Introduction to Street Novenas

“Over time, life’s day-to-day challenges and multiple novena walks have resulted in a somewhat constant state of praying in stride, the old ‘pray without ceasing’ mode … ‘there but by the grace of God go I’ … the only way I’ll survive and thrive, that’s for sure.” Mary Francis Michaels

Novena Basics: A novena is a form of devotional prayer associated with the Christian, most often Catholic, tradition.  A novena, from the Latin novem, meaning "nine," consists of nine successive times, typically days, of prayer and can include such ritual elements as rosaries, incense, holy water, statues, and holy cards.

Although novenas may be used for several occasions, such as the anticipation of a burial or an expression of thanksgiving, they typically seek divine intervention for a specific intention, such as recovery from an illness.

Traditionally, novenas are dedicated to the Virgin Mary, an angel, or a saint, usually imploring their intercession as we approach their given feast day — for example, this novena to St. Therese of Lisieux.

A votive candle is often lit at the beginning of a novena, burning throughout the nine days of prayer.  Novenas may conclude with festive celebrations and processions.

Novenas have ancient roots and grew in popularity in the Middle Ages.  Although declining in popularity in some parts of the West today, especially among younger generations and others who may view them as archaic, they are still practiced throughout the world.  Novenas may take place inside or outside a church, publicly or privately, with or without ecclesial approval.  They often reflect regional customs and culture.

Street Novenas:  A street novena, like a street dance, is a form of prayer that takes place outside of a traditional setting or at least without overly formal constraints.  Street Novenas need not take place in a street but can happen in any interior or exterior space conducive to the purpose. Like a street dance or street art, Street Novenas are unsanctioned and part of the vernacular culture of the time and place from which they emerge, and with some identifiable features but with room for improvisation. 

This practice grew organically in Berkeley between friends — that is, Mary Fran Michaels and I — both of us artists, both of us Catholic, who, while studying theology in graduate school (and in years following, the present day included) found ourselves and others in need of extraordinary help, be it for healing for a medical crisis, sunshine for an outdoor wedding, or hope for a national election.  In fact, it was our mutual recognition of being in a world reliant on something greater than ourselves, which happened independent of one another in our early twenties —  she, on the south-side of Chicago, and I, in a suburb twenty miles north of Hollywood — that largely landed us in theology school in the first place. (“What brought you here?” “A breakdown.” “What about you?” “A breakdown.”)

Mary Fran and I call them Groovy Novenas.  Despite the playfulness of the name, they are for us far from tongue-in-cheek or satiric, but innovative and somewhat offbeat nine-day devotions with serious intentions and sacred roots.

Not always but most often our novenas involve walking, either with each other or apart.  When we both lived in Berkeley, we often walked together to the Campanile, the stately bell-and-clock tower that overlooks U.C. Berkeley’s campus, like a spindle around which the symphony, as well as the cacophony, of the town seems to revolve.   From this site, we could look out over the rooftops to the bay, on clear days glimpsing the Golden Gate. With our intention offered up in prayer to the one entrusted, we would walk in silence for the half-mile or so up to the Campanile from our meeting place at Center and Oxford streets, and share our reflections as we made our way back down the hill.  

While I can say with conviction that our every novena produced some benefit, not always matching what we had asked for, the point is neither to engage in magic nor to manipulate the divine.  Rather, to quote The New Benedictine Community, through intercessory prayer “we act as a leaven for the whole planet as we, together await the fullness or completion for which God created us.”  Despite possible imperfections of our intentions or our ways of expressing them, there is no mistaking that, during such novenas, we are all in, as is God.  Quoting medieval mystic Meister Eckhart, “The eye with which I look at God is the same eye with which God looks at me.” 

There is really no difference between what Mary Fran and I call Groovy Novenas and what I am referring to here as Street Novenas. While such DIY Devotions as these allow for boundless imagination, inspiration, creativity, and local color, the elements are deeply rooted and consist of these time-honored elements:

&     An intention or intentions.

&     A saint, canonized or not, to entrust the need.

&     Nine days, in solitude or with others (in-person or remotely), with start and end dates.

&     A practice.

Materials, such as candles, photos, etc., are optional. What is most important is that we find ourselves belonging to something larger than ourselves, a tradition, a community, love, the really real.