan, he preached the devotion in Lisbon in 1635, and subsequently, because of the innumerable graces and extraordinary  favors obtained by its means through the intercession of St. Francis Xavier, the devotion became known as the “Novena of Grace.”  As  Father Alex Tivipucci prayed throughout this novena: “Before Jesus and Mary Most Holy, I do not wish to owe my health to human means and forces or to the powers of medicine, but solely to you, my most glorious protector, St. Francis Xavier.” 
These prayers embrace the spirit of St. Ignatius’ Suscipe: “Take O Lord and receive all my liberty,  my memory,  my understanding, and my entire will. Whatever I have or hold, You have given me; I restore it all to You and  surrender it  wholly to be governed by Your will.  Give me only Your love and Your grace, and I am  rich enough and  ask  for nothing  more.”
 

PRAYER FOR THE NOVENA OF GRACE

O most lovable and loving St. Francis Xavier, in union with you, I reverently adore the Divine Majesty.  While joyfully giving thanks to God for the singular gifts of grace bestowed on you during your life and your gifts of glory after death,  I beseech you with all my heart’s devotion to be pleased to obtain for me, through your efficacious intercession, the greatest of all blessings: the grace of living a holy life and dying a holy death.  Moreover, I beg of you to obtain for me  [mention here the  spiritual or temporal favor  you wish to obtain].  But if what I ask of you so earnestly does not tend to the glory of God and the great good of my soul, please obtain for me, I pray,  what is more conducive for both.  Amen.

[Recite here an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be].
Note:  If the above prayer is unavailable, recite five Our Fathers, Hail Marys, and Glory be’s for the same intentions. 

Pray for us , St. Francis Xavier, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us Pray. Almighty God, who was pleased to bring the nations of the Indies into the Church through the preaching and miracles of St. Francis Xavier, in Your mercy grant that we, who venerate his glorious merits, may also follow the example of his virtues.  Through Christ Our Lord.  Amen.

FAVORITE PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER

O God, the everlasting Creator of all things, remember that the souls of unbelievers have been created by You and formed in Your own image and likeness.  Remember that Your Son Jesus endured a most painful death for their salvation.  I beseech You, oh Lord, do not permit that your Son be any longer despised by unbelievers, but be pleased by the prayers of saintly men and women of the Church, the spouse of your most holy Son, and be mindful of Your mercy.  Forget their idolatry and unbelief and bring it about that they too may someday acknowledge Him whom You have sent, Jesus Christ, Your Son, Our Lord, who is our salvation, our life and resurrection, by whom we have been saved and delivered, to whom be glory for endless ages.  Amen.

DEVOTION TO ST. FRANCIS XAVIER IN THE SOUTHWEST

Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, S.J., thirty-three years after the miraculous cure of Father Mastrilli, credited his own recovery from near death to the intercession of St. Francis Xavier.  Like Father Marcello, Kino vowed to spend his life in the missions, finally arriving in the Pimería Alta (Sonora and Arizona) in 1687. After founding mission Dolores, his first visitas were dedicated in honor of Saints Ignatius and Xavier at the close of the celebration of the canonization of the two saints.
Kino was a fervent promoter of devotion to St. Francis Xavier, his own patron saint, whom he saw as the great protector of native peoples throughout northwest Mexico.  The final days of Kino’s own life came at the very close of the Novena of Grace as he was dedicating a chapel in honor of Xavier in the mission pueblo of Magdalena, Sonora, March 15, 1711.  Now nearly three centuries later, throngs of devout Christians flock to Magdalena each year to honor St. Francis Xavier -- a kind of continuing Novena of Grace.  Many say the pilgrimage also honors the “Apostle to the Pimas” just as much as the “Apostle to the Indies.“ Whether Kino or Xavier, they were each men of unwavering faith wholly dedicated to the salvation of the people they had come to serve.

PRAYER FOR THE CANONISATION OF PADRE KINO

Most loving St. Francis Xavier, you have interceded most effectively throughout the centuries to bring faith and hope to non-believers over all the world.  Please, beseech Almighty God to honor those who have spent their lives in the service of mankind.  Remember God’s humble servant, Eusebio Francisco Kino, who vowed his life in the service of the peoples of the Americas and who imitated your virtues so intensely.  Even as he prayed that he owed his life, his vocation, and his missionary assignment to your intercession, intercede, we pray, that his selfless zeal be recognized by the Church so that his life, as yours, may become a model for all who profess an enduring and consuming love of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  “We will sing, O Lord, of your greatness, your virtues, your abounding mercies, and the heavenly favors of you and your saints.“  Amen.

Jesuit  Fathers  of  Southern  Arizona
2844    East First  St.
Tucson, Arizona  85716

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