Novena to St. Bonaventure

St. Bonaventure

Novena to St. Bonaventure

Dear St. Bonaventure Cardinal, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, you chose a life that embraced mortification and great humiliation.  Choosing to serve those individuals who were rejected and sick you risked illness for yourself.  You made your life a continuous prayer and spent hours meditating on the wounds of Christ.  Please pray for us that we may have a sincere and humble heart. Pray that we may not lose sight of Jesus’ wounds and thus walk on the straight path to eternal salvation.  May we take a great many souls with us to Our Heavenly Father.   

St. Bonaventure you were known to say “One should carefully beware of decreasing, even in the slightest, the honor that is due to Mary.” May we strive as you did to Love our Blessed Mother and be carriers of her peace in this world. Please place our petitions (mention them here) in the loving hands of Our Blessed Mother as we know they will be warmly received by her Son. Amen

Say one Hail Mary.

(pray the above prayer and Hail Mary daily for nine days for your intention)

As the children's rosary continues to invite Saints to join our group it has been increasingly difficult to find novenas for all the Saints to which we would like to pray.  Two nights ago reading about St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori led to the writings of St. Bonaventure.  Reading about St. Bonaventure's strong devotion to Mary I was sure that he was the next Saint to which I wanted to begin a novena.  Unfortunately, my search for a novena on the internet was fruitless. I wondered if I could write a novena to St. Bonaventure and sent an email to a friend for advice.  I left Saint Bonaventure that evening and found a novena to another Saint.  In the morning I received an email from my friend Dr. Jim Dobbins an extremely spiritual and educated man who is also the father of a priest.  His response was simple.. "go for it".  As I walked out my house on my way to church the first house I passed had a flag hung from the top of the door with the words: St. Bonaventure University.  Upon seeing this I felt with certainty that I should write a novena for St. Bonaventure and invite him to join our children's rosary.  My next concern was that the novena would not be pleasing to St. Bonaventure.  I prayed to him on the walk that he might help me and that the Holy Spirit would also assist in the writing.  Tonight I pray that this novena will touch the heart of St. Bonaventure and be pleasing to the Lord.

It is our prayer that every Saint and Blessed will be invited to join the children's rosary.  Therefore you will see a great number of novenas included in this blog.  As we encounter Saints to which there does not appear a novena exists one will humbly be written and included here.

God Bless!