Nine Days for My Child — A Mother's Novena of Divine Mercy

The hardest part is not the situation.
It is the silence.

You pray, and nothing appears to happen. Another Christmas passes and they do not come to Mass. Another year, and the same prayer, worn smooth from repetition.

And somewhere around four in the morning the thought arrives that you would not say to your parish priest: I am not sure this is doing anything.

This was written for that hour. Not to talk you out of it. To give it nine days, a structure, and somewhere to put it.

Saints Augustine and Monica, painted by Ary Scheffer in 1846: mother and son seated together, looking upward. — Ary Scheffer · Saints Augustine and Monica · 1846
The National Gallery, London

“It cannot be that the son of these tears should perish.”

An African bishop to St. Monica · Confessions III, 12

Her son left the faith at seventeen. He joined a sect she thought was heresy, took a mistress, fathered a child, and found her piety embarrassing. He wrote that down himself, years later.

She begged a bishop to argue him back. The bishop refused. She kept coming back until he lost patience and said the words beside this paragraph.

It took another seventeen years. She had no evidence for sixteen of them. His name was Augustine, and she lived to see it.

She had no evidence either.

Nine days, seven minutes an evening, for one child. It is in your hands in under a minute.

Get the Novena — £9.99

Instant download · print it as often as you like

Nine days. One child. One prayer.

Each day gives you one passage, one page of reflection, one prayer, and the petition to carry into the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Seven minutes.

IThe SilenceWhen He answered her not a word.

IIThe TearsWhat the bishop said to Monica.

IIIThe SwordOur Lady was told it would hurt.

IVA Great Way OffThe father had been watching that road for years.

VGreater Than What They Have DoneWhen it has gone too far.

VIHe Stopped the FuneralNobody asked Him to.

VIIHelp Thou My UnbeliefThe day it goes flat.

VIIIStandingYou are not asked to fix it.

IXAt the Hour of Their DeathThe petition underneath all the others.

All nine days, the Chaplet written out in full, and five prints. £9.99.

Begin Tonight

The ninth day is the one we would point you to. It rests on what Our Lord told St. Faustina: that when the Chaplet is said for the dying, He stands there not as the just Judge but as the merciful Saviour (Diary 811). You may not live to see your child come back. You can still go ahead of them to that hour.

November

The Church gives this month
to the dead.

Which is why the ninth day reads differently in November than it does in June.

All through this month the Church prays for the souls of those who have died. Mass after Mass, name after name, for people nobody else is still praying for.

A mother praying for a living child who has left the faith knows exactly where that puts her. It is the thing she does not say out loud: that one of us will go first, and it will not be settled.

The ninth day is that petition, written down and prayed on purpose. Not a prediction, and not a morbid thought to be talked out of. Somewhere to put it.

Someone has been
watching that road.

“And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and running to him fell upon his neck.”

Luke 15:20 · the reading for the fourth day

Everyone remembers the running. Almost nobody notices the watching. To see someone while they are still a great way off, you have to have been looking down that road for years.

The Return of the Prodigal Son, painted by Rembrandt around 1668: a father embracing his kneeling son. — Rembrandt · The Return of the Prodigal Son · c. 1668
The Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

What you receive

The novena, 28 pages. Print-ready PDF, or read it on a phone.
Included with it, five A4 prints. Gold border, ready to frame.
The Chaplet, written out in full. In case it has been a while.
Pages to write their names. And room to write on, every single day.

Celtic Faith Nine Days
for My Child A Mother's Novena
of Divine Mercy “It cannot be that the son
of these tears should perish.”

One file. Yours to print as often as you like.

Get the Novena — £9.99

Secure checkout · the download arrives immediately

Is this for you?

Yes, if

You have been praying for the same child for years and nothing has changed.
They have stopped going to Mass — or stopped speaking to you altogether.
You know the Chaplet, but it has slipped, and you would like it back.
You want something with a beginning and an end, not another book to get through.

No, if

You want a guarantee that your child will come back. This book does not offer one, and says so.
You are looking for a long theological study. This is nine short days.
You are expecting a printed book in the post. This is a PDF you keep and print yourself.

You could be praying it this evening.

You payCard or PayPal, without leaving this page.
The file arrivesImmediately, and by email as well, so you never lose it.
You begin tonightNine evenings. Seven minutes each.

Begin Tonight — £9.99

Before you decide

Is this a printed book?

No. It is a PDF. It arrives the moment you pay, and you can read it on a phone or print it at home on ordinary A4 paper. Nothing comes in the post.

I do not really know the Chaplet. Is that a problem?

Not at all. It is written out in full at the front — every prayer, on which bead, in order. It takes about seven minutes and is prayed on an ordinary rosary.

What if I miss a day?

Pick it up the next day and carry on. Do not start over and do not despair about it. Scrupulosity is not devotion, and the book says so on its own page.

Can I pray it for more than one child?

Yes, and there are pages inside to write their names. But if you can, pray it for one at a time. The whole shape of it is one child, nine days.

Can I print it more than once?

As many times as you like, for yourself and your own household. Print the five prints for the hallway, print a second copy when the first one wears out.

Is it approved by the Church?

The Diary of St. Faustina is an approved private revelation, and the Divine Mercy devotion is encouraged by the Church. This book is a private devotional. It carries no imprimatur and does not claim one, and it points you to the sacraments rather than standing in for them.

When can I start?

Tonight. If you begin this evening you will pray the ninth day one week on Sunday.

It does not promise your child will come back.

No honest book could, and you would know it was a lie. God does not overrule the freedom He gave them, and the Church has never taught otherwise.

What it offers is smaller and truer: that the prayer is not being wasted. Not lost, not filed away, but doing something you cannot see, in a place you are not allowed to look.

That is a different thing from a guarantee. It is also the thing that has kept mothers going for sixteen hundred years.

Begin tonight.

If you start this evening, you finish on the ninth day, one week on Sunday.

£9.99 £18.99

Launch price, held to the end of November. From 1 December it is £18.99.

Get the Novena

Secure checkout Download arrives immediately Price includes VAT

The hardest part is not the situation.It is the silence.