The Novena is a nine day individual or shared prayer commitment  to obtain special graces or implore needed or special gifts and to make special and often urgent requests to God.

A Novena is a wonderful introduction to prayer for people new to regular personal prayer. People, through a novena (they are powerful as all prayer is) can learn that prayer is a much needed part of everyone's daily lives. 

The word Novena is derived from the Latin "novem", meaning nine. The Novena is used when a situation in yours or someone else's life is urgent and in cases of a Novena being said for the terminally ill, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy (which can be found on a link below) may also be said. To say your novena, you can start by using the example below and over the nine days, ask for God's mercy on a group of people you know of and those in the world you don't know who fall in the same category. God will know who they are. Novenas are prayed by both Catholics and Anglicans.