Novenas

A novena is nine days of prayer for a particular intention. Gianna provides each day's text and keeps track of the current day.

Starting one

In Prayer, use Start or schedule on a suggested novena, or choose one from Browse novenas. Start today, select its next customary start date, or choose a future date. A scheduled novena waits until that date before Day 1 begins. You can pray several novenas at once, but not two runs of the same one. When more than one is current, the buttons above the novena title switch between them.

Ask Gianna:

"Start the Divine Mercy novena."

"I'd like to pray a novena to St Joseph for my father."

"Schedule the St Joseph novena for its customary start date."

If you are not sure which, ask "what novenas do you offer?". The catalogue holds well-known devotions — to the Sacred Heart, Divine Mercy, the Holy Spirit, St Joseph, St Jude, St Thérèse, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and others (including St Gianna Beretta Molla) — and it grows over time.

Praying it

Each day, Gianna gives you that day's prayer (day 1 through 9) — in the morning note, or whenever you ask "what's today's novena prayer?" With several novenas under way, tell Gianna which one you prayed.

Intentions

Offer a novena for intentions on your prayer list. Tick them when you start it, or use Novena options → Choose intentions later. In chat, say "offer my St Joseph novena for Tom's recovery"; a new intention is added to your prayer list and attached. Each day's prayer shows its intentions. A short free-text intention can still be given instead.

Praying together

To pray a novena with someone outside your household, open Novena options → Invite others, or ask Gianna for an invitation link. They open the link with their own Gianna account and start the same novena on your dates, keeping their own progress. Everyone praying it sees each other's first names and how many days each has prayed. Intentions stay private. The link works until the novena ends. Stopping your novena removes you from the group.

If you miss a day

If you miss a day, ask for the current prayer and continue.

After completion

Today shows the completed novena for the rest of that day, using your household's time zone. From the following day, it offers Browse novenas. The completed prayers and progress remain available in Prayer → Novenas. Starting another novena moves completed ones to Previous novenas.