THE Clonard Novena is set to return this Wednesday for the first in-person celebration since 2019.
 
The annual nine day event, which dates back to the 1940s when an American Redemptorist arrived in Clonard and established the Novena for the first time, sees thousands of faithful Christians flock to the Falls Road monastery to pray for their petitions and give thanks to Our Lady for interceding on their behalf.
 
The theme of this year’s Novena is ‘let us dream’ and comes from a book published by Pope Francis.
 
Speaking ahead of the Novena Father Peter Burns, Rector at Clonard, explained the significance of this year’s theme.
 
“It is very much in the context of the era of the pandemic in which people have suffered greatly. We are very conscious of the war in Eastern Europe which has been difficult.
 
“The idea is to invite people to lift up their head and their eyes and let us dream a bit.”
 
Father Burns says that over the last two years, the Redemptorist community at Clonard have become very aware of how many people are joining them online for their services.
 
“There were more people joining the Novena last year online than there would have been in the church. It is amazing. There are thousands of people joining us from all over the world and we are very conscious of that again this year. We have no way of knowing how many people will come to the Novena this year but we do have our online presence.
 
“Due to the pandemic we have decided to slim down the Novena this year. We would normally have 10 sessions a day from seven in the morning to half 10 at night. This year we will have six sessions a day.
 
“In previous years we would have had three healing services, we would have done Penitential rites on one of the days. We are not doing those this year because it wouldn’t have been safe. We also won’t be using the confessionals in the church because it wouldn’t be safe and we are going to celebrate the sacrament of confession in the two portacabins outside the church.”

The Clonard Novena attracts many people who would only attend Mass once a year and it also attracts a sizeable number of faithful from other Christian denominations.
 
Discussing the ability of the Novena to attract those people, Fr Burns said: “There is a significant number of people and the only time they come to Church in the year is the Solemn Novena in Clonard.
 
“I suspect that one of the reasons that the Novena draws people is because there is a great sense of being together in the church with the singing, the prayers and the preaching. It is very much a communal experience.
 
“More than anything else, what makes the Novena are the petitions and the thanksgivings.  It is phenomenal the number that are taken upstairs to the library to be sorted.
 
“I think that people are drawn in by the Novena’s ability to connect people in their suffering.”

PRAYER: The Clonard Novena attracts thousands to the Falls Road Monastery
2Gallery

PRAYER: The Clonard Novena attracts thousands to the Falls Road Monastery


 

When it comes to attracting people from other Christian denominations, this year for the first time the Novena will have two Presbyterian Ministers on their preaching team.
 
“We have Lesley Roberts who is a Church of Ireland Minister in St Matthew’s Church on the Shankill Road and we have Fr Martin Magill in St John’s who are going to combine on the Monday of the Novena as they have been working jointly to improve cross-community relations.
 
“This year we are also doing something interesting which we have never done before by including two Presbyterians on the preaching team. We have Steve Stockman who is the Minister at Fitzroy Presbyterian Church and Ruth Patterson who is the Director of Reconciliation Ministry in Dunmurry. They will be preaching two days each, I will be preaching two days and we have a young married layman from Wexford who has been working with our team in Limerick coming to do two days.
 
“Having two Presbyterians on the team is something which we haven’t done before.
 
“We know that there are Protestants who come to the Novena and we know how big an obstacle that devotion to Mary is for them but they still come. Steve Stockman will be preaching on the last day and he has written a beautiful poem on Our Lady.”
 
The Clonard Solemn Novena will take place in Clonard Monastery from Wednesday. For mass times and to view the Clonard Webcam, visit the Monastery website.