Best Catholic novenas for family and marriage
The Catholic tradition has cultivated a rich body of devotion for the protection of the family, the healing of marriages, and the sanctification of children. The four principal Catholic novenas for these intentions are featured below: the Holy Family Novena, the Saint Joseph Novena, the Mary Undoer of Knots Novena, and the Saint Anne Novena (the patroness of mothers and grandmothers).
If you need to start a novena today: begin with the Holy Family Novena for general family graces, the Saint Joseph Novena for the protection of the family unit, or Mary Undoer of Knots for a specific situation of family conflict or estrangement.
The Holy Family Novena
For: obtaining the protection of the Holy Family on Catholic families and the graces necessary for family life
The Holy Family Novena consecrates the Catholic family to the Holy Family of Nazareth: Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. The Feast of the Holy Family is celebrated by the universal Catholic Church on the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas. The novena is the principal Catholic prayer for the graces of married life, the protection of children, the conversion of family members, and the union of the family in the Catholic faith across generations.
When to pray it: Before the feast of the Holy Family, on wedding anniversaries, at the birth or adoption of a child, or in any season of significant family transition.
The St Joseph Novena
For: the protection and intercession of Saint Joseph for family, employment, holy death, and the needs of the Universal Church
Saint Joseph is the universal Catholic patron of fathers, of Catholic families, and of a happy death. His novena is prayed for the protection of the family from outside threats, for the conversion of fathers who have drifted from the faith, for the grace of finding a Catholic spouse, and for the protection of children in the moral confusion of contemporary culture. Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Quamquam Pluries (1889) consecrated the universal Catholic Church to the patronage of Saint Joseph specifically for the defense of the Catholic family.
When to pray it: On the two feasts of Saint Joseph (March 19 and May 1), or whenever the family faces a specific moral or material threat.
The Mary Undoer of Knots Novena
For: the untying of the knots of life: family conflict, sin, anxiety, resentment, addictions, the impossibilities that have wound themselves into our days
The Mary Undoer of Knots Novena is the Marian devotion for the specific knots of family life: long-standing resentment between siblings, estrangement between parent and adult child, marriages in which communication has hardened, addictions in the household. The Blessed Virgin is invoked under this title for situations where the family conflict can no longer be unwound by reasoning or compromise alone.
When to pray it: When the family situation has become a knot the family cannot untie by itself.
The Saint Anne Novena
For: obtaining the intercession of Saint Anne for mothers, for those seeking a faithful spouse, and for the conversion of children to the Catholic faith
Saint Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary and grandmother of Christ, is the Catholic patroness of mothers, grandmothers, and women seeking the grace of motherhood. Her novena is prayed for women hoping to conceive, for difficult pregnancies, for the protection of the unborn, and for grandmothers consecrating their grandchildren to the Catholic faith.
When to pray it: On the feast of Saint Anne (July 26) or in any season of motherhood and family hope.
The Catholic theology of the family
The Catholic Church teaches that the family is the "domestic church" (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1656-1658), the original cell of Catholic society in which faith is transmitted across generations. The Catholic family is grounded in the sacramental bond of marriage between one man and one woman, ordered to the procreation and education of children and to the mutual sanctification of the spouses (Catechism 1601-1666).
Catholic prayer for the family is therefore prayer for the original institution that God Himself established at the creation of the human race. The novenas in this collection address each dimension of family life: marriage, parenting, the conversion of family members, the protection of the home from spiritual and material threat, and the bond between grandparents and grandchildren that transmits the Catholic faith across the generations.
The Holy Family as the model of every Catholic home
The Holy Family of Nazareth (Jesus, Mary, and Joseph) is the Catholic model of the family. Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Neminem Fugit (1892) consecrated the Catholic family to the Holy Family and established the universal feast (celebrated on the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas). The Holy Family Novena is the prayer of consecration of each individual Catholic family to the Holy Family of Nazareth.
Catholic spiritual writers across the centuries have noted that the Holy Family was itself marked by hardship: the poverty of Nazareth, the displacement of the flight into Egypt, the anxiety of the loss of the Child Jesus for three days in Jerusalem (Luke 2:41-52). The Holy Family of Nazareth is not the model of an easy family. It is the model of a family in which the Lord is present through every difficulty, and in which the ordinary disciplines of family life become themselves a path of sanctification.
Pairing family novenas with the sacraments
Catholic prayer for the family is most fruitful when the Catholic sacramental life of the family is itself nourished: Sunday Mass as a family unit; frequent reception of the Sacrament of Penance by parents and children alike; the practice of the family Rosary; the consecration of the home to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The novenas above are typically prayed in addition to, not in place of, these sacramental disciplines.
Frequently asked questions
Which Catholic novena is best for marriage problems?
Mary Undoer of Knots is the most direct Catholic novena for marital difficulty. The intent of the devotion includes family conflict and the knots of relationship that the spouses cannot untangle by their own effort. For a marriage threatened by external pressure (illness, financial hardship, the loss of a child), the Holy Family Novena is the traditional Catholic accompaniment. For prolonged estrangement between spouses, Catholics often pray both alongside the sacramental graces of Penance and the Eucharist.
Is there a Catholic novena for a wayward child?
Yes. The Saint Monica devotion (Saint Monica prayed for seventeen years for the conversion of her son Saint Augustine) is the classical Catholic prayer for adult children who have drifted from the faith. Within the novenas in this collection, the Mary Undoer of Knots Novena and the Saint Joseph Novena are the most commonly prayed. Many Catholic parents pray a perpetual novena (the same novena repeated for nine cycles or on the same weekday for nine weeks) for the conversion of their children.
Can a Catholic pray a novena to conceive a child?
Yes. Saint Anne is the traditional Catholic patroness of women seeking the grace of motherhood, and her novena is widely prayed by Catholic couples facing infertility. The Saint Gerard Majella devotion is also strong in this intention (Saint Gerard is the Catholic patron of expectant mothers and difficult pregnancies). Catholic prayer for conception is always offered in conjunction with appropriate medical care and in accord with the Catholic moral teaching on the dignity of human procreation (CCC 2375-2379).
What if a family member has left the Catholic faith?
The Catholic tradition has long counseled persevering prayer for the conversion of family members, with the example of Saint Monica's seventeen-year prayer for Saint Augustine as the model. The Mary Undoer of Knots Novena, the Saint Joseph Novena, and the Divine Mercy Novena are commonly prayed for this intention. The Catholic doctrine of grace holds that no soul is beyond the reach of God's mercy, no matter how long the apparent absence from the faith.
Related Catholic devotions for the family
Beyond the four novenas above, several Catholic devotions are traditionally associated with family life: the family Holy Rosary prayed in the evening; the Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, enthroned in the home; the Memorare prayed for individual family members in distress; the Salve Regina as the evening prayer of the household. The reading of the daily Gospel as a family is itself one of the most ancient Catholic family practices.