Immaculate Conception holds novena to pray for parish's campaign

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
October 5, 2004

Parishioners at Immaculate Conception Parish in Sioux City have been helping with the church's campaign in a unique way.

The Campaign Prayer Committee decided to start a novena to the Immaculate Virgin Mary to pray for the campaign. The novena began on Aug. 21 and has continued each Monday at 7 p.m. The final evening will be Oct. 16.

"We discussed lots of different prayer ideas to ask God's help with our fundraising endeavor," said Mary Stevens, a member of the Campaign Prayer Committee. "We went with a simple format. The novena idea was one that everyone seemed to go for."

Stevens explained that traditional prayers were something that people on the committee "wanted to see come back."

"There is such power there," said Stevens. "The rosary being the most powerful prayer, next to the Mass. That is something that we wanted to include. It just sort of fell together."

The booklet for the novena was patterned after a novena to the Blessed Mother that is used at another church. The campaign prayer, a prayer said at all the Masses, is also part of the novena.

There are nine days in a novena and there were nine components that the committee wanted included in the evenings of prayer. Among those are an opening song, an opening prayer, the novena, the rosary, the Memorare, the litany, the campaign prayer and the divine praises.

The luminous mysteries of the rosary are the mysteries being said during the novena.

"Our pope (John Paul II) had proclaimed the year of the rosary because of its power," said Stevens. "The luminous mysteries were introduced then. We used those as a way of teaching the new mysteries."

Stevens noted that the prayer committee is planning a special closing novena.

Those who have led the novena include the prayer committee, the campaign chairpersons, Knights of Columbus, Mater Dei students, four Morningside College students and the Carmel Board.

"It came together very nicely. There is great power in people coming together and praying for the same intention," said Stevens. "What we are trying to raise money for is the work of the Lord - for his school, his church. If it is for him, then surely he will bless us. In taking the time to bless us, he surely will. He will do whatever is best for us, if we just ask."

According to Stevens, they have had good attendance the evenings of the novena.

"We have also gone to our homebound and asked them to pray with us," said Stevens. "We feel that the shut-ins have a lot of power because they basically have suffering to offer up. We encourage their participation in the novena."

The homebound have been given a novena program that they can follow as well as the campaign prayer to say everyday.

"October is the month of the rosary, so we are going to have the rosary before all of the Masses as part of the prayer campaign," said Stevens.

As part of the campaign the students at Mater Dei are saying the campaign prayer at school. They have also answered the question, "What I like about my school..." Stevens noted that the posters and comments have been shared "because we are basically paying for the school."

"Prayer is something that everyone can afford," said Stevens. "It means more than anything, more than any money we can give because we are asking God to work with us. When we ask him to cooperate with our work, anything can happen."