Nobody likes a drought, especially ranchers. Not wanting to wait and see if it was going to be a dry spring or not, we went ahead with our spring novena for moisture. God has blessed us through it in the past, so we had recourse to it once again.
It has been a very dry, warm winter. Which hasn't been bad, as long as it rains in the spring. Well, on the 10th day of our novena, it started raining!
All glory to God! We have been praying this prayer for moisture for the last nine days. Some people haven't stopped praying it since the last intentional novena we did two years ago. Maybe we should just do it every first week of March from here on out.
On the way down to the Durham Ranch in Wright for a Mass of thanksgiving, the skies really opened up. Praise God!
John had his butcher shop fixed up nice for Mass. I bet we had 15 people in attendance.
No better way to close out a novena than with the Eucharistic Celebration.
Of course, red meat at the Open Range afterwards was a nice touch too.
Novenas are nine days of focused prayer for a specific intention. Its roots go back to the nine days the disciples spent in prayer between the Ascension of our Lord and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 1:14). This tradition of Christian prayer continues to bear tremendous fruit in peoples lives. Often that fruit goes well beyond the petition at hand. The deeper purpose of a novena is to prepare our hearts to receive the gift of God. In the act of praying, we often grow deeper in our dependance upon the Father. Confidence comes as we repeatedly pray, Oh God, our Heavenly Father, you promised to give your children whatever they ask for in the name of Jesus your son (John 16:23). That's bold, but true. I'm very thankful for the rain. But I'm even more grateful for the increase of faith in our Father who keeps His promises.
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