Why a Novena to St. Paul?  St. Paul lived in a strongly pagan world.  He began his journey as a persecutor, but the Truth was revealed through an encounter with Jesus. The Holy Spirit equipped him to be bold with his words and actions.

Filled with the Spirit, St. Paul wrote letters with a voice of truth to the communities that he visited.

Filled with the Spirit, he remained attentive to the realities of those around him.

Filled with the Spirit, he empowered those people to live out the Gospel in their daily lives.

St. Paul spoke the Truth everywhere he travelled.  He is an inspiration and example to us now in this increasingly secular world we live in. As leaders in the Diocese of Dallas, we are called to speak the truth and share the Gospel in our own communities in a profound way.  Just as the Holy Spirit equipped St. Paul almost 2000 years ago, he has equipped each of us with charisms and a voice to be the Light of Jesus where there is darkness.

What will this Novena look like?  This Novena will have a leader and a “collective” responder.  Much like when you pray the rosary with others, there is one person that leads with a response from all those praying.  When we pray the Angelus every Wednesday as the OYYACM, we ask one person to lead and one person to read the “collective response” for everyone that is responding on mute.  When we pray this Novena together, we will follow this same structure! 

An Example:

Prayer Lead:  Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Response Lead:  Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

The Prayer and Response Leads will have his or her microphone turned on. Everyone else that is praying will have muted microphones. Even though we will not be able to hear everyone’s beautiful voices from behind each computer, we encourage you to pray out loud. Having muted microphones allows us all to pray without receiving any microphone feedback.

Do you want to participate in an extraordinary way?  As we are all Coworkers in the Vineyard, we want YOU to join us in leading this Novena. There are two ways that you are invited to lead during this Novena: 

Prayer Lead – reads the “leader” lines in the Novena script

Response Lead – reads the “all” lines in the Novena script unmuted while all participants are muted

If you would like to be the Prayer or Response Lead on one of the nine days, click the link here to sign up!

Hospitality:  For this Novena, the first 50 registrants will receive a St. Paul inspired surprise. If you would like to receive a one-of-a-kind gift, make sure to sign up as soon as possible! Registration will close on January 19, 2021 at 3:00 pm in order to ensure you receive the gift prior to the start of the Novena. Please email Murphey for registration information after January 19th. All are welcome to join us!