The celebration of this novena commemorates the sudden healing of Mrs. Ann Mattingly, a parishioner of St. Patrick's Parish. On the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, March 10, 1824, Mrs. Mattingly was reported to have been instantaneously and miraculously cured of cancer. Mrs. Mattingly was the sister of Captain Thomas Carbery, mayor of Washington. He and several doctors swore before the Chief Justice of the United States, John Marshall, to the truth of the circumstances surrounding the seven-year struggle Mrs. Mattingly had with her illness and its cure. This followed a novena offered by the priests of St. Patrick's Church: Fathers William Matthews, Anthony Kohlmann, and Stephen Dubuisson. The instruction to celebrate the novena came from Prince Alexander of Hohenlohe, a priest of Bamberg, Germany, to whose prayers a number of astonishing cures had been attributed.
Priest & People: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Priest: At the name of Jesus every knee should bend of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth.
People: And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord in the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:10-11)
Priest: Neither is there salvation in any other.
People: Nor is any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)
Priest: Holy and awesome is the name of the Lord; come, let us adore Him.
People: Holy and awesome is the name of the Lord; come, let us adore Him.
Priest: Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord; let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation. Let us greet Him with thanksgiving; let us joyfully sing psalms to Him. (Psalm 95)
People: Holy and awesome is the name of the Lord; come, let us adore Him.
Priest: For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods; in His hands are the depths of the earth, and the tops of the mountains are His.
People: Come, let us adore Him.
Priest: His is the sea, for He has made it, and the dry land, which His hands have formed. Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the Lord who made us. For He is our God, and we are the people He shepherds, the flock He guides.
People: Holy and awesome is the name of the Lord; come, let us adore Him.
Priest: Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
Priest & People: As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Priest: Come, let us adore Him.
People: Come, let us adore Him.
Priest & People: Holy and awesome is the name of the Lord; come, let us adore Him.
Priest: The reading is taken from the Acts of the Apostles:
Now Peter and John were going up to the temple area for the three o'clock hour of prayer. And a man crippled from birth was carried and placed at the gate of the temple called "the Beautiful Gate" every day to beg for alms from the people who entered the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms. But Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, "Look at us."
He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.
Peter said, "I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, (rise and) walk."
Then Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles grew strong. He leaped up, stood, and walked around, and went into the temple with them, walking and jumping and praising God. (NAB, Acts 3:1- 8)
Priest: Our help is in the name of the Lord.
People: Who has made heaven and earth.
Priest: Arise, O Christ, and help us.
People: And deliver us for the sake of Your name.
Priest & People: O God, You have made Your only begotten Son the Savior of the human race, and decreed for Him the name of Jesus. Grant us the grace of seeing in the happiness of heaven, the One whose holy name we venerate on earth. This we ask through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
Priest & People: Our Father, . . .
Priest: Let us pray.
Priest & People: O God, who has taught us the infinite power of Your holy name, by the miracle wrought through the chief of the Apostles, and have graciously shown again in this parish the power of that Name, and Your sacred presence in the Eucharist, grant us the favor we ask in this novena, if it be to Your glory and our salvation. (Mention your request.) But, above all, grant that we may never cease to praise Your Holy Name in this life, so that we may attain to the joy of Your everlasting presence in heaven. Amen.
Priest: May the Lord give us light to guide us, courage to support us, and His love to unite us. And may the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, rest upon us and upon all the work and worship done in His Holy Name.
People: Amen.
Copyright © 1998 / Katherine I. Rabenstein / Created March 1998
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