New guide to novenas aims to inspire Catholics to rediscover this traditional form of prayer

Francesca Pollio Fenton   By Francesca Pollio Fenton for CNA

June 10, 2023 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 1 Print

 

The new “Pocket Guide to Novenas” book is written by Annie and John-Paul Deddens of PrayMoreNovenas.com. / Photos courtesy of Ascension

Denver, Colo., Jun 10, 2023 / 05:00 am (CNA).

A new book from Ascension is inspiring Catholics to experience the power of novenas with a pocket guide to dive deeper into this traditional form of prayer.

“Pocket Guide to Novenas” by Annie and John-Paul Deddens offers readers a look into where these 9-day prayers came from, how to pray them, and what to expect when praying them.

The new pocket guide includes 20 novenas, 14 of which are newly written, an introduction to each novena, sacred art, inspirational stories from Catholics who have had their prayers answered through a novena, and a schedule for when to pray these particular novenas throughout the year.

First-time authors and married couple Annie and John-Paul Deddens spoke with CNA about their personal experiences seeing the power of novenas at work in their marriage and daily lives. A novena even played a part in bringing the two together.

Annie explained that the novena to St. Anne – the name given to the Virgin Mary’s mother in the Catholic tradition – was the first novena she ever prayed. She heard several women say they met their fiances after praying for St. Anne’s intercession for a spouse. This moved Annie to find a novena to the saint. She began to pray it every morning at a local chapel.

“While I left that chapel every morning, I remember noticing a guy praying in one of the last pews in the back, and I thought to myself, “I’d like to meet someone like him, who is also starting his day in prayer,” she recalled.

“Very shortly after finishing the St. Anne Novena, I met John-Paul, and it turned out that he was the guy I had been seeing all along in the very back of the chapel while praying the novena,” she added. “So we attribute St. Anne’s intercession to us meeting one another.”

In addition to being authors, the Deddens’ are also the creators of the popular website and social media platform PrayMoreNovenas, an online ministry that helps people rediscover the beauty of praying novenas and sends daily emails to participants so that they can stay up-to-date on their chosen novena.

John-Paul shared how the site came to fruition saying, “While we were dating, Annie asked me to pray a novena with her. I turned her down. You see, my experience with novenas wasn’t great. I started several but I had never finished one!”

“I realized that I was constantly checking my email throughout the day and that if I had the prayers right there in front of me that I would probably finally finish a novena,” he said. “I created the website PrayMoreNovenas.com to help others who had the same difficulty and we’ve since received thousands of messages from people who finally finished their first novena using Pray More Novenas!”

Now, they hope to continue to encourage Catholics around the world to spend more time in prayer through their “Pocket Guide to Novenas.”

“Helping people pray novenas has been the heart of our ministry…for many years,” Annie said. “We wrote the [the book] to further help people pray novenas and hopefully grow closer to the Lord through each prayer. We love novenas and we hope they will become a beloved devotion for others in their prayer lives.”

She continued, “While novenas aren’t a required devotion in the Faith, they’re a simple and beautiful way to spend just a little more time in prayer each day. The daily novena prayer might take just a couple of minutes a day, and it can help us to reflect on the lives of the saints or the life of Christ or our Blessed Mother, and to ask for their intercession in our lives.”

Some of the new novenas included in the book are the Novena to St. John Paul II, the Novena to St. Louis and Zelie Martin, the Novena to Christ the King, as well as several traditional novenas including the Divine Mercy Novena and the Surrender Novena.

John-Paul added that he hopes their book “will bring people closer to Christ, leading them in conversation and relationship with the Lord.”

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Holy See convenes UN panel urging global abolition of surrogacy

June 19, 2024 Catholic News Agency 1
Panelists speak at the event “Towards the Abolition of Surrogacy: Preventing the Exploitation and Commodification of Women and Children,” held by the Permanent Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. / Credit: Permanent Mission of the Holy See

CNA Staff, Jun 19, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

The Holy See this week hosted a panel at the United Nations at which advocates highlighted the “exploitation and commodification” inherent in the surrogacy industry and stressed the need to regulate and eventually abolish surrogacy around the world.

The participants “highlighted the need for a universal ban to protect against exploitation and commodification,” the Permanent Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations said, with the panelists calling for “increased awareness and concrete steps at the U.N. level to abolish surrogacy and uphold human dignity.”

The event, titled “At What Price? Towards the Abolition of Surrogacy: Preventing the Exploitation and Commodification of Women and Children,” was held at the Palais des Nations at the U.N.’s Geneva headquarters.

The side event, held at the 56th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, was organized by the Holy See mission and co-sponsored by the Permanent Missions of Italy to the United Nations and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

Pope Francis earlier this year called surrogacy “deplorable” and called for a global ban on the exploitative practice of “so-called surrogate motherhood” in a speech to all of the world’s ambassadors.

“The path to peace calls for respect for life, for every human life, starting with the life of the unborn child in the mother’s womb, which cannot be suppressed or turned into an object of trafficking,” the pope said in January. 

A press release from the Holy See mission said the panel this week brought together “a wide range of participants” to discuss surrogacy, including a woman born through surrogacy who has since become a child rights activist, as well as an Italian government minister and other advocates.

It was moderated by Gabriella Gambino, the undersecretary of the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life.

Attendees listen to panelists at the event "Towards the Abolition of Surrogacy: Preventing the Exploitation and Commodification of Women and Children,” hosted by the Permanent Mission of the Holy See in Geneva on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. Credit: Permanent Mission of the Holy See
Attendees listen to panelists at the event “Towards the Abolition of Surrogacy: Preventing the Exploitation and Commodification of Women and Children,” hosted by the Permanent Mission of the Holy See in Geneva on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. Credit: Permanent Mission of the Holy See

Olivia Maurel, who was born in America through surrogacy and raised in France, told participants at the panel of the “severe emotional and psychological toll it took on her life,” according to the mission. 

She argued that surrogacy “commodifies children and exploits women, violating international laws and children’s rights,” the release said. 

Gambino, meanwhile, argued that surrogacy has resulted in “procreative tourism” around the globe. Italian Minister for Family, Natality, and Equal Opportunities Eugenia Roccella also argued that surrogacy regulations often fail to capture the complex ethical concerns regarding the exploitation of women and children. 

This has resulted in “a vast international movement of individuals and groups from diverse backgrounds advocating for a global ban on surrogacy,” the Holy See mission said. 

The mission held a similar event earlier this year at the 68th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women. 

At that event Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, apostolic nuncio and permanent observer of the Holy See Mission to the U.N., argued that “children have rights and interests which must be respected, starting with the moral right to be created in an act of love.”

The archbishop at the time called for “an international prohibition on this abusive practice.” 

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