Prayer becomes a daily journey of healing and hope through the Novena to Saint Josephine Bakhita, inspired by the life of the saint and by her witness of freedom.
As stated in the introduction to the text, Bakhita is invoked as “the protector of all the oppressed”, in a world where slavery still exists in the forms of human trafficking, war, abuse, and violence.
Marked from childhood by slavery, repeatedly sold and humiliated, Saint Bakhita transformed a story of suffering into a path of faith and inner freedom.
The novena invites us to be guided by her experience, so that her message may continue to speak to us and become a living example of hope, forgiveness, and joy in Christ.
The journey unfolds over nine days, each dedicated to a concrete wound of our time:
-
Day 1 – For contemporary forms of slavery, with an explicit prayer for “the victims of human trafficking and all those who suffer in silence”
-
Day 2 – For abductions, recalling the violence and torture endured by the saint
-
Day 4 – For vocations, inspired by her “yes” to God’s call
-
Day 5 – For beauty, which Bakhita was able to recognize even in suffering
-
Day 6 – For faith, lived as a source of true freedom
-
Day 7 – For the Virgin Mary, whom the saint invoked at the hour of her death
-
Day 8 – For joy, which made her welcoming to all
-
Day 9 – For the chains that bind us, asking for the liberation of all who are still imprisoned by suffering and sin
Each day returns to the same invocation: to recognize the gift of freedom and to understand that we are truly free only through our faith in the Lord.
It is a path that unites contemplation and responsibility, remembrance of pain and openness to hope, in the certainty that — as the title of the novena proclaims — “light always returns.”
Following the example of Saint Bakhita, patron of victims of human trafficking, this novena becomes a concrete invitation to safeguard the dignity of every person and to transform prayer into choices for justice and peace.
Download the novena HERE
Featured Image: “Let The Oppressed Go Free” , the sculpture by artist Timothy Schmalz created and dedicated to Bakhita and all the modern form of slavery’s victim.
