NOVENA TO ST. ANNIBALE MARIA DI FRANCIA

FOR VOCATIONS TO THE PRIESTHOOD

THE SAINT OF VOCATIONS

Spiritual Director of Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta

St. Annibale Maria di Francia

Feast day: June 1 1851 – 1927
Beatified By: 7 October 1990 by Pope John Paul II
Canonized By: 16 May 2004 by Pope John Paul II

The message and the mission of Saint Annibale Maria Di Francia is not only valued among those involved in vocation ministry and those who have at heart the formation of the clergy but also by all those who have come to understand the need of prayer for more vocations in the Church.

DAILY PRAYER

O Most Holy Virgin, You have kept in Your Immaculate Heart the Divine Command of Jesus:

“Pray therefore to the Master of the Harvest to send laborers to His Harvest”

and You have raised all priestly and apostolic vocations, which have bloomed in the Church at all times

We ask of You this Spirit of prayer and that You may present the supplications which we raise to the Lord of the Harvest

so that He send to the world an abundance of holy laborers

for His greater Glory and for the Salvation of Souls.

Amen.

St. Annibale Maria di Francia

DAY ONE (May 23)

Saint Annibale Maria Di Francia, you were entrusted by Our Lord Jesus Christ, with the soul of the Servant of God Luisa Piccaretta. Now, through the intercession of our Little Mama Luisa, and under the Blue Mantle of Our dear Blessed Mother, Mary, we entrust to you our prayers in this Novena for abundant vocations to the Holy Priesthood.

Blessed Pope John Paul II described you, St Annibale Maria di Francia, as “an anticipator and precursor of the modern pastoral care of vocations.”  Therefore we pray with you, through Luisa Piccarreta, your own prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary begging the Master of the Harvest to send laborers to His Harvest.
Pray the daily prayer.

DAY TWO (May 24)

Saint Annibale Maria Di Francia, you who were the Extraordinary Confessor to our Little Mama, the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta, once said:  “What are these few orphans we attend to, these few people we bring the good news to, compared to the millions who are lost and abandoned as sheep without a shepherd?…I looked for an answer and I found a complete one in the words of Jesus: “Beg the harvest master to send out laborers to gather his harvest.”  Therefore we pray with you, through Luisa Piccarreta, your own prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary begging the Master of the Harvest to send laborers to His Harvest.
Pray the daily prayer.

DAY THREE (May 25)

Saint Annibale Maria Di Francia, you once asked: “Who will evangelise the poor if there are no evangelisers? Who will lead the people in God’s ways, if there are no pastors?”

You understood the importance and great need of holy laborers.  Now more than ever we need Vocations to the Holy Priesthood.  Therefore we pray with you, through Luisa Piccarreta, your own prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary begging the Master of the Harvest to send laborers to His Harvest.
Pray the daily prayer.

DAY FOUR (May 26)

St. Annibale Maria Di Francia, in your love for children and the poor you discovered another and greater poverty, which was the lack of good workers. You spent your whole life countering this poverty.  Today we suffer more than ever the poverty of good workers in the vineyard.  Therefore we pray with you, through Luisa Piccarreta, your own prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary begging the Master of the Harvest to send laborers to His Harvest.
Pray the daily prayer.

DAY FIVE (May 27)

St. Annibale Maria Di Francia, you yourself strived to become a model of the “good laborer” spoken of in the Gospels, and to be a priest “according to the Heart of Jesus.”  Our hearts yearn for “good laborers,” priests “according to the Heart of Jesus.”  Therefore we pray with you, through Luisa Piccarreta, your own prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary begging the Master of the Harvest to send laborers to His Harvest.
Pray the daily prayer.

DAY SIX (May 28)

St. Annibale Maria Di Francia, you looked at the poor of the city with the eyes of Jesus and saw them as “sheep without a shepherd.”  Look now upon our poor souls with the eyes of Jesus and have pity on our souls who are so often as “sheep without a shepherd.”  Jesus wants laborers to harvest His people. Therefore we pray with you, through Luisa Piccarreta, your own prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary begging the Master of the Harvest to send laborers to His Harvest.
Pray the daily prayer.

DAY SEVEN (May 29)

St. Annibale Maria Di Francia, in diving into the richness of the Gospel you found the Rogate pearl of great price, which means “…pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest to send workers into His harvest.” (Mt 9:37-38; Lk 10:2).  These words were engraved into your heart.  To you we come to enflame the hearts of men to the Holy Priesthood and send workers into His Harvest. Therefore we pray with you, through Luisa Piccarreta, your own prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary begging the Master of the Harvest to send laborers to His Harvest.
Pray the daily prayer.

DAY EIGHT (May 30)

St. Annibale Maria Di Francia, it became your life to pray to God the Father, the Lord of the Harvest to send workers into His Harvest so that many would know the joy of the Gospel.  It is now our obligation, our desire, our joy to pray for vocations as you did.  Therefore we pray with you, through Luisa Piccarreta, your own prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary begging the Master of the Harvest to send laborers to His Harvest.
Pray the daily prayer.

DAY NINE (May 31)

St. Annibale Maria Di Francia, you used to say: “We should love children with tender and fatherly love. This is the secret of secrets to gain them to God”.  There are so few today who desire to be priests, tender fathers, who love with a fatherly love who would lead souls to our Heavenly Father. Therefore we pray with you, through Luisa Piccarreta, your own prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary begging the Master of the Harvest to send laborers to His Harvest.
Pray the daily prayer.

FINAL PRAYER (June 1)

Every year, the Popes remind the universal Church that still today salvation comes to us through the work of many and holy ministers of the Gospel and that to obtain them from God we must pray.

Prayer for Priestly Vocations

Jesus, Good Shepherd, you said:

“The harvest indeed is great but the laborers are few.”

We lovingly embrace Your invitation:

“Pray the Heavenly Father to send forth laborers into His harvest.”

Inspire in us a holy crusade for vocations

under the loving care of St. Annibale Maria Di Francia

whom Blessed Pope John Paul II described as

“an anticipator and precursor of the modern pastoral care of vocations.”

Grant us abundant holy priests!

May these holy priests be the salt of the earth, the light of the world,

the city placed on the mountaintop for the salvation of mankind redeemed by Your Precious Blood.

Look on us Lord Jesus and our need for holy priests.

Help those young men you are calling to hear clearly Your Solemn and Authoritative Voice

and to generously respond with their “Fiat!” to Your loving call.

Holy Mary Mother of God and Mother of priests, Mother and guardian of vocations,

pray with us, pray for us and pray for all those young men

called from the beginning of time by Our Triune God

to be holy priests today in our troubled world.

Amen.

OUR LADY OF AMERICA; SISTER MARY EPHREM; DOVE

5/22 – Our Lord Jesus Appeared to Sister Mary Ephrem this day (1954) – “My little white dove, if the world is dying, it is because it will not let Me give it Life.” “I AM the Resurrection and the Life, and unless souls seek their life in Me, they will find only death and destruction.” 

5/21 – Confiscation of Luisa’s Volumes, taken to the Vatican in 1938 – Luisa: “Dearest one in the Lord, nothing new happened here, as far as what you say about Rome. On the contrary, there has been a terrible storm against the books and against me. However, I think it was caused by some priests and religious from Corato. May the Lord Bless and Forgive all. It must be a diabolical rage, since, in just hearing the Name of Will of God, he is consumed and becomes furious. So, let us pray. I thank you; do whatever you can do, and whatever the Lord Wants.” Letter of Luisa No. 99 to Federico Abresch June 23, 1941 

Mary, Mother of the Church
(In 2018, on the Monday after Pentecost,
the Universal Church started celebrating this Feast Day) 

Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will – Day Thirty
“So, My daughter, I was in the midst of My Apostles more than the sun of the day. And I was the Anchor, the Wheel, the Boat in which they found Refuge, to be Safe and Sheltered from every danger. Therefore, I can say that I Delivered the nascent Church upon My Maternal Knees, and that My Arms were the Boat in which I Led Her to a Safe Harbor, and I Still Lead Her.”…

***

Click here for more on the Feast of Mary, Mother of the Church:

BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, MOTHER OF THE CHURCH

“…This is why I Alone can tell the True Story of the Immaculate Conception and of the whole of Her Life – because I Conceived Her in Me and I AM Aware of Everything; and if the Holy Church speaks of the Celestial Queen, they can only tell the first letters of the alphabet of Her Sanctity, Greatness and Gifts with which She was Enriched. If you knew the Contentment I Feel when I Speak of My Celestial Mother, who knows how many questions you would ask Me, to give Me the Joy of Speaking of She Whom I Love So Much, and Who has So Much Loved Me.” V34 – 12.8.36 

From Day Twenty-Nine of the Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will

Blessed Virgin Mary to the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta:  

Now, dear daughter, My Beloved Son Jesus remained on earth, Risen, for forty days. Very often He appeared to the Apostles and disciples to confirm them in the Faith and certainty of His Resurrection; and when He was not with the Apostles, He was with His Mama in the cenacle, surrounded by the souls who had come out of Limbo. But as the term of the forty days expired, beloved Jesus Instructed the Apostles, and leaving His Mama as their Guide and Teacher, He Promised us the Descent of the Holy Spirit. Then, Blessing us all, He departed, taking flight for the vault of the Heavens, together with that great crowd of people who had come out of Limbo. All those who were there, and they were a great number, saw Him Ascend; but as He went up high, a cloud of Light removed Him from their sight.