The Redemptorists Annual Nine Day Novena
St. Joseph's Parish Church,a redemptorist House in Dundalk, welcomes thousands of people from all over Ireland to the Annual Festival of Faith in Honour of St. Gerard Majella. After Bro. Gerard's Beatification in 1893, a triuum in his honour was preached in St. Joseph's by Fr. Hall, widely regarded as one of the greatest preachers of his day. The people of Dundalk took St. Gerard into their hearts after this sermon and continued to pay devotion to him on a regular basis. However during the 1930s, Fr. John Murray, started what has become the biggest festival of faith in Ireland, the Annual Nine Day Novena to St. Gerard Majella, beginning on 8 October and finishing on his feast day, 16 October. Fr. Hugo Kerr erected a shrine to St. Gerard in the church in 1939. Today the Novena continues to grow with over 10,000 people attending the Novena on a daily basis.
The Novena consists of 10 sessions a day, with the first session starting at 7am, running all day until the last session at 10pm, when the mass is conducted by candlelight. Prayers and Petitions are offered up daily by members of the public and are read out during each session. Due to the increasing numbers attending the Novena each year extra seating is added to the hallways, monastery rooms, side altars and the parish hall, where each session is shown live on large television screens.
One memorable event of the Novena from years past was the trumpet players that performed at each of the sessions on the last day of the Novena. The last days of the Novena also see an increase in attendance as those who are unable to make it throughout the Novena usually attend the last three days.
Read more about this topic: St. Gerard Majella Annual Novena
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