Every year, in the lead up to the Feast of our Holy Father St Dominic on the 4th of August, the Sisters recite in common the prayer composed by Blessed Jordan of Saxony as a Novena. It is a long prayer, broken up over a week, so each day has a specific portion to be said.
Do join us in our Novena, with the text as given below.
Sunday
O blessed father, St. Dominic, most holy priest and glorious confessor of God; noble preacher of His word, to you do I cry. O virginal soul, chosen by the Lord, pleasing unto Him, and beloved above all others in your day; glorious alike for your life, your teaching, and your miracles, to you do I pray. I rejoice to know that I have you for my gracious advocate with the Lord our God. To you, whom I venerate with special devotion among all the saints and elect of God, to you do I cry from out of this vale of tears. O loving father, help, I beseech you, my sinful soul, not only lacking grace and virtue, but stained with many vices and sins.
V: Pray for us, blessed Father Dominic.
R: That we ma be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray
O God, Who deigned to enlighten Thy Church by the merits and teaching of our blessed Father Dominic, Thy Confessor: grant through his intercession that it may not be wanting in temporal help and may always increase in spiritual growth. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Monday
Holy Dominic, man of God, may your soul, so happy among the blessed, help my soul so poor and needy. Not only for your own sake, but for the good of others also, did the grace of God enrich your soul with abundant blessings. God meant not only to raise you to the rest and peace of heaven and the glory of the saints, but likewise to draw innumerable souls to the same blessed state by the ex-ample of your wonderful life. God encouraged numberless souls by your loving advice. He has instructed them by your sweet teaching; He has excited them to virtue by your fervent preaching. Assist me, therefore, O blessed Dominic, and bow down the ear of your loving kindness to the voice of my supplication.
Tuesday
Behold, O Holy Father Dominic, my soul, poor and needy, flies to you for refuge. With all lowliness of mind I cast myself down before you. I desire to approach you as one sick: yea and sick unto death. Most earnestly do I beseech and implore you by your merits and loving intercession to hear and quicken my soul. Fill it with the abundance of your blessing.
Wednesday
I know in very truth and have the fullest certainty that you, Holy Father Dominic, are able to help my soul. I trust that in your great charity you do desire to succour me. I hope that in His infinite mercy our Saviour will accomplish every-thing you shall ask. This hope of mine is firm, because of the greatness of that familiar love which even here below you bore to our Lord Jesus Christ, the beloved of your heart, “chosen out of thousands.” He will refuse you nothing. Whatsoever you shall ask you will surely obtain, for though He is your Lord, yet He is likewise your Friend. One so dearly beloved will deny nothing to him whom He loves so much. He will give all things to you, who lovingly left all things for His sake, and gave up yourself and all you possessed for love of Him.
Thursday
O Holy Father Dominic, we praise you and venerate you, because you consecrated yourself to Jesus Christ. In the first flower of your age you dedicated your virgin soul to the comely Spouse of virgins. In your baptismal innocence, shining with the grace of the Holy Spirit, you devoted your soul in fervent love to the King of kings. From early youth you stood arrayed with the full armour of holy discipline. In the very morning of life you “disposed your heart to ascend by steps” unto God; you went “from strength to strength,” always advancing from good to better. Your body you offered as “a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing unto God.” Taught by divine wisdom, you consecrated yourself entirely to Him. Having once started on the way of holiness, never did you look back, but giving up all for Christ, who for us was stripped of all, you fol-lowed Him faithfully, choosing to have your treasure in heaven rather than on earth.
Friday
O Holy Father Dominic, steadfastly did you deny yourself. Manfully did you carry your cross. Valiantly did you plant your feet in the footprints of Him Who is in very truth our Saviour and our Guide. All on fire with the flame of charity burning strongly in your fervent soul, you de-voted your whole self to God by the vow of poverty. You embraced it yourself and by the counsel of the Holy Spirit instituted the Order of Friars Preachers to carry out the strictest form of evangelical poverty. By the shining light of your merits and example you enlightened the whole Church. When God called you from the prison of the flesh to the court of heaven your soul went up into glory, and in shining raiment you now stand near to God as our advocate. Come then, I pray you, and help me, and not only myself, but all who are dear to me. Help likewise the clergy, the people, and the women consecrated to God. I ask with confidence, for you always zealously desired the salvation of all mankind. You, after the blessed Queen of virgins, are beyond all other saints my hope, my comfort, and my refuge. Bow down, then, in your mercy to help me, for to you do I fly, to you do I come and prostate myself at your feet.
Saturday
O Holy Father, I call upon you as my patron. Earnestly I pray to you, devoutly do I commend myself to you. Receive me graciously, I beseech you. Keep me, protect me, help me, that through your care I may be made worthy to obtain the grace of God that I desire, to receive mercy, and all remedies necessary for the health of my soul in this world and the next. Obtain this for me, O my master. Do this for me, O blessed Dominic, our father and leader. Assist me, I pray you, and all who call upon your name. Be unto us a Dominic, that is, a man of the Lord. Be a careful keeper of the Lord’s flock. Keep and govern us who have been committed to your care. Correct our lives, and reconcile us to God. After this exile is ended, present us joyfully to the beloved and exalted Son of God, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, Who, with the glorious Virgin Mary and all the court of heaven, dwells in honour, praise, glory, ineffable joy, and everlasting happiness, world without end. Amen.
