St. Peter’s Basilica contains an icon of the Virgin Mary titled “Mater Ecclesiae,” which means “Mother of the Church.” / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
National Catholic Register, Sep 5, 2024 / 14:40 pm (CNA).
When you are in need of an answer to prayer but time doesn’t permit a multi-day petition, you may want to follow the example of St. Teresa of Calcutta — whose feast day is today, Sept. 5 — who turned to the Virgin Mary and prayed her “Flying Novena.”
Monsignor Leo Maasburg, her friend and spiritual adviser, explains in his book “Mother Teresa of Calcutta: A Personal Portrait” that it was “Mother Teresa’s spiritual rapid-fire weapon. It consisted of 10 Memorares — not nine, as you might expect from the word ‘novena.’ Novenas lasting nine days were quite common among the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity. But given the host of problems that were brought to Mother Teresa’s attention, not to mention the pace at which she traveled, it was often just not possible to allow nine days for an answer from Celestial Management. And so she invented the ‘Quick Novena.’”
Maasburg calls it by this name rather than the “Flying Novena,” which her Missionaries of Charity continue to use and pray.
Here are the words of the centuries-old Memorare:
“Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help, or sought your intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother. To you I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in your clemency hear and answer me. Amen.”
Maasburg writes that Mother Teresa said this novena all the time — “for petitions for the cure of a sick child, before important discussions, or when passports went missing to request heavenly aid when the fuel supply was running short on a nighttime mission and the destination was still far away in the darkness. The Quick Novena had one thing in common with nine-day and even nine-month novenas: confident pleading for heavenly assistance, as the apostles did for nine days in the upper room ‘with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the women’ (Acts 1:14) while waiting for the promised help from the Holy Spirit.”
Maasburg goes on to explain why Mother Teresa always prayed 10 Memorares. “She took the collaboration of heaven so much for granted that she always added a 10th Memorare immediately, in thanksgiving for the favor received.”
Typical quick answer
Father Brian Kolodiejchuk of the Missionaries of Charity, who served as the postulator of the cause for Mother Teresa’s canonization, shared an example of what happened when Mother Teresa prayed this 10-day novena as the need arose or a difficulty presented itself.
He quotes Mother herself describing one of many instances: “In Rome during the Holy Year (1984), the Holy Father was going to celebrate Mass in the open, and crowds of people were gathered. It was pouring rain, so I told the sisters, ‘Let us say a flying novena of nine Memorares to Our Lady in thanksgiving for beautiful weather.’ As we said two Memorares, it started to pour more rain. We said the third … sixth … seventh … and at the eighth one, all the umbrellas were closing, and when we finished the ninth one, we found all the umbrellas were closed.”
Novena opens Vatican locks
Maasburg also recounts in his book the time he drove Mother Teresa and one of her sisters to the Vatican for Pope John Paul II’s private morning Mass. Arriving very early while all was still locked up, Maasburg describes how together they prayed the entire rosary and novena of Memorares while waiting in the car.
“No sooner had we finished the Quick Novena than the Swiss guardsman knocked on the steamed-up windshield and said, ‘Mother Teresa, it’s time.’ Mother Teresa and the sister got out.”
Maasburg said he’d wait in the car for her, but she turned around and called, “Quick, Father, you come with us!”
Mother Teresa was already on her way to the elevator; she swept aside the timid protest of the Swiss guardsman with a charming “Father is with us!” and a grateful twinkle of her eyes.
“The rules were unequivocal: Only those who were on the list of announced guests could enter. And only the names of Mother Teresa and one other sister were on that list. … Even in the company of a saint I would not get past the elevator attendant — much less the civil police in front of the entrance to the Holy Father’s apartment,” Maasburg recalled.
“Mother assured the hesitant elevator attendant … ‘We can start now. Father is with us’ … I had already tried again and again to explain to Mother Teresa in the elevator that it is not only unusual but absolutely impossible to make your way into the pope’s quarters unannounced. But even my resistance was useless…”
Two tall policemen in civilian clothes stood at the door to the papal apartments.
“The older of the two policemen greeted the foundress of a religious order courteously: ‘Mother Teresa, good morning! Please come this way. The padre is not announced. He cannot come in.’ He stepped aside for Mother Teresa, whereas I had stopped walking,” Maasburg continued. “She gestured to me, however, that I should keep going, and explained to the policeman, ‘Father is with us.’”
“‘… Mother, your padre has no permission; therefore he cannot come with you.’”
“… She stood there calmly and asked the policeman in a patient tone of voice, ‘And who can give the priest permission?’” Maasburg recounted.
“The good man was obviously not prepared for this question. With a helpless shrug of his shoulder he said, ‘Well, maybe the pope himself. Or Monsignor [Stanisław] Dziwisz….’”
“’Good, then wait here!’ was the prompt reply. And Mother Teresa was already … heading for the papal chambers. ’I will go and ask the Holy Father!’”
“A short pause, then Italian-Vatican common sense prevailed and Mother Teresa had won. ‘Then the padre had better just go with you!’”
“Turning to me, he said, ‘Go. Go now!’” Maasburg said.
Not only did Maasburg get to the Mass, but Mother Teresa told Dziwisz, the pope’s private secretary, later the archbishop of Krakow and a cardinal, that the priest with her would celebrate the Mass with the Holy Father. And Maasburg did. (Read all the details here.)
Impossible becomes possible
Mother Teresa “definitely inspired the same devotion in her sisters, but also in others,” Kolodiejchuk affirmed.
Father Louis Merosne, the pastor at St. Anne’s Cathedral in Anse-à-Veau, Haiti, shared his own amazing experience with the Flying Novena.
Once he had planned to join the Missionaries of Charity priests, had been accepted, and spent two years with them in Mexico before he said God made it clear he was to serve in Haiti instead. Active with youth and young adult conferences, in 2008 he was going to World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia. On his return he was to have a one-day stop in Boston, then catch a flight to the Netherlands, where he was to speak at a conference.
“I went to the consulate in Boston to apply for their visa,” he said. “They told me I would have to leave my passport in order to put the visa on it. I couldn’t because I had to leave for Sydney.” Boston insisted the central office could not process anything until they had his passport. “I told them I’m going to the Netherlands and I had one day in between my two travels. They said, ‘Sorry.’”
Calling from Sydney about the visa, he got a surprise. “They told me, by the way, they don’t do urgent, express applications. They need at least two weeks once they get the passport.” He told them the conference would be over by then.
Returning to Boston, he took an early train to New York City to the main consulate office. He continued: “I went to the office to explain the situation again, but they said, ‘You can leave your passport and pick it up in two weeks. We’re very sorry.’”
This was the day he was to travel to the Netherlands, and he had to get back to Boston and board his booked flight that evening, which would then fly back to New York on the first of two legs to the Netherlands.
“Maybe if I call the airline, they would allow me to get on at New York for the Netherlands flight,” he thought. The airline’s answer? “No, we don’t do that. If you don’t get on your flight in Boston, your entire flight will be cancelled. You cannot get on in New York.”
Still in the consulate, he called the airlines a second time hoping to find a sympathetic listener. But again he was told the airline could not cancel one leg of the flight.
At that point Merosne knew it was time to say a Flying Novena. He said: “‘Only you, Blessed Mother, can help me do this if it is God’s will.’ I said the novena.”
Shortly after he finished, “the representative from the consulate called me over and said, ‘Give me your passport.’ And within minutes I had my visa! And I called the airlines a third time, and this time the lady said, ‘We don’t do this, but we’ll do this once for you. Get on the plane in New York.’”
“Once I said that [Flying] Novena, it was all over for them,” Merosne said with much joy. “That which was impossible for man was quite possible for our Blessed Mother.”
“I am a believer,” he said of the Flying Novena.
About the Flying Novena
Kolodiejchuk noted that Mother Teresa taught: “Get into that habit of calling on her [Mary]. She interceded — at the wedding feast, there was no wine. … She was so sure that he will do what she asks him. … She is mediatrix of all graces. … She is always there with us.”
One of the Missionaries of Charity sisters explained that the Flying Novena wasn’t hard and fast in some ways. For instance, the nine Memorares might be for our Blessed Mother’s help in getting a house, or nine Memorares in thanksgiving for that (rather than one 10th Memorare) because the house was already attained.
The spiritual situation and the time come into account.
She said the sisters use the Flying Novena from the simplest things such as getting out of traffic when they are stuck in it to serious life-and-death things.
The Memorare is so powerful, she said. We are to pray the Memorares with confidence and in thanksgiving knowing Our Lady will grant this.
“The Memorare is a prayer that effectively expressed Mother Teresa’s trust in the power of Mary’s intercession as the mediatrix of all graces,” Kolodiejchuk explained. “It flowed from the love and confidence she had in Mary and was a simple way to present her petitions to her. The speedy response she received inspired her with ever-greater confidence to have recourse to Mary with the words of the Memorare.”
Mother Teresa wanted everybody to learn and use this prayer. “Mother said [to] teach the poor to pray the Memorare. Write it down for them and teach them,” the sister said. Praying it, Our Lady will be gloried and Jesus will be glorified.
There’s always a reason for the Flying Novena.
This article was first published Aug. 30, 2016, by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.
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A test case for Vatican commitment to Apostolic doctrine on homosexuality. Theo Schenkel, a biological woman in a relationship with a man, decides she’s a man and now prepared to marry a woman, is granted a permanent license to teach [or is it licentious permission to teach?] German schoolchildren religion. CNA Staff note the popular approval among German bishops and priests of such sexual creativity, consistent with the anthropological advancements already made by Bishop Georg Bätzing and the German Synodal Way clerical scientists, his eminence Cardinal Reinhard Marx, and that they are in opposition to Vatican teaching. Or, is it in contrariness to Vatican teaching during prior pontificates in quoting John Paul II? How are we to realistically assess this?
To date the Supreme Pontiff has not intervened, at least not effectively in accord with his authority, and his obligation to defend the faith in exercising that supreme authority. What is telling, Pope Francis personally assigned Cardinal Jean Claude Hollerich SJ, who openly advocates adult homosexual relationships within Catholicism, within the Church itself, with the prominent Synod position of relator, he who decides the agenda.
We might propose Francis is being very clever, expecting that the issue will be raised and quashed by heterodox bishops. Or, might he be doubly clever knowing it will be raised, and with the propitious intervention of American shadow pontiff Cardinal Blase Cupich left unresolved with the suggestion of approval, as has been His Holiness’ modus operandi.
It leaves clergy rather impotent in response to concerned, even outraged laity who witness a constant process, brilliant if likely intended, of disassembling Catholic moral doctrine. My advice to my fellows in spiritual arms is advance the truth come hell or high water.
Thank you Fr. Morello for bravely coming forward and speaking out. It is a very slippery slope we are on and I’m afraid it’s picking up speed. We speak the truth and we speak the truth in love. When we purposefully open the door to evil and play the pretend game with those who are mentally ill and partake in their fantasy we no longer have a grasp on truth. In the end are we really loving these people if we pretend with them? No. We are taking the easy way out and letting the evil persist. It’s time to let truth prevail.
The answer to this rabbit hole is quite clear. If this were Alice in Wonderland, there might be six steps:
First, Pope Francis (or his successor) might respond to the dubia, this by citing Veritatis Splendor (magisterial, n. 115).
Second, as he did in Chile, and with the support of his C-7 (!), Pope Francis might solicit letters of resignation from much of the curia—and then accept probably 50 of them, with short but clear explanations.
Third, those remaining would be welcomed to a mission conducted by Fr. Cantalamessa, incomparable preacher of the papal household—in continuity (!) with the past three popes since 1980 (John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and now Pope Francis).
Fourth, with a fully respected and functioning “dicastery” for the Doctrine of the Faith—and thus with restored and robust moral authority within the Church, ways then might be found to also present, yes, Francis’ somewhat polyhedral Church as offering a still-coherent, perennial, and centripetal grounding and mediator service to a relativistic and floundering world.
Fifth, the papal flag would remain gold and white with the crossed keys of St. Peter—not lavender on the backside with crossed fingers (the Cheshire Cat quote: “I don’t much care where—” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. “—so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.)
SICK, and I say this as a wife, mother, grandmother and about to be great- grandmother and finally a Catholic schoolteacher of English and religion forover25 years. No apologies though I am naturally a sympathetic person. ENOUGH, ENOUGH AND TRI.PLE ENOUGH!!!
Presumably they would also have a paralyzed person teach gym, someone who’s illiterate teach English, and someone deaf teach music.
(Sigh.)
I guess we should be grateful they actually let these children be born at all. Leftists are so fond of aborting them.
I trust we agree about the issue in question in Germany. But why couldn’t a paralyzed person teach gym? And maybe Beethoven wouldn’t have been an awful music teacher. I will give you the one about the illiterate trying to teach English.
Wackier every day.
It’s amazing and discouraging that the Pope has done NOTHING to rein in the actions of the Germans. Clearly the Germans are accepting of issues in direct opposition to the church. Clearly their actions are damaging to the unity of the church and giving scandal. The situation should be ended immediately, and in no uncertain terms. If it means removing Bishops and cardinals from their positions, so be it. Instead the Pope occupies his time trying to shut down monasteries and hampering those using the old order Latin Mass. If he cannot see the damage this is causing, there is little hope of filling the pews with believers again. People are not always looking for the easiest path.They are looking for truth and standards, and a framework for living their lives. In any event, what good is there in retaining “believers” who do not actually believe what the Faith stands for? The hierarchy needs to understand that when you decide to stand for everything, you actually stand for nothing.
One huge elephant in the room here that is being ignored is that the German “Catholic” Church is not in fact Catholic and that one cannot be in communion with it and its heresies anymore than a 16th century Roman Catholic could have been in communion with Luther.
Another huge elephant in the room that is being ignored is that Bergoglio by word, act, and omission has ignored, permitted and even encouraged these heresies and such actions raise significant questions whether he is pope and even more fundamentally whether he is even Catholic himself.
Now the “official-Catholic-Church-in-Germany,” led by “Eminence” Marx, is sponsoring the sexual grooming of children, in “Cardinal-Coordination” with Pontiff Francis.
These men do evil.
Wow!!! Pope Pius XII thought the 1950’s were evil what would he say about now??? I am sure the Lord and the Holy Mother are grieving over the current state of the church! The Pope not willing to take a stand for the truth, the doctrine of the faith and the traditions of the church is appalling and speaks volumes!!! I for one will continue to practice the doctrine of the faith, the truth and tradition and will not yield to idiocy!!! Blaze Cupich should be put out of leadership he is a horrible bishop and is sowing discourse and heresy in the American church and should be stripped of his leadership!!! We need to turn to Our Holy Mother and ask for her intercession and that she will turn the hearts of the present leadership of the church to Christ because it sure seems they have LOST THEIR WAY to the truth!!!! Yes, we will all go before the judgement seat of Christ and give an account of our life INCLUDING THESE MEN who would do well to remember and think about that!!!!! Not only does the scourge pervading the church need to be thrown out , anyone teaching heresy and others to do so should be taken down from leadership and put out if they will not yield to the true teachings of the church!!!!
I would dare to assume that Pius XII would tell us not to despair, to pray more ardently and work harder.
At this moment in history what is the purpose of forcing the Universal Church to shoulder the boldly and grossly heretical Teutonic sect which abandoned the Catholic faith decades ago? There will be no consequence because this element has its boy on the Chair in Rome. In September of 2019 Pope Bergoglio articulated a fearlessness in the face of possible schism caused by “…Christians, bishops, priests, who are rigid, behind that there are problems and an unhealthy way of looking at the Gospel…” “The things I say about social issues are the same things (Pope) John Paul said. I copy him (and they say)‘the pope is too communist,’” Francis said. “Ideology is infiltrating doctrine, and when ideologies slip into doctrine, there is the possibility of a schism,” he said.
Is it self-deceit, self-delusion, or simple mendacity at work in the mind of the Bishop of Rome?
When the man at the helm of the Barque is himself lacking supernatural faith and is quite comfortable abdicating his responsibilities this nonsense will continue unabated.
Bingo.
Agree
“The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity.”
Here’s where part of the problem lies, where the Catechism veers into ambiguity, with the last sentence “They must be accepted with respect…”: One, why do we even need to know who they are? Cannot they discuss their disordered inclinations with a counselor and their falls with their confessor? Why do the rest of us even need to know that they desire sexually members of their own sex? Two, what is it that should be respected? Their humanity? Or course, just like everyone else. But why should any behavior centered around their disordered inclinations be respected, not just sodomy, but grossly effeminate behavior, etc.??? Do we have to also respect these things, and if so, why? Do we respect thieves because of their humanity? Of course. But we don’t respect their thievery. Why should homosexual behaviors be any different?
Your summation of the issue is perfect. It is only the self-proclaimed, self-promoting homoseuxal who must be treated as a special case. The rest of us ordinary sinners are expected to speak of our sins only in the appropriate place and at the proper time. If we were to do otherwise, we would be rightly chastised for our exhibitionism, and told to kindly shut up.
Acceptance doesn’t have to mean affirmation.
Your own DNA defines that you are male or female. Any other self-identification should be treated by a competent psychiatrist.
This morning I read that militant homosexual Eric Tilch has said that he can only feel accepted by the Church as a homosexual “if I am also accepted with changing partners…” Tilich is employed by Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg as a youth education officer, Obviously the leash the German Church provides “stable” homosexual partnerships is insufficient and approbation of homosexual promiscuity is now required.
Who could not have seen this on the horizon?
Who can now not foresee acquiescence to this immorality in the not so distant future? After all, they are born this way and compassion demands further steps!
What will not be acknowledged is that Tilch’s proposal bespeaks the very nature of the condition and sets the seal on its nature as intrinsically disordered.
The episcopate exists to call to conversion, not provide an alibi to sinful disorder. If the episcopate is not doing that does it actually exist?
Well, as long as s/he does not express any desire to attend the Traditional Latin Mass, where is the problem? There is no danger of promoting “disunity” here, since the German bishops are quite united in their approach to schism.
The smoke of Satan has entered the Church of God.
We issued a statement on Cardinal Hollerith’s poor grasp of science on the issue of homosexuality. In fact, the most compelling science is consistent w Church teaching. Quite simply: he doesn’t know what he is talking about. https://ruthinstitute.org/press/no-one-is-born-gay/
Why are Hollerich and co. preaching pop psychology instead of their supposed area of expertise?
Dontchaknow? It is intuitively obvious to the casual observer that resticting reproduction to individuals with sufficient rationality and self-control to become financially able to access technology to realize their chosen reproductuon plan will yield a safer, saner world, yes? German culture–which seems vaguely homosexual to begin with–has been sadly tweaked. Maybe Putin is on his way to that German Synod, bringing the married priests they’ve been wanting?
The ecclesiastics involved in this «transgender» accommodation are either totally naïve and unwordly or agents of something else that knows the ways of the world only too well.