WHY NINE NIGHTS?

 

Most Chamorro Catholics will start praying a rosary as a family, with friends and others joining, the day someone in the family passes away. It lasts for nine days or nights.

Why nine?

The devotion is Catholic and so the answer is to be found in the Catholic religion, and not in the Chamorro culture itself.

NINE DAYS OF PRAYER

WHEN THE HOLY SPIRIT CAME

on the 10th day

When Jesus returned to Heaven, body and soul, on Ascension Thursday, He told the Apostles to return to the Upper Room and pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit would come and remain with the Church, with the Apostles and with every believer until Jesus comes back again at the end of the world. The Holy Spirit would be the friend, the advocate, the consoler, the enlightener, the guide of the Church till the end of the world.

So the Holy Spirit would be a great grace, and Jesus told the Apostles to pray for the coming of that great grace, that great favor, the Holy Spirit.

So from Thursday, when they started praying, till the following day Friday, is one day. Count nine days of prayer and that takes you to Saturday. And the great grace, the great favor, came the following day, Pentecost Sunday. The Holy Spirit came down upon all the Apostles, the Blessed Mother and others on the 10th day. So, the favor asked for 9 days came on the 10th.

A period of NINE DAYS is called a NOVENA. It comes from the Latin word for NINE, which is NOVEM. The month of NOVEMBER used to be the NINTH month on the Roman calendar.

We pray novenas to some saints. In these novenas, we ask that saint to pray to God for us to grant us a favor, a grace, which we hope to receive at the end of the novena, just as the Apostles prayed for nine days and after that received the great grace of the Holy Spirit.

CANDY TAMAN'S ROSARY SCHEDULE

The 1st night not there because it started before this could be put in the newspaper

When we pray for the dead, we are asking God to have mercy on them, shorten their time in Purgatory and to take them to heaven as soon as possible. That is the request, the great favor or grace wanted.

And, like the Apostles and Mary, we pray for NINE DAYS (or nights) asking for this great favor and grace. It is a NOVENA (series of nine) of ROSARIES for the deceased. Jesus told us that God hears our prayers, so we believe and so we do!