SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 All day, St. Ann\u2019s Monastery and Shrine Basilica in Scranton was filled with people praying, paying respects, and honoring the Novena.<\/p>\n
\u201cNovena is a Latin word that means nine,” explained Father Richard Burke, the Monastery’s superior and shrine director. “And there are nine days of prayer and preparation to celebrate the Feast of Sain Anne on July 26th. And that\u2019s following in the footsteps that\u2019s more than 2000 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tradition dates back to after Jesus\u2019 ascension, when the Virgin Mary and the Apostles prayed for nine days before the Pentecost. In the modern day, Catholics use the nine days before the Feast of St Anne to connect to God and pray.<\/p>\n
Father Burke continued, “What do they pray for? They pray for whatever they\u2019re experiencing the greatest need for in their life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The purpose of the prayer depends on the person, but for Joe Hannon, a longtime parishioner at St. Ann\u2019s, his prayers go to his family, and he says his attendance helps him keep hope.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of hope,” said Hannon. “You know, without hope you don\u2019t have anything. And like I said, my wife just started chemo, and this week was the first shot, and she has quite a few more. They\u2019re hoping by December things will look a little better. So, with Saint Ann\u2019s help, hopefully everything will be okay.\u201d<\/p>\n
People listened to the service in the Nave, outside in tents or in lawn chairs, and even in cars.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does make things a lot easier for us, especially with the heat,” said Jane Decker, a longtime parishioner at St. Ann’s who listened to the Novena in her car due to her being handicapped. “And you never know what the weather\u2019s going to do. It always rains during Novena.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. Anne, the Virgin Mary\u2019s mother, is the patron saint of grandparents, mothers, homemakers, educators, women in labor, coal miners, and more, and for the clergy at St. Ann\u2019s, the Novena is a time not only to connect to the saints and to God, but also to one another.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not simply an individual kind of prayer,” said Father Burke. “It\u2019s an individual prayer in the context of a communal prayer. A communal prayer that\u2019s found on the foundation of their devotion to St. Anne.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday is only the second day of the nine-day Novena, and St. Ann\u2019s is hosting special services and blessing all week until the finale of the Feast of St. Anne on the 26th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 All day, St. Ann\u2019s Monastery and Shrine Basilica in Scranton was filled with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-246920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}