Novena to St. Frances Xavier Cabrini

She dreamed of China. The pope said, "Not to the East, but to the West," and she went. Obedience redirected her whole life toward the work God had actually prepared.

St. Frances Cabrini, teach me to hold my own plans lightly. If God is redirecting me, give me the grace to say yes to the west when my heart had packed for the east.

Conclude with the closing prayer below, then mark this day as prayed.

She feared water all her life after nearly drowning as a child, and still she crossed the Atlantic more than twenty times.

St. Frances Cabrini, my intention requires a crossing I am afraid to make. Take my hand as I step onto the water of this need, and do not let my fear decide for me.

Conclude with the closing prayer below, then mark this day as prayed.

Her first house in New York fell through before she arrived. She started anyway, with nothing, and built sixty-seven institutions before she died.

St. Frances Cabrini, bless the small and unimpressive beginning in front of me. Teach me that God builds cathedrals from cornerstones the world overlooks.

Conclude with the closing prayer below, then mark this day as prayed.

In every exhausted immigrant she saw the face of Christ, and she served that face in hospitals, schools, and orphanages.

St. Frances Cabrini, open my eyes to the stranger near me while I pray for my own need. Let my intention make me more compassionate, not more closed.

Conclude with the closing prayer below, then mark this day as prayed.

Her whole trust rested in one place: the Heart of Jesus. Her sisters were missionaries of that Heart before they were anything else.

St. Frances Cabrini, hide my intention inside the Sacred Heart of Jesus where you hid everything you loved. What rests there is already safe.

Conclude with the closing prayer below, then mark this day as prayed.

She answered letters, balanced accounts, negotiated with bishops and bankers, and every hour of it was prayer, because every hour of it was love.

St. Frances Cabrini, consecrate my ordinary work while I wait for my answer. Let the tasks of this day rise with this prayer as one offering.

Conclude with the closing prayer below, then mark this day as prayed.

Doors closed on her constantly: funding collapsed, buildings failed, officials refused. She treated every closed door as information, never as a verdict.

St. Frances Cabrini, when this intention meets a setback, keep me from reading it as the end. Obtain for me your holy stubbornness, which is simply trust that refuses to quit.

Conclude with the closing prayer below, then mark this day as prayed.

She built for people she would never meet, generations of children who would learn and heal in rooms she paid for with worry and prayer.

St. Frances Cabrini, widen my prayer beyond myself. Let the answer I receive become a blessing to people I will never meet, and make me generous with every grace.

Conclude with the closing prayer below, then mark this day as prayed.

The first United States citizen ever canonized was an immigrant who arrived with nothing but confidence in God. Her whole life was gratitude paid forward.

St. Frances Cabrini, I finish this novena the way you lived: thankful before the harvest. I thank God now for the help that is coming, and I promise to make your goodness known.

Conclude with the closing prayer below, then mark this day as prayed.