| Novena Starts: | April 30 |
| Feastday: | May 9 |
| Birth: | 1797 |
| Death: | 1879 |
Patron saint of teachers and students, Catholic schools, the education of girls and young women, the School Sisters of Notre Dame, and immigrants
Blessed Karolina Gerhardinger Novena
Blessed Karolina Gerhardinger (1797-1879), known in religion as Mother Mary Theresa of Jesus, grew up in Bavaria as Napoleon’s secularization was shutting the convent schools. She became a certified teacher at fifteen, and with the encouragement of Bishop Wittmann of Regensburg she founded the School Sisters of Notre Dame to give poor girls a Christian education. She crossed the Atlantic in 1847 to bring her sisters to the German immigrants of America, fought for years to keep her community united under one head, and left behind more than two thousand sisters on two continents. Pray this novena for teachers and students, for Catholic schools, for girls and young women, and for the favor you most need.
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Day 1
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
O Blessed Karolina, you stood in a classroom at fifteen and never left it in spirit for the rest of your life. When the schools of your childhood were closed and the sisters who taught you were scattered, you did not lament what was lost, but let God use you to build something new, so that poor girls in towns and villages might learn to read, to work, and above all to know and love Him.
You founded your community in poverty, in a small house, with two companions and no certainty of the future. You crossed the ocean in your fifties to bring your sisters to the immigrants of a strange land. And when authority in the Church opposed you and your work seemed about to be taken from you, you bore humiliation with patience and held fast to what you believed God asked, until at last your trust was vindicated.
Obtain for us, we beg you, your faith that the works of God proceed slowly and in pain, and that their roots are sturdier for it. Teach us to persevere when our efforts seem small and our progress slow, and to trust God with the harvest we may never see.
Bless all teachers and all who form the young, all Catholic schools, and every child who struggles to learn. Watch especially over girls and young women, that they may grow in wisdom, dignity and faith. Protect immigrants and all who begin again far from home, and grant to the Church in our own day generous souls willing to give their lives to education and to the poor.
And now, dear Blessed Karolina, we place in your hands the particular favor we ask through your intercession.
(mention request here…)
Obtain this for us, if it be according to the will of God and for the good of our souls, and obtain for us above all a steadfast trust in Divine Providence.
Amen.
O God, who gave Blessed Mary Theresa of Jesus a burning love for the education of the young and a steadfast trust in Your providence, grant, through her intercession, that we may serve You faithfully in the tasks You give us, and may form the hearts of those entrusted to us in knowledge and love of You. Through Christ our Lord.
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Blessed Karolina Gerhardinger, pray for us!
Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Answered Prayers from the Community
“Mary forced the evil to truly reveal it self. In my life.”
Day 2
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
O Blessed Karolina, you stood in a classroom at fifteen and never left it in spirit for the rest of your life. When the schools of your childhood were closed and the sisters who taught you were scattered, you did not lament what was lost, but let God use you to build something new, so that poor girls in towns and villages might learn to read, to work, and above all to know and love Him.
You founded your community in poverty, in a small house, with two companions and no certainty of the future. You crossed the ocean in your fifties to bring your sisters to the immigrants of a strange land. And when authority in the Church opposed you and your work seemed about to be taken from you, you bore humiliation with patience and held fast to what you believed God asked, until at last your trust was vindicated.
Obtain for us, we beg you, your faith that the works of God proceed slowly and in pain, and that their roots are sturdier for it. Teach us to persevere when our efforts seem small and our progress slow, and to trust God with the harvest we may never see.
Bless all teachers and all who form the young, all Catholic schools, and every child who struggles to learn. Watch especially over girls and young women, that they may grow in wisdom, dignity and faith. Protect immigrants and all who begin again far from home, and grant to the Church in our own day generous souls willing to give their lives to education and to the poor.
And now, dear Blessed Karolina, we place in your hands the particular favor we ask through your intercession.
(mention request here…)
Obtain this for us, if it be according to the will of God and for the good of our souls, and obtain for us above all a steadfast trust in Divine Providence.
Amen.
O God, who gave Blessed Mary Theresa of Jesus a burning love for the education of the young and a steadfast trust in Your providence, grant, through her intercession, that we may serve You faithfully in the tasks You give us, and may form the hearts of those entrusted to us in knowledge and love of You. Through Christ our Lord.
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Blessed Karolina Gerhardinger, pray for us!
Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Answered Prayers from the Community
“Mary forced the evil to truly reveal it self. In my life.”
Day 3
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
O Blessed Karolina, you stood in a classroom at fifteen and never left it in spirit for the rest of your life. When the schools of your childhood were closed and the sisters who taught you were scattered, you did not lament what was lost, but let God use you to build something new, so that poor girls in towns and villages might learn to read, to work, and above all to know and love Him.
You founded your community in poverty, in a small house, with two companions and no certainty of the future. You crossed the ocean in your fifties to bring your sisters to the immigrants of a strange land. And when authority in the Church opposed you and your work seemed about to be taken from you, you bore humiliation with patience and held fast to what you believed God asked, until at last your trust was vindicated.
Obtain for us, we beg you, your faith that the works of God proceed slowly and in pain, and that their roots are sturdier for it. Teach us to persevere when our efforts seem small and our progress slow, and to trust God with the harvest we may never see.
Bless all teachers and all who form the young, all Catholic schools, and every child who struggles to learn. Watch especially over girls and young women, that they may grow in wisdom, dignity and faith. Protect immigrants and all who begin again far from home, and grant to the Church in our own day generous souls willing to give their lives to education and to the poor.
And now, dear Blessed Karolina, we place in your hands the particular favor we ask through your intercession.
(mention request here…)
Obtain this for us, if it be according to the will of God and for the good of our souls, and obtain for us above all a steadfast trust in Divine Providence.
Amen.
O God, who gave Blessed Mary Theresa of Jesus a burning love for the education of the young and a steadfast trust in Your providence, grant, through her intercession, that we may serve You faithfully in the tasks You give us, and may form the hearts of those entrusted to us in knowledge and love of You. Through Christ our Lord.
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Blessed Karolina Gerhardinger, pray for us!
Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Answered Prayers from the Community
“Mary forced the evil to truly reveal it self. In my life.”
Day 4
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
O Blessed Karolina, you stood in a classroom at fifteen and never left it in spirit for the rest of your life. When the schools of your childhood were closed and the sisters who taught you were scattered, you did not lament what was lost, but let God use you to build something new, so that poor girls in towns and villages might learn to read, to work, and above all to know and love Him.
You founded your community in poverty, in a small house, with two companions and no certainty of the future. You crossed the ocean in your fifties to bring your sisters to the immigrants of a strange land. And when authority in the Church opposed you and your work seemed about to be taken from you, you bore humiliation with patience and held fast to what you believed God asked, until at last your trust was vindicated.
Obtain for us, we beg you, your faith that the works of God proceed slowly and in pain, and that their roots are sturdier for it. Teach us to persevere when our efforts seem small and our progress slow, and to trust God with the harvest we may never see.
Bless all teachers and all who form the young, all Catholic schools, and every child who struggles to learn. Watch especially over girls and young women, that they may grow in wisdom, dignity and faith. Protect immigrants and all who begin again far from home, and grant to the Church in our own day generous souls willing to give their lives to education and to the poor.
And now, dear Blessed Karolina, we place in your hands the particular favor we ask through your intercession.
(mention request here…)
Obtain this for us, if it be according to the will of God and for the good of our souls, and obtain for us above all a steadfast trust in Divine Providence.
Amen.
O God, who gave Blessed Mary Theresa of Jesus a burning love for the education of the young and a steadfast trust in Your providence, grant, through her intercession, that we may serve You faithfully in the tasks You give us, and may form the hearts of those entrusted to us in knowledge and love of You. Through Christ our Lord.
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Blessed Karolina Gerhardinger, pray for us!
Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Answered Prayers from the Community
“Mary forced the evil to truly reveal it self. In my life.”
Day 5
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
O Blessed Karolina, you stood in a classroom at fifteen and never left it in spirit for the rest of your life. When the schools of your childhood were closed and the sisters who taught you were scattered, you did not lament what was lost, but let God use you to build something new, so that poor girls in towns and villages might learn to read, to work, and above all to know and love Him.
You founded your community in poverty, in a small house, with two companions and no certainty of the future. You crossed the ocean in your fifties to bring your sisters to the immigrants of a strange land. And when authority in the Church opposed you and your work seemed about to be taken from you, you bore humiliation with patience and held fast to what you believed God asked, until at last your trust was vindicated.
Obtain for us, we beg you, your faith that the works of God proceed slowly and in pain, and that their roots are sturdier for it. Teach us to persevere when our efforts seem small and our progress slow, and to trust God with the harvest we may never see.
Bless all teachers and all who form the young, all Catholic schools, and every child who struggles to learn. Watch especially over girls and young women, that they may grow in wisdom, dignity and faith. Protect immigrants and all who begin again far from home, and grant to the Church in our own day generous souls willing to give their lives to education and to the poor.
And now, dear Blessed Karolina, we place in your hands the particular favor we ask through your intercession.
(mention request here…)
Obtain this for us, if it be according to the will of God and for the good of our souls, and obtain for us above all a steadfast trust in Divine Providence.
Amen.
O God, who gave Blessed Mary Theresa of Jesus a burning love for the education of the young and a steadfast trust in Your providence, grant, through her intercession, that we may serve You faithfully in the tasks You give us, and may form the hearts of those entrusted to us in knowledge and love of You. Through Christ our Lord.
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Blessed Karolina Gerhardinger, pray for us!
Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Answered Prayers from the Community
“Mary forced the evil to truly reveal it self. In my life.”
Day 6
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
O Blessed Karolina, you stood in a classroom at fifteen and never left it in spirit for the rest of your life. When the schools of your childhood were closed and the sisters who taught you were scattered, you did not lament what was lost, but let God use you to build something new, so that poor girls in towns and villages might learn to read, to work, and above all to know and love Him.
You founded your community in poverty, in a small house, with two companions and no certainty of the future. You crossed the ocean in your fifties to bring your sisters to the immigrants of a strange land. And when authority in the Church opposed you and your work seemed about to be taken from you, you bore humiliation with patience and held fast to what you believed God asked, until at last your trust was vindicated.
Obtain for us, we beg you, your faith that the works of God proceed slowly and in pain, and that their roots are sturdier for it. Teach us to persevere when our efforts seem small and our progress slow, and to trust God with the harvest we may never see.
Bless all teachers and all who form the young, all Catholic schools, and every child who struggles to learn. Watch especially over girls and young women, that they may grow in wisdom, dignity and faith. Protect immigrants and all who begin again far from home, and grant to the Church in our own day generous souls willing to give their lives to education and to the poor.
And now, dear Blessed Karolina, we place in your hands the particular favor we ask through your intercession.
(mention request here…)
Obtain this for us, if it be according to the will of God and for the good of our souls, and obtain for us above all a steadfast trust in Divine Providence.
Amen.
O God, who gave Blessed Mary Theresa of Jesus a burning love for the education of the young and a steadfast trust in Your providence, grant, through her intercession, that we may serve You faithfully in the tasks You give us, and may form the hearts of those entrusted to us in knowledge and love of You. Through Christ our Lord.
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Blessed Karolina Gerhardinger, pray for us!
Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Answered Prayers from the Community
“Mary forced the evil to truly reveal it self. In my life.”
Day 7
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
O Blessed Karolina, you stood in a classroom at fifteen and never left it in spirit for the rest of your life. When the schools of your childhood were closed and the sisters who taught you were scattered, you did not lament what was lost, but let God use you to build something new, so that poor girls in towns and villages might learn to read, to work, and above all to know and love Him.
You founded your community in poverty, in a small house, with two companions and no certainty of the future. You crossed the ocean in your fifties to bring your sisters to the immigrants of a strange land. And when authority in the Church opposed you and your work seemed about to be taken from you, you bore humiliation with patience and held fast to what you believed God asked, until at last your trust was vindicated.
Obtain for us, we beg you, your faith that the works of God proceed slowly and in pain, and that their roots are sturdier for it. Teach us to persevere when our efforts seem small and our progress slow, and to trust God with the harvest we may never see.
Bless all teachers and all who form the young, all Catholic schools, and every child who struggles to learn. Watch especially over girls and young women, that they may grow in wisdom, dignity and faith. Protect immigrants and all who begin again far from home, and grant to the Church in our own day generous souls willing to give their lives to education and to the poor.
And now, dear Blessed Karolina, we place in your hands the particular favor we ask through your intercession.
(mention request here…)
Obtain this for us, if it be according to the will of God and for the good of our souls, and obtain for us above all a steadfast trust in Divine Providence.
Amen.
O God, who gave Blessed Mary Theresa of Jesus a burning love for the education of the young and a steadfast trust in Your providence, grant, through her intercession, that we may serve You faithfully in the tasks You give us, and may form the hearts of those entrusted to us in knowledge and love of You. Through Christ our Lord.
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Blessed Karolina Gerhardinger, pray for us!
Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Answered Prayers from the Community
“Mary forced the evil to truly reveal it self. In my life.”
Day 8
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
O Blessed Karolina, you stood in a classroom at fifteen and never left it in spirit for the rest of your life. When the schools of your childhood were closed and the sisters who taught you were scattered, you did not lament what was lost, but let God use you to build something new, so that poor girls in towns and villages might learn to read, to work, and above all to know and love Him.
You founded your community in poverty, in a small house, with two companions and no certainty of the future. You crossed the ocean in your fifties to bring your sisters to the immigrants of a strange land. And when authority in the Church opposed you and your work seemed about to be taken from you, you bore humiliation with patience and held fast to what you believed God asked, until at last your trust was vindicated.
Obtain for us, we beg you, your faith that the works of God proceed slowly and in pain, and that their roots are sturdier for it. Teach us to persevere when our efforts seem small and our progress slow, and to trust God with the harvest we may never see.
Bless all teachers and all who form the young, all Catholic schools, and every child who struggles to learn. Watch especially over girls and young women, that they may grow in wisdom, dignity and faith. Protect immigrants and all who begin again far from home, and grant to the Church in our own day generous souls willing to give their lives to education and to the poor.
And now, dear Blessed Karolina, we place in your hands the particular favor we ask through your intercession.
(mention request here…)
Obtain this for us, if it be according to the will of God and for the good of our souls, and obtain for us above all a steadfast trust in Divine Providence.
Amen.
O God, who gave Blessed Mary Theresa of Jesus a burning love for the education of the young and a steadfast trust in Your providence, grant, through her intercession, that we may serve You faithfully in the tasks You give us, and may form the hearts of those entrusted to us in knowledge and love of You. Through Christ our Lord.
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Blessed Karolina Gerhardinger, pray for us!
Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Answered Prayers from the Community
“Mary forced the evil to truly reveal it self. In my life.”
Day 9
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
O Blessed Karolina, you stood in a classroom at fifteen and never left it in spirit for the rest of your life. When the schools of your childhood were closed and the sisters who taught you were scattered, you did not lament what was lost, but let God use you to build something new, so that poor girls in towns and villages might learn to read, to work, and above all to know and love Him.
You founded your community in poverty, in a small house, with two companions and no certainty of the future. You crossed the ocean in your fifties to bring your sisters to the immigrants of a strange land. And when authority in the Church opposed you and your work seemed about to be taken from you, you bore humiliation with patience and held fast to what you believed God asked, until at last your trust was vindicated.
Obtain for us, we beg you, your faith that the works of God proceed slowly and in pain, and that their roots are sturdier for it. Teach us to persevere when our efforts seem small and our progress slow, and to trust God with the harvest we may never see.
Bless all teachers and all who form the young, all Catholic schools, and every child who struggles to learn. Watch especially over girls and young women, that they may grow in wisdom, dignity and faith. Protect immigrants and all who begin again far from home, and grant to the Church in our own day generous souls willing to give their lives to education and to the poor.
And now, dear Blessed Karolina, we place in your hands the particular favor we ask through your intercession.
(mention request here…)
Obtain this for us, if it be according to the will of God and for the good of our souls, and obtain for us above all a steadfast trust in Divine Providence.
Amen.
O God, who gave Blessed Mary Theresa of Jesus a burning love for the education of the young and a steadfast trust in Your providence, grant, through her intercession, that we may serve You faithfully in the tasks You give us, and may form the hearts of those entrusted to us in knowledge and love of You. Through Christ our Lord.
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Blessed Karolina Gerhardinger, pray for us!
Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Answered Prayers from the Community
“Mary forced the evil to truly reveal it self. In my life.”
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