novena means A recitation of prayers and devotions for nine consecutive days, especially one to a saint to ask for their intercession. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 85 out of 100.
Why “novena” is a great word
NOVENA — [Noun] A devotional practice of prayers recited for nine consecutive days, typically to petition a saint for intercession. From Ecclesiastical Latin novēna, from Latin novēnus (“nine [each]”). Unlike a litany, a responsive form of prayer without fixed duration, or a vigil, a watchful observance of a single night, a novena is an architecture of patient hope, measured in nine equal increments. It is the faint indentation on a well-thumbed prayer card, the slow burn of nine votive candles, and the patient accumulation of whispered words in a dim chapel—a ritual that admits, in its very structure, that some forms of grace require a patient, enduring vessel.
noun
- A recitation of prayers and devotions for nine consecutive days, especially one to a saint to ask for their intercession.“The good nuns, who had been so sure of her vocation, perceived with great astonishment that Mademoiselle Rouault seemed to be slipping from them. They had indeed been so lavish to her of prayers, retreats, novenas, and sermons, they had so often preached the respect due to saints and martyrs, and given so much good advice as to the modesty of the body and the salvation of her soul, that she did as”