The Novemdiales, nine days of official mourning, begin on the day of the funeral.

The entire Church mourns the death of our Emeritus Holy Father, Benedict XVI.  In cathedrals, basilicas, parish churches, shrines, and chapels the Holy Eucharist will be offered for the repose of his soul. Communities and individuals will ask God to bestow his infinite mercy on the man who served the Church as Bishop of Rome.

This novena has been prepared to help pray for the Holy Father during the next nine days.  The daily Novena consists of a short reading from scripture or some other ecclesiastical text and some brief prayers, including orations drawn from the Roman Missal and the Order of Christian Funerals as published by the Ordinariates.

This order is extracted from that prepared by the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter, reproduced in the UK by permission of the two ordinaries.

Day 6: Tuesday 10 January 2023: The Petrine Ministry of Mercy

✠ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

A Reading from the Encyclical Letter Ut Unum Sint by Pope St John Paul II:

As the heir to the mission of Peter in the Church, which has been made fruitful by the blood of the Princes of the Apostles, the Bishop of Rome exercises a ministry originating in the manifold mercy of God … The authority proper to this ministry is completely at the service of God’s merciful plan and it must always be seen in this perspective. Its power is explained from this perspective. Associating himself with Peter’s threefold profession of love, which corresponds to the earlier threefold denial, his Successor knows that he must be a sign of mercy. His is a ministry of mercy, born of an act of Christ’s own mercy… The Church of God is called by Christ to manifest to a world ensnared by its sins and evil designs that, despite everything, God in his mercy can convert hearts to unity and enable them to enter into communion with him. Ut unum sint 92

Pause for silent prayer for our Holy Father.

Pray one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory be.

Rest eternal grant unto him, O Lord.
And let light perpetual shine upon him.

Almighty God, who madest thy servant, Pope Benedict, the guide of thy family; grant we humbly pray thee, that he might enjoy the reward of all his earthly labour, and share the eternal joy of his Lord; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.