Novena of Gratitude to Saint Expedite
Nine days of thanksgiving for a favor already received — one short meditation of gratitude each day, then the Classic Prayer. He answered; now answer him with thanks.
This novena is not for asking. It is for after — for the morning you woke and realized the prayer had been granted. Pray one meditation a day, then the Classic Prayer, keeping the favor itself at the center. Still waiting for your answer? Begin with the shrine’s novena for urgent needs — and come back here when he delivers.
📅 Add These Nine Days to Your Calendar
Choose the day you will begin, and download one small calendar file with a reminder for each of the nine days — every reminder links back to that day’s prayer.
One small file (.ics) — it opens in Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, and Outlook.
The Favor, Named Out Loud
Begin by saying exactly what he did. Not a vague “thanks for everything” — the specific thing: the money that arrived the day before the deadline, the diagnosis that turned, the door that opened. Gratitude that stays general stays weak. Name the favor today as precisely as you once named the need, and thank him for it out loud.
For the Speed of It
You asked for haste, and haste came. Thank him today for the timing — for an answer that arrived while it could still change things. Saint Expedite’s whole name is speed; honor the speed itself, and not only the gift. What would have happened a week later? Thank him that you will never have to know.
For the Quiet Miracles
Not every answer arrives with trumpets. Some come as a phone call that almost didn’t happen, a stranger’s kindness, a form approved by someone in a merciful mood. Look back over the road today and count the small mercies you walked past without noticing. Thank him for the ones you almost missed.
For the Hands He Used
Favors rarely fall from the sky. They pass through people — the friend who called at the right hour, the clerk who went the extra step, the family member who would not give up. Thank Saint Expedite today by thanking them: a word, a note, a kindness returned. Gratitude that reaches the helpers completes the circle.
For What Did Not Happen
Some favors are invisible: the accident that missed you, the illness that passed by your door, the disaster quietly steered elsewhere. You cannot list what never occurred — but you can thank him for the ordinary days, the unremarkable weeks, the crises that never came. Peace is also an answered prayer.
For the Waiting
Be honest: the waiting was hard, and some of it you did not bear well. But look at what the delay produced — the patience you did not know you had, the people it drew close, the need that clarified into its true shape. Thank him today even for the days he made you wait. He was not late. He was arranging.
For Another’s Answered Prayer
Gratitude grows when it escapes our own house. Rejoice today in a favor granted to someone else — a friend’s recovery, a neighbor’s good news. Read the testimonies wall and thank him for a stranger’s miracle as if it were your own. A grateful heart is not made smaller by sharing the thanks.
Passing the Light On
The tradition is plain: a favor received becomes a debt of kindness. Today, pay it forward. Tell someone who is still waiting about this saint, the way someone once told you. And light one for them as well — your candle, lit for their need, may be the beginning of their day one.
The Public Thanks
End the novena the way the Classic Prayer ends: with the promise kept. “Do this for me and I will spread your name with love and honor, so that it will be invoked again and again.” Public thanks is not decoration — it is the payment he asks. Leave your story on the testimonies wall today. Someone in their darkest hour will read it tonight and decide to pray. That is your favor, still working.
The Classic Prayer
Pray this after each day’s meditation, all nine days:
Prayer to Saint Expedite for Urgent Help
Saint Expedite, you lay in rest.
I come to you and ask that this wish be granted.
(Here, clearly express what you want, and ask him to find a way to get it to you.)
Expedite now what I ask of you.
Expedite now what I want of you, this very second.
Don’t waste another day.
Grant me what I ask for.
I know your power, I know you because of your work.
I know you can help me.
Do this for me and I will spread your name with love and honor
so that it will be invoked again and again.
Expedite this wish with speed, love, honor, and goodness.
Glory to you, Saint Expedite!
Light a Candle of Thanksgiving
Light a free virtual candle in the shrine’s chapel in thanks for the favor — and pass the light on, the way this novena teaches: Light a free candle for your most urgent need. And think of someone in your family, or in your circle, who could use a candle too — and light one for them as well.
And do not let the story end with you: leave it on the testimonies wall, where the next person who is still waiting will find it.
For a need that is still urgent, pray the shrine’s nine-day novena for urgent needs; for someone who is ill, there is a novena for the sick. More prayers are on the prayers page.