Novena to Sts. Peter and Paul

This Novena begins on the 20th June.

R. O God, come to my assistance.

V. O Lord, make haste to help me.

Glory be to the Father, etc.

I.—Glorious Princes of the Apostles, saint Peter and saint Paul, who have been the first to preach the heavenly doctrine, and who the first have put it in practice; whose actions had no other motive than the divine will, whose death was a holocaust of the most generous obedience, obtain for us, O privileged disciples of Jesus Christ, that evangelic spirit of perfect obedience, which shows that we are faithful imitators of your examples; grant that we accomplish the divine will in all things until our death: that after having faithfully followed Jesus Christ with you on earth, we may be received into heaven, there to sing the victories of the divine mercy, victories reserved for those who are truly obedient. Pater, Ave, Gloria.

II.—“Do penance for your sins”: Behold, O holy Peter, what has been the conclusion of thy first sermon, and behold what is the fundamental maxim which thou hast never ceased to announce to all men during the whole course of thy Apostleship. O glorious saint Paul, in justifying, before king Agrippa, thy preaching, thou hast been able to tell him it consisted chiefly in announcing penance to men, and in engaging them all to return to God and do works of sincere repentance. O holy Apostles, you give us also these instructions in your divine Epistles. Let your heavenly voices have irresistible sway on our hearts, let a wholesome fear lay hold of us, let us shed tears of contrition and persevere in the imitation of your ardor to do penance, so as to obtain in heaven that joy reserved for those who on earth shed tears of sorrow. Pater, Ave, Gloria.

III.–Glorious Princes of the Apostles, saint Peter and saint Paul, you have been for the whole universe, and in a special manner for Rome, the ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the first founders of His faith. Look upon us, O holy Apostles, with the same goodness as you did behold the first Christians. Obtain for us that lively, efficacious, sincere and generous faith which sanctified them, through the ministry of your Apostleship. They were a glorious monument of the power of your Apostolic ministry; grant that we, also, be a no less admirable monument of your powerful protection. Let our actions and manners resemble the actions and manners of those happy Christians, since we are entirely united to them by the practice of the same divine faith; and obtain for us the grace to be in heaven, with Jesus Christ, the heirs of the eternal felicity which they enjoy, after having been on earth, through God’s mercy, the inheritors of their faith. Pater, Ave. Gloria.

IV.—Thou dost say to us in the Epistles, O glorious Prince of the Apostles, saint Peter: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ who according to his great mercy, hath regenerated us unto a lively hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the death unto an inheritance incorruptible. And Thou, O glorious saint Paul, who didst write to the faithful that in the way of the Lord we meet many tribulations, but with hope can overcome them, because that hope cannot deceive us. O holy Apostles, you have possessed most perfectly that divine virtue, you have felt on earth its most wonderful effects, and have been most abundantly recompensed in heaven. By that heroic hope given to you by Jesus Christ on earth, by the glorious fruits that virtue gave to your Apostleship, and by the great reward stored for you in heaven, obtain for us all a christian, firm and generous hope for grace to observe God’s law and merit eternal salvation; let that hope encourage us and make us always faithfully correspond to grace and obtain possession of the eternal inheritance in heaven. Pater, Ave Gloria.

V.—Glorious Princes of the Apostles, saint Peter and saint Paul, most perfect models of christian patience, you have shewn by the continual and heroic exercise of that virtue, that you were true ministers of God and His worthy embassadors to men, to preach unto them the eternal truths. All earth has witnessed the prodigious examples of patience you have given, but Rome has been their theatre longer than other countries and in a special manner for nearly nineteen centuries. Rome continues to remember and piously honour, the houses, prisons, chaines and crosses you have consecrated by the most heroic acts of patience; these same acts of patience induced a countless multitude of Romans to embrace the faith of Jesus Christ, and so ardently did they embrace it, that a great number of them sealed it with their blood and vied with you in patience by martyrdom. May your example always exercise a great power over us all, as it did over our glorious predecessors and may so many holy monuments of your patience preserved in this august city, always retain for it, with the honor of peaceably sheltering in its bosom the Vicar of Jesus Christ, the ineffable glory of being the centre of truth for the whole world; may these monuments, while carrying afar the wholesome influence of your virtue, excite us to embrace courageously the cross, and walk generously in the footsteps of Jesus Christ untill we arrive, with you, at His kingdom and find in Him our eternal rest. Pater, Ave, Gloria.

VI.—Glorious Princes of the Apostles, saint Peter and saint Paul, to your preaching, to your zeal, the Catholic Church owes her propagation, her establishment and her preservation. Holy Peter a little before sacrificing thy life for Jésus Christ, Thou didst promise with truly paternal zeal, to all the Christians to keep them ever present to thy mind, and to remember them in the joy of the Lord. Thy zeal, O Holy Paul, prompted thee to provide, while here below, for the wants not only of those then living, but also of those to exist in ages to come. May thy affectionate care be constant and efficacious for us also; do for us what thou hast promised; may the all powerful God, through thy intercession, display to us his beneficence, as he did of old to so many nations, by the means of thy preaching. May the Lord give to his ministers that virtue He gave thee, may he preserve in all the church that holy religion established by thy devotedness, and may all nations confess and adore the Father, the Son and the Holy-Ghost, one in nature, but God in three persons.

Pater Ave, Gloria.

VII.—O Glorious Princes of the Apostles, saint Peter and saint Paul, the happy inhabitants of Rome are the most admirable and the most glorious monument of your beneficent charity. Ancient and proud Rome drank of the infamous chalice of every sorts of dissipation and impietiy; she is drenched with the blood of countless martyrs of Jesus Christ, and in punishment for such wickedness and so many sacrileges, she has been ruined and exists no more. The Rome of to-day owes her existence and her glory to the Apostolic Chair, to your ashes to your hallowed tombs, O Princes of the Apostles. Behold then your city and continue to grant it the favor of your protection. Drive afar from this city and its inhabitants the vices which ruined Rome of old, guilty Rome. Let its inhabitants grow strong and perfect in all the virtues which should shine forth in the Metropolis of the holy Religion of Jesus Christ, and render thus more and more venerable the Supreme Chair of truth. Take under your special protection, Our Holy Father the Pope, the Sacred College, the Bishops, and all the pastors of souls, the Kings and all those who govern the empires of the earth, the Christian nations, that they may honour religion by a holy life, the infidels, schismatics and heretics, that they may come to the knowledge of the truth, all the justs, that they may, persevere in justice, all sinners, that they may be converted and in fine all the faithful living and the departed, that they may come unto eternal glory, after having, all their life, belonged to the Religion you have establised. Pater, Ave, Gloria.

VIII—O glorious Princes of the Apostles, saint Peter and saint Paul, to show forth your glorious protection, to have your power loved and feared at the same time by the world and especially by Rome, you have raised up the great saint Leo, to humble the pride and arrest the fury of Attila who threatened to ruin entirely Italy and principally Rome. The barbarian saw you then standing by the side of the venerable Pontiff, he saw you armed with the sword of the Lord, he saw the formidable attitude with which you threatened his life, if he refused to obey. He grew pale, he shook, he respected Leo, he honored him, he obeyed his command, and to the great astonishment of the world, returned back. Thus did you save Rome from slaughter and all kinds of calamities. O admirable power! O confusion of human pride! O glory of the Apostolic protection! Deign, O Holy Apostles, raise for us to those merciful hands so terrible to our foes. Assist us and defend us against the enemies of Jesus-Christ; humble them by your powerful voice; confound them and bring to sentiments of repentance; so that, they too, knowing and confessing Jesus-Christ, may have the happiness of sanctifying themselves and working surely their salvation. Pater, Ave, Gloria.

IX,—Glorious Princes of the Apostles, saint Peter and saint Paul, you have obtained from the Lord the most precious and most abundant graces of the spirit of Jesus Christ. That spirit is a spirit of love and charity; the spirit of love and charity animated unceassingly your Apostolic actions. By the spirit you sanctified the whole world and Rome in particular. In this theatre of the world, confined in prisons, or loaded with chains led to the scaffold or given over to the executioners you showd to men what the love of Jesus Christ can perform in the Christian heart. As an imperishable monument of that love, you wished Rome to inherit your mortal spoil: you wished that there your venerable remains should repose, that there your sacred tombs should be glorified. Ah! may those precious monuments not be useless to us, and may this soil, consecrated by your blood, and by the most sublime and the most perfect act of your love for God, be always fertilized by that divine charity. May that charity, through your intercession, inflame all hearts; may these days, devoted to the remembrance of your divine charity, pass for us in the continual exercise of that virtue; may the spirit of love for Jesus Christ animate the days we have yet to spend on earth and may our last act here below be an act of perfect charity, closing our mortal period and beginning those immortal days when we shall be able, with you, to love, bless, and thank the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost for ever and ever, Amen.

Pater, Ave, Gloria.

PRAYER.

Most Holy Princes of the Apostles, Peter and Paul, we, your humble and devout servants, do bless, praise and thank Our Lord Jesus Christ for having appointed you as protectors and patrons of the Catholic Church. You have been for the whole world the first preachers of the evangelic truths, the founders of the Christian Religion, you have been the most perfect models of all true virtues, and the principal ministers of the great mercies of God. Most Holy Princes of the Apostles, our masters, advocates and fathers, from the summits of those brilliant thrones where you are seated in the heavenly kingdom, behold with merciful eyes the whole Catholic Church. May your ears, may your eyes be continually open upon her; see her wants, listen to her prayers, hear her vows. Pray without ceasing and implore of God all sorts of favors for Christendom. You established it, you have preserved it to this day, and you also will keep in its midst the infallible chair of eternal truths. Extend unto him, who is seated on that chair and who governs us, extend unto him your beneficent hand, and give him that golden sword, of the Divinity, which will gloriously exterminate all the enemies of truth. May faith, peace, and the charity of Jesus-Christ reign in this world by your intercession; protect all the inhabitants of this city, all the members of the Diocese, and grant that these same divine virtues reign amongst us in a special manner, so that, by your intercession, we and all our brethren in Jesus-Christ, may accomplish His evangelical precepts and, thereby, have the happiness to share with you the eternal kingdom. Amen.

Ant. To-day, Simon Peter has ascended the cross; to-day, he who has the keys of the kingdom of heaven, is gone full of joy to Jesus-Christ; to-day, the Apostle saint Paul, the light of the world, has bowed his head beneath the sword, and has received the crown of martyrdom for the name of Jesus-Christ.

R. They have announced the works of God.

V. And they have the understanding of His works.

LET US PRAY.

Lord be present to our supplications; and full of confidence in thy mercy, we ask of thee in thy bounty through the intercession of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, to assist us from the throne above. Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

PRAYER.

O Holy Apostles, etc., with Pater, Ave, Gloria.

By a rescript of July 28, 1778, Pope Pius VI granted 100 days indulgence to all who contrite recite at least once a day the following prayer with a Pater, Ave, Gloria, in honor of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul: also a plenary indulgence, on condition that on one of the feasts of saint Peter or saint Paul, or on one of the nine days preceding these feasts, or on one of the eight days following, having confessed and received communion, the faithful devoutly visit a church or an altar dedicated to the same Apostles, and there recite the following prayer, praying besides for the Church and the Sovereign Pontiff.

O Holy Apostles, Peter and Paul, I N. do choose you, this day and for ever, for my protectors and my advocates. I humbly rejoice with thee, saint Peter, because thou art that rock on which Jesus Christ has built His Church, and with thee, saint Paul, because thou hast been chosen of God as a vessel of election, to preach the truth to all men. Obtain for me, I beseech you, a lively faith a firm hope, and a perfect love, a complete detachment of self, the contempt for the world, patience in adversity, humility in prosperity, recollection in prayer, purity of heart, a holy intention in all my actions, the care of fulfilling the obligations of my state of life, fidelity in my purposes, resignation to the divine will, and perseverance in God’s grace unto death, so that having overcome, by your intercession and your merits, the temptations of the world, of the devil and of the flesh, I may be made worthy to appear in presence of the supreme and eternal Pastor of souls, Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth for ever, in order to enjoy Him eternally. Amen.

Pater, Ave, Gloria.