For the town in Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, see Novena, Singapore

Novena, Singapore

Novena is a town in Singapore, and is within the Central Region. The area falls under the Novena Planning Area, an urban planning zone under the Urban Redevelopment Authority.It is served by the North South MRT Line at the Novena MRT Station....

.

In the Catholic Church, a novena is a devotion

Catholic devotions

A Roman Catholic devotion is a gift of oneself, or one's activities to God. It is a willingness and desire to dedicate oneself to serve God; either in terms of prayers or in terms of a set of pious acts such as the adoration of God or the veneration of the saints or the Virgin Mary.Roman Catholic...

 consisting of a prayer

Prayer

Prayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional rapport to a deity through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of...

 repeated on nine successive days, asking to obtain special graces. The prayers may come from prayer books, or consist of the recitation of the Rosary

Rosary

The rosary or "garland of roses" is a traditional Catholic devotion. The term denotes the prayer beads used to count the series of prayers that make up the rosary...

 (a 'Rosary novena'), or of short prayers through the day. There are four recognized categories of novenae: those of mourning, preparation (for a Church feast, ending on the eve of the feast), petition, and indulgence

Indulgence

In Catholic theology, an indulgence is the full or partial remission of temporal punishment due for sins which have already been forgiven. The indulgence is granted by the Catholic Church after the sinner has confessed and received absolution...

d. A given novena can belong to more than one of these categories. They may be performed in church, at home, or anywhere where prayer is appropriate, though some indulgenced novenas do require church attendance. Sometimes, a special candle is lit at the beginning of the novena which burns during the nine days of prayer.

The practice of saying novenas is not explicitly derived from Scripture, it was influenced by Greek and Roman family or private practices of nine days of mourning, followed by a feast, after the death of a loved one.

According to the New Testament

New Testament

The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

, after Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

' Resurrection

Resurrection

Resurrection refers to the literal coming back to life of the biologically dead. It is used both with respect to particular individuals or the belief in a General Resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The General Resurrection is featured prominently in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim...

 he told his disciples to pray together in the upper room and devote themselves to constant prayer (Acts

ACTS

Acts or ACTS may refer to:Christianity* Acts of the Apostles , a genre of early Christian literature* Acts of the Apostles, the fifth book in the Bible's New Testament...

 1:14). Tradition

Tradition

A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...

 proposes that the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Apostles  and other followers of Jesus prayed together for nine consecutive days, concluding in the descent of the Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...

 on Pentecost

Pentecost

Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...

.

Though the novena is primarily a devotion used by members of the Catholic Church, it is also practiced by some Orthodox

Orthodox Christianity

The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to:* the Eastern Orthodox Church and its various geographical subdivisions...

, Anglican, and Lutheran Christians.

See also

• Marian devotions - Miraculous Medal novena
• Las Posadas
• Novena of Grace
  Novena of Grace
  The Novena of Grace is a Catholic devotion addressed to Saint Francis Xavier. It is usually performed from March 4 to March 12 included.In Naples in 1633 there lived Fr. Marcello Mastrilli, S.J...
  
  

External links

• "Novenas", Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN)
• "Novena for the repose of the soul of John Paul II", United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)