samantha anne thomeczek

Hello, all. First of all, thanks to everyone who helped out when I had to leave yesterday. As Julien of Norwich said, "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." It is/has been quite a year for the St. Raphael community. There have been some great, exciting moments, and some moments filled with fear and stress. I don't know about everyone else, but there have been a ton of moments where I just don't know what to do. So, what I am going to do, and what I want to invite anyone who would like to do as well, is pray a healing novena to St. Raphael. A novena is a nine-day bout of prayers with specific intentions in mind. In this case, we will be asking for healing of all sorts, whatever sort of healing the community needs. It is very appropro to pray to St. Raphael; not only is he the patron of our school, he is also the healing angel...just what we need! The name Raphael even means "God heals" in Hebrew. For this novena, we will be praying the Chaplet of St. Raphael. A chaplet is a personal devotional that uses prayer beads. For the Chaplet of St. Raphael, there are 12 beads and a medal. Here is the jist of how to pray it, but, of course, the prayer is more important than the format, so feel free to do your own thing. (You don't need a physical chaplet to pray this...just use your fingers!) I'll put all this on my blog so you can refer to it there if you'd like. I'm going to start the novena tomorrow, so that it ends on Friday, May 11, but you can start and stop at any time. With prayer, Sam Medal: Prayer to St. Raphael You are Raphael the Healer, You are Raphael the Guide, You are Raphael the Companion, ever at human sorrow's aide. 3 beads: Hail Mary (Mary is the Queen of the Angels!) 9 beads: Prayers in honor of the Angels (one for each group of angels: Angels, Archangels, Thrones, Dominations, Virtues, Principalities, Powers, Cherubim, Seraphim) Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of hosts, Heaven and earth are full of your glory! Glory be to the Father; Glory be to the Son; Glory be to the Holy Spirit! End on the Medal: Prayer to St. Raphael St. Raphael, angel of health, of love, of joy, and light, pray for us.