Novena to Saint Rita
The Novena to Saint Rita is prayed for nine days to ask for her intercession before God, especially in difficulties and in cases that seem impossible or hopeless. The novena includes an opening prayer said every day, followed by a special prayer for each of the nine days.
Opening Prayers of the Novena to Saint Rita, for Each Day
Invocation of the Holy Spirit
Come, helping Spirit, open wide the hearts of the faithful,
and pour out upon them all a clear ray of grace.
To the Father be unending glory, and to the Son born of the Virgin,
and to the Spirit, guide of minds, for ever and ever.
Prayer to Repeat Each Day
O God, who were pleased to grant Saint Rita abundant graces, which led her to love her enemies and to bear in her heart and on her forehead the signs of Your love and Your Passion, we beg You, through her merits and intercession, to grant us the grace to forgive our enemies and to meditate on Your Passion and Your great love for us, so that we may respond to it every day and walk toward You despite our weakness and our faults, and obtain what You have promised to the suffering and the poor, through the intercession of Saint Rita, You who live and reign for ever and ever. Amen.
(Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, once)
Novena to Saint Rita: Day One
Powerful and miraculous Saint Rita, from your one true shrine in Cascia, where you sleep the sleep of the just in all your beauty and your body gives off a fragrance of paradise, turn your eyes of compassion toward me, overwhelmed by suffering and tears.
You see my poor heart bleeding with pain among the thorns. You see, dear saint, how my eyes have run dry from shedding so many tears. Tired and disappointed, I feel prayer dying on my lips.
Shall I give in to despair at this terrible moment of my life? Come, Saint Rita, come to my help and assistance. Are you not called the advocate of the impossible and the saint of hopeless cases? Honour that title and obtain for me the grace of God.
Mention here the grace and request you desire.
Everyone praises your glory and tells of the miracles obtained through you; shall I alone be disappointed because you did not answer my hope? No! Pray, I beg you, pray for me to beloved Jesus, that He may have pity on my torment and suffering, and that I may obtain through your intercession, tender Saint Rita, what my heart longs for.
(Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, three times)
Novena to Saint Rita: Day Two
The road of your life, miraculous Saint Rita, I see strewn with brambles and painful thorns that, alas, tore at your heart. You are truly, Saint Rita, the martyr of bitter suffering, who drank its cup to the last bitter drop.
As I contemplate your tormented heart, I come back to you to obtain the grace I ask.
(Mention the grace you desire.)
You know what suffering of heart and soul means, for you suffered and endured torment; so you will hasten to help me.
Is it not true that our Lord Jesus Christ wanted to make your beautiful face a shining beacon, giving you the power of great miracles so that suffering humanity might call on you in its trials and hardships, and you might be its help and support?
O dear saint, before you is a tormented soul, weeping and groaning, taking refuge in you and hoping much from you. Pray for me, Saint Rita, to your heavenly Bridegroom Jesus, that through your intercession and in your name I may receive all that I ask of my God.
(Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, three times)
Novena to Saint Rita: Day Three
In vain I cast about me eyes lost in pain; no hope on earth smiles on my tormented heart, and I see myself lost and astray.
But you, dear Saint Rita, who shine like a bright star in the sky of the Catholic Church, will light my dark path and restore hope to my aching heart, which I place in your hands.
From you I await the grace I long for.
(Mention the grace you are asking for.)
Ask it for me through Jesus crucified, by those terrible hours when your beautiful heart suffered on the day you agreed to marry the man who gave you the most bitter sufferings of your life, and whom you loved with such holy love that you mourned his tragic death with deep sorrow.
Ask it for me by that deep sacrifice of your children, when you preferred to offer them to God rather than see them stained by sin. What pain for a mother’s heart!
By all the suffering you desired in the monastery, by all that Jesus shared with you to purify you through suffering, and by all those misfortunes and pains, ask for me the grace I long for.
(Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, three times)
Novena to Saint Rita: Day Four
Advocate of the impossible, saint of hopeless cases: beautiful titles full of holy hope for tormented souls, and worthy of you, beloved Saint Rita of Cascia.
You are the one who comes to me in the hardships and difficulties of my life, when I have given myself up to despair and death, and you restore the green of hope to my heart after I had lost it through excessive suffering.
I am crushed under the weight of hardship and frightened by confusion, and I find no one to help me. I take refuge in you, tender Saint Rita; trust in your help fills my heart, and I place myself in your hands alone.
Through the power of your intercession before the throne of God, I await the grace I ask.
(Mention the grace.)
Show your power and compassion once again. Let me know, with all who know it, that you truly are what the people call you: advocate of the impossible and saint of hopeless cases.
(Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, three times)
Novena to Saint Rita: Day Five
Beloved bride of Jesus, Saint Rita of Cascia, here I am again, prostrate at your feet. Your kindness to tormented souls calls me to you.
You see my poor heart crushed by life’s bitterness; no hope smiles on me, painful doubt rules my mind, and the dreadful pit of despair opens beneath my feet.
Tell me, my dear saint, what should I do in such a terrible situation?
Advise me: to whom shall I turn in this tragic hour of my life? If you truly are the advocate of the impossible, help me, hurry to my aid. I am lost and astray.
I implore you, you who have always been known for your compassion and pity for the wretched and suffering: how could my misery not move you?
I know that you are full of tenderness, Saint Rita, and that is why I honour you with all my heart, so that you may obtain for me through Jesus Christ the grace I ask of you with ardent faith.
(Mention the grace you are asking for.)
(Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, three times)
Novena to Saint Rita: Day Six
Dear Saint Rita, heaven is hard toward me and my prayer does not reach God’s throne. I know, alas, that my sins are the only cause of this great punishment.
I cannot find the courage to turn to Jesus after having so often scorned His mercy and compassion. I now feel His dreadful justice; His hand has come down heavily upon me, and I feel I do not deserve forgiveness, so I weep with deep sorrow over my hopeless state.
Tell me, Saint Rita, shall I give in to despair? No. Jesus has given me in you a powerful advocate, so that through your pleading your heavenly Bridegroom may forgive me all my faults and sins, and give me a strong will not to return to them.
With this firm resolve on my lips and in my heart, I implore you, miraculous saint, to obtain from Jesus the grace I urgently need.
(Mention the grace you are asking for.)
In this hour when I find myself tired, hopeless, alone and without help, O Saint Rita, one word from you to Jesus is enough for heaven to open to me the door of its mercy and forgiveness.
(Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, three times)
Novena to Saint Rita: Day Seven
Most sweet Saint Rita, you who endured the bitterest torments and sufferings in your life, turn your tender gaze toward me, suffering and in pain, so that my prayer may reach your gentle heart.
The kindness and tenderness toward your neighbour that shone in your life, and the words of comfort and counsel you never withheld, are what draw me to you, especially now that you have become great in heaven and are called the advocate of hopeless cases.
Before your miraculous power the dead return to life, the blind see, the crooked are made straight, the paralysed are healed and every illness of soul and body vanishes. Shall I alone remain in torment, far from your intercession? I do not want to, I cannot believe it.
I too have firm hope in your protection and intercession before the divine majesty; peace will return to my mind and calm to my heart, and heaven will grant me the grace I ask.
(Mention the grace you are asking for.)
(Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, three times)
Novena to Saint Rita: Day Eight
Radiant bride of Jesus crucified, when I see you kneeling at His holy feet, your forehead bleeding from the thorn of His crown, my trust and faith in you grow.
You are truly the beloved of Jesus; He chose you to be pierced by His thorn and made you wholly His own.
Dear Saint Rita, I am not wrong to place my trust in you and hope for help from your tender hands; you will come to my aid in this difficult moment of my life.
O miraculous and powerful saint, I beg you to obtain for me from your beloved Jesus the grace I ask.
(Mention the grace.)
For your heavenly Bridegroom never disappoints your hope or refuses your request; graces come through your intercession, and I am still waiting for the grace I have asked.
(Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, three times)
Novena to Saint Rita: Day Nine
Dear Saint Rita, here I am at the end of this holy novena, and I feel my heart revived by pleading with you in this difficult moment.
I have complete confidence that you will obtain for me from beloved Jesus the grace I have asked. I raise my voice to you asking for pity and mercy. Do not let me leave you before I am freed from my sufferings.
Saint Rita, save me, by the sufferings you endured in your married life and in the monastery, by the kindness you showed to the poor and unfortunate, by the love you bore for Jesus and His Mother the Virgin Mary, and by the grace you earned through the thorn of Christ’s crown.
Come to my help and save me. This is the last cry I raise to you, advocate of the impossible and saint of hopeless cases.
Show who you truly are and obtain for me by your intercession the grace I have asked, for I repent of my sins and promise not to return to them, and I pledge to make known and proclaim everywhere the work of your mercy and intercession, thanking you for this heavenly grace received through your intercession; and I am still waiting for the grace I have asked.
(Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, three times)
Closing Prayer of the Novena to Saint Rita
O all-compassionate God, who made Saint Rita famous for her great and continual miracles, be pleased to grant that through her intercession we may obtain what we ask in faith, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
