NOVENA TO SAINT RAPHAEL, ANGEL OF JOY AND HEALING

Please join me in offering the novena to Archangel Raphael - and feel free to leave your intentions in the comments - to end on his feast day, October 24. 

Glorious Archangel Saint Raphael, great prince of the heavenly court, you are illustrious for your gifts of wisdom and grace. You are a guide of those who journey by land or sea or air, consoler of the afflicted, and refuge of sinners.

I beg you, assist me in all my needs and in all the sufferings of this life, as once you helped the young Tobias on his travels. Because you are the "medicine of God," I humbly pray you to heal the many infirmities of my soul and the ills that afflict my body. I especially ask of you the favor:

(State your specific request or intention here)

...and the great grace of purity to prepare me to be the temple of the Holy Spirit.

St. Raphael, of the glorious seven who stand before the throne of Him who lives and reigns.

Angel of health, the Lord has filled your hand with balm from heaven to soothe or cure our pains. Heal or cure the victim of disease, and guide our steps when doubtful of our ways. Amen.

Say one Our Father...
Say one Hail Mary...
Say one Glory Be...

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I'm writing a book on Archangel Raphael that opens with a personal introduction about how he has answered my prayers; the first occasion being when I got paid a large sum of money I had been owed for a long time, secondly a marvelous summer spent teaching and traveling in Spain, then when he got me out of several tight spots, kept me away from men I wanted to be with, and about the time a holy priest who could read souls told me I had a devotion to him and that I'd write a book about him. 

After I had what I considered a rock-solid love of him, I was slapped down by someone who haughtily told me that Raphael and the entire Book of Tobit was "fictitious", a fantasy novel borne of wild imagination and written by a family who wanted to claim that an angel had appeared to them to give them higher status after they had fallen on hard times. I was informed that the Book of Tobit had rightly been excluded from the Bible.  I was determined to prove this wrong, and my book on Raphael is an attempt to do just that. 

I aim to give a thorough defense of Raphael and the Book of Tobit, and one core part is Padre Pio's reliance on him. In Volume II of his letters to Raffaelina Cerese, Padre Pio defined the Book of Tobit as "Sacred Scripture", and quoted from Raphael, that we ought "gloriously reveal the works of God" when Pio was trying to coax Raffaelina into sharing with him the details of her dark night of the soul, which Pio said was an extraordinary and special grace. 

I had to read Volume II of Pio's letters at least 9 to 10 times when I was writing, Padre Pio and You, so I could do a deep analysis on his teachings on a soul being purged by way of darkness and dryness so the soul may have a higher union with the Lord and a better light than the light that was taken away. 

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This post was informed by Volume II of Padre Pio's Letters (pages 273, 324). The illustration was executed by Georg Pencz.