SHENANDOAH - Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church began the annual novena prayers to the church's patroness Friday as part of the parish's 100th anniversary celebration.
Mass was celebrated at 9 a.m. by Monsignor Ronald C. Bocian, pastor, with more than 30 people in attendance. The Mass concluded with the novena prayer.
According to the Order of Carmelites website, www.ocarm.org, the novena is a series of prayers said for nine days honoring Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The custom of praying the novena before the feast is a long tradition and is observed by many Catholics throughout the world.
The feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was instituted by the Carmelites between 1376 and 1386. The feast was assigned to July 16 because on that date in 1251, according to Carmelite traditions, the Brown Scapular - a sacramental made of two pieces of cloth, usually wool, attached by cords worn over the shoulders - was given by the Blessed Virgin to St. Simon Stock.
The parish's annual observance of the feast day is normally moved to the closest Sunday. This year, the novena began Friday and ends July 19. A novena, from Latin "novem" meaning nine, is an institutional act of religious pious devotion in the Roman Catholic Church, often consisting of private or public prayers repeated for nine successive days in belief of obtaining special intercessory graces, according to the Carmelite website. A practice of praying for nine days in a row is modeled after the nine days of prayer that the 11 Apostles made in the Upper Room in Jerusalem between the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven and the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
On July 20, the feast will be observed with Mass celebrated at 9 a.m. by the Most Rev. John O. Barres, followed by the procession with the Our Lady of Mount Carmel statue through the streets in Shenandoah.
Bocian's homily began with a focus on St. Benedict, whose feast day is July 11, and then focused on the Blessed Virgin Mary.
"We give thanks to Almighty God for our Blessed Mother, whose contribution to the church is the giving up of herself to do God's will," Bocian said. "But what is even greater about her is that she is the first disciple of Jesus, the Word made Flesh."
Bocian said that both the Blessed Mother and St. Benedict gave up their will and cooperating with God's will.
"So we ask ourselves today if I am a disciple of Jesus," he said. "Answer the question honestly of yourself. Do I seek to do my will or do I seek to do God's will? What comes first in my life?"
After the distribution of Holy Communion, Bocian led the novena prayer:
"O Most beautiful flower of Mount Carmel, fruitful vine, splendor of heaven, Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in this my necessity.
O Star of the Sea, help me and show me herein you are my mother.
O Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and Earth, I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to succor me in this necessity. There are none that can withstand your power.
O show me herein you are my mother.
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
O Mary, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
O Mary, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
Sweet Mother, I place this cause in your hands.
Sweet Mother, I place this cause in your hands.
Sweet Mother, I place this cause in your hands."
Some parishioners recited the prayer from memory having done so many times in the past.
Parishioners Ann Romano and Isabel Tancredi have been attending the novena faithfully over the years.
"I know the prayer by heart," Romano, who held an Our Lady of Mount Carmel prayer card, said.
"I do, too," Tancredi said.
"We hang onto it forever since our childhood," Romano said. "As kids we said it."
"We're here pretty much every year. We try," Tancredi said. "I think this part (of the feast) is more important than the procession. This is a sacrifice. You get up every morning for nine consecutive Masses and present your petitions."
"The nine-day novena of consecutive Masses is one of the most significant parts of the celebration," Romano said.