Novena of Grace - Day 5

In the spring of 1545 Xavier started for Malacca. He labored there for the last months of that year, and although he reaped an abundant spiritual harvest, he was not able to root out certain abuses, and was conscious that many sinners had resisted his efforts to bring them back to God. About January, 1546, Xavier left Malacca and went to Molucca Islands, where the Portuguese had some settlements, and for a year and a half he preached the Gospel to the inhabitants of Amboyna, Ternate, Baranura, and other lesser islands which it has been difficult to identify. It is claimed by some that during this expedition he landed on the island of Mindanao, and for this reason St. Francis Xavier has been called the first Apostle of the Philippines. But although this statement is made by some writers of the seventeenth century, and in the Bull of canonization issued in 1623, it is said that he preached the Gospel in Mindanao, up to the present time it has not been proved absolutely that St. Francis Xavier ever landed in the Philippines.


Novena of Grace Prayer
O most amiable and loving St. Francis Xavier, in union with thee I adore the Divine Majesty. While joyfully giving thanks to God for great graces which He conferred upon thee in life and for the great glory with which He has gifted thee in heaven, I come to thee with heartfelt love, begging thee to secure for me, by thy powerful intercession, the inestimable blessings of living and dying in the state of grace. I also beseech thee to obtain for me the favors I ask in this Novena

Here name your petitions.

But if what I ask is not for the Glory of God, or the good of my soul, do thou obtain for me what is most conducive to both. Amen.

Our Father; Hail Mary; Glory be to the Father.

V. Pray for us, St. Francis Xavier,
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray: O God, Who chose to bring into the bosom of the Church the nations of the Indies through the preaching and miracles of St. Francis Xavier, mercifully grant that we may imitate his virtues, whose glorious merits we hold in veneration. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Prayer of Saint Francis Xavier
Eternal God, Creator of all things, remember that the souls of infidels were created by Thee and formed to Thine own image and after thine own likeness. Behold, O Lord, how to Thy dishonor hell is being filled with these very souls. Remember that Jesus Christ, Thy Son, suffered a most cruel death for their salvation. Do not permit, I beseech Thee, O Lord, that Thy divine Son be any longer despised by unbelievers, but rather, being appeased by the prayers of Thy saints and of the Church, the most holy spouse of Thy Son, deign to be mindful of Thy mercy, and forgetting their idolatry and their infidelity, bring them to know Him Whom Thou didst send, Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Our Lord Who is our health, life, and resurrection, through Whom we have been redeemed and saved, to Whom be all glory forever. Amen.