The Gratitude Novena

The novena of gratitude is nine days of thanksgiving offered to God for a prayer He has answered, a healing He has granted, or simply for the numberless benefits He pours out on every soul. Unlike the novenas of petition, which ask, this one gives back: it is prayed after the favour has come, or whenever we wish to grow in the forgotten virtue of thankfulness. Below we give the complete nine days — the daily prayers, the distinct thanksgiving for each day, and the great traditional form, the Twenty-Four Glory Be Novena of Thanksgiving — so it can be prayed in full from the first day to the last.

Why pray a novena of gratitude

Scripture commands thanksgiving as plainly as it commands prayer: "In all things give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you all" (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Yet of the ten lepers our Lord healed, only one returned to give thanks, and He asked after the nine: "Where are the nine?" (Luke 17:17). The novena of gratitude is our returning. It is the soul that has received — a cure, a conversion, a child, a way out of what seemed impossible — coming back to lay the gift at the feet of the Giver.

It is also a school. Gratitude does not come naturally to fallen men, who notice a hundred wants and forget a thousand mercies; and so the Church gives us set days of thanksgiving to train the heart to the habit. If we are still unsure what a novena is and why nine days, see our guide to what is a novena. This one may be begun at any time — but it is most fitting after an answered prayer, on a birthday or anniversary of a grace received, at the year's end with the Te Deum, or during any season of Thanksgiving.

The full novena of gratitude

The devotion has a simple, unchanging frame said on each of the nine days, and a distinct thanksgiving for each day. Pray it at a fixed hour, kneeling if you are able.

The daily prayers (said every day)

Begin with the Sign of the Cross, then this act of thanksgiving, which is the ancient prayer of the Church after every benefit:

We give Thee thanks, Almighty God, for all Thy benefits, who livest and reignest, world without end. Amen.

Then make the opening prayer of the novena:

O most gracious God, Father of all mercies and God of all consolation, I come before Thee with a heart overflowing with thanksgiving. Thou hast heard my prayer; Thou hast not abandoned me; in Thine infinite goodness Thou hast poured out upon me blessings I did not deserve and graces I could not have merited. Accept now these nine days of praise and thanksgiving as a small return for Thy boundless love. Let my gratitude be not merely of the lips, but of the whole heart, mind, and soul, and let my whole life become a living thanks. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

After the daily thanksgiving below, close each day with one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be, and end with the Church's own word of praise: What shall I render to the Lord, for all the things that He hath rendered to me? I will take the chalice of salvation, and I will call upon the name of the Lord (Psalm 115:12-13).

The nine days of thanksgiving

Day One — For the gift of life. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all He hath done for thee" (Psalm 102:2). We thank God that He drew us out of nothing, gave us body and soul, and keeps us in being at this moment. Every breath is on loan from His goodness. — Give thanks, then pray the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be.

Day Two — For the gift of faith. "Give praise to the Lord, for He is good: for His mercy endureth for ever" (Psalm 106:1). We thank God for our Baptism, for the true Faith, for the Church into which He grafted us, when so many are left in darkness through no worse fault than ours.

Day Three — For daily providence. "The mercies of the Lord are new every morning" (Lamentations 3:22-23). We thank God for bread, roof, and work, for the hundred small provisions we take without noticing, and for the care that has never once let us fall through.

Day Four — For the sacraments and grace. "Giving thanks to God the Father, who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light" (Colossians 1:12). We thank God for the Blessed Sacrament, for Confession, for every grace poured into the soul — the treasure beside which all earthly goods are dust.

Day Five — For family and friends. "I give thanks to my God in every remembrance of you" (Philippians 1:3). We thank God for those He has set beside us to love and be loved, for parents, spouse, children, friends, and for the souls whose prayers have carried us further than we know.

Day Six — For answered prayers. "I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord, with my whole heart... for Thou hast heard the words of my mouth" (Psalm 137:1). We thank God for the particular favour that moved us to make this novena — (here name it) — and for every prayer He has answered, seen and unseen.

Day Seven — For crosses and trials. "It is good for me that Thou hast humbled me, that I may learn Thy justifications" (Psalm 118:71). We thank God even for the hard mercies: the sufferings that turned us back to Him, the doors He shut, the crosses by which He conforms us to His Son.

Day Eight — For His patient love. "What shall I render to the Lord, for all the things that He hath rendered to me?" (Psalm 115:12). We thank God for His patience with our sins, for waiting on us, for calling us back again and again when we had every reason to be abandoned.

Day Nine — For the promise of Heaven. "Thanks be to God, who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:57). We thank God for the death and Resurrection of His Son, and for the hope of everlasting life — the last and greatest of all His benefits. On this day, crown the novena with the Te Deum, the Church's supreme hymn of thanksgiving: We praise Thee, O God: we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord. All the earth doth worship Thee, the Father everlasting...

The traditional 24 Glory Be Novena of Thanksgiving

Beside this nine-day form stands the most beloved of all traditional thanksgiving novenas: the Novena of the Twenty-Four Glory Bes, prayed to the Most Holy Trinity through the intercession of St Thérèse of the Child Jesus. It was begun in 1925 by a Jesuit, Father Putigan, who for nine days recited the Glory be to the Father twenty-four times — one for each year of the Little Flower's short life on earth — in thanksgiving for the graces God had showered upon her, and asking one favour through her. His prayers were answered with the sign of roses, and the devotion spread through the whole Church.

Each of the nine days, make this opening prayer:

Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, I thank Thee for all the blessings and favours Thou hast showered upon the soul of Thy servant Thérèse of the Child Jesus, during the twenty-four years she spent here on earth; and in consideration of the merits of this Thy most beloved Saint, I beseech Thee to grant me this favour, if it be in accordance with Thy most holy will and is not an obstacle to my salvation. (Here name your request.)

Then say the Glory Be twenty-four times, adding after each: St Thérèse of the Child Jesus, pray for us.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

It may be prayed at any time, though the ninth to the seventeenth of the month is favoured, that the petitioner may join his prayers with all others making the novena. For the full life of this saint and her own novena, see the Novena to St Thérèse of Lisieux.

Variants of the gratitude novena

A short novena of gratitude

For those pressed for time, the whole devotion can be reduced to its heart without losing it. Each day, make the Sign of the Cross, pray We give Thee thanks, Almighty God, for all Thy benefits, name the particular grace you are thanking God for, and close with a single Glory Be. Said with attention for nine days, this brief form is a true novena of thanksgiving.

A novena of thanksgiving for answered prayers

When God has granted a long-sought favour, the sixth and ninth days above may be prayed as the whole intention: nine days of thanks for the one great mercy received. Many join it to a Mass of thanksgiving, the surest thanks the Church can offer, since the Mass is itself the Eucharist — the "thanksgiving." If the favour came through a particular devotion, return your thanks there: to the Sacred Heart, to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, or after a plea for mercy, through the Divine Mercy Novena.

The Divine Praises as a daily addition

Many add to the gratitude novena the Divine Praises — Blessed be God. Blessed be His holy Name... — the acts of reparation and praise said at Benediction, which turn thanksgiving into adoration.

A printable PDF of the novena of gratitude

The complete text above is the whole devotion; there is nothing further to download. To pray it from a printed sheet, copy the daily prayers and the nine days into a single page and keep it beside you for the nine days. Or pray it from the Iter Fidei app, which carries the full novena with the traditional prayers and audio, so no printout is needed.

How to pray the novena of gratitude

A novena is nine days of prayer, from the Latin novem, "nine" — an echo of the nine days the Apostles and Our Lady spent in the Upper Room between the Ascension and Pentecost. Choose a fixed hour and keep it for all nine days. Name at the start what you are giving thanks for. Where you can, join the novena to Holy Mass and Communion, and add a decade of the Rosary — for the pattern of that prayer, see how to pray the Rosary. Above all, pray it disinterestedly: a novena of gratitude asks nothing and expects nothing in return, but simply gives back, which is the freest and purest form of prayer.

The story of the Church's thanksgiving

Gratitude is not a modern sentiment but the oldest movement of the redeemed heart. The Psalms are full of it — "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good" recurs like a refrain — and the Church built her whole worship upon it: the Mass is called the Eucharist, the Greek for thanksgiving, because at its centre our Lord "took bread, and giving thanks, broke" (Luke 22:19). Every Mass is the perfect thanksgiving of the Son to the Father, offered on our behalf.

From the earliest centuries the Church has crowned her great mercies with the Te Deum, the hymn ascribed by tradition to Saints Ambrose and Augustine, sung after a victory, at the election of a Pope, at the close of the year, and whenever God grants a signal benefit — with a plenary indulgence attached, under the usual conditions, on the last day of the year. To pray a novena of gratitude is simply to make this ancient instinct our own for nine days: to be the tenth leper who returned, the one who did not forget.

The modern flowering of the thanksgiving novena owes much to St Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897), the Carmelite who died at twenty-four and whose whole "Little Way" was a way of confidence and thanks. Canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1925, she is honoured on the 3rd of October in the traditional calendar (the 1st of October in the newer). It was in the very year of her canonization that Father Putigan's Twenty-Four Glory Be novena began, and through it countless souls have learned to thank God for His works in His saints. For her whole life and doctrine, see St Thérèse of Lisieux.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the novena of gratitude?

It is a nine-day devotion of thanksgiving offered to God for His benefits — most often prayed after an answered prayer, a healing, or a favour long sought, but fitting at any time we wish to grow in thankfulness. Unlike a novena of petition, it asks for nothing; it gives thanks. Its heart is the traditional act of thanksgiving, We give Thee thanks, Almighty God, for all Thy benefits, prayed over nine days with a distinct thanksgiving each day.

When should I pray the novena of gratitude?

Whenever God has answered a prayer, or on the anniversary of a grace received, at the end of a year, on a birthday, or during a season of Thanksgiving. It may also be prayed simply to form the habit of gratitude, which does not come naturally and must be practised. There is no wrong time to thank God.

How is the gratitude novena different from a novena of petition?

A novena of petition asks God for a favour; a novena of gratitude thanks Him for one already given, or for His goodness in general. The two belong together: the tradition is to promise a novena of thanksgiving in advance, and to pray it once the petition is answered. Gratitude completes the circle that petition opens.

Can I pray the novena of gratitude for someone else?

Yes. You may give thanks to God for a grace granted to a family member or friend, or offer the whole novena in thanksgiving on another's behalf. Thanksgiving, like all prayer, may be offered for the living and for the holy souls, and God is honoured whenever His mercies are acknowledged, by whomever.

Is there a printable PDF of the novena of gratitude?

The full text on this page is the entire devotion, and needs nothing added. To pray from paper, copy the daily prayers and the nine days onto a single sheet. The Iter Fidei app also carries the complete novena of gratitude and the traditional Te Deum with audio, so it can be prayed from a phone without any printout.

What is the best Catholic prayer of thanksgiving?

For a signal favour, none surpasses the Te Deum, the Church's supreme hymn of thanksgiving. For daily use, the short act We give Thee thanks, Almighty God, for all Thy benefits is the Church's own after any blessing. And the perfect thanksgiving is Holy Mass itself, the Eucharist, offered by Christ to the Father — which is why a Mass of thanksgiving is the surest thanks a soul can give.

What is the 24 Glory Be Novena of thanksgiving?

It is the most beloved of traditional thanksgiving novenas, prayed to the Most Holy Trinity through St Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Begun in 1925 by the Jesuit Father Putigan, it consists in reciting the Glory Be twenty-four times on each of nine days — one for each of the twenty-four years of the Little Flower's life — in thanksgiving for the graces God lavished on her, while asking one favour through her intercession. His own novena was answered with the sign of a rose, and the devotion spread through the whole Church. The full form, with its opening prayer, is given above.

Pray this novena of gratitude with day-by-day reminders, the traditional prayers, and audio in the Iter Fidei app. Download it here.

Sources. Holy Scripture (Psalms 102, 106, 115, 118, 137; Lamentations 3:22-23; Luke 17:11-19 and 22:19; 1 Thessalonians 5:18; 1 Corinthians 15:57; Colossians 1:12; Philippians 1:3); the Te Deum (Ambrosian hymn of thanksgiving), with the plenary indulgence on the last day of the year (Pius XI); the traditional act of thanksgiving Agimus tibi gratias ("We give Thee thanks, Almighty God, for all Thy benefits"); the Novena of the Twenty-Four Glory Bes to the Holy Trinity through St Thérèse of the Child Jesus (Father Putigan, 1925); St Thérèse of Lisieux, canonized by Pope Pius XI (1925), feast 3 October (traditional calendar).