World Mental Health Day & Novena for Mental Health

The full Novena for Mental Health can be prayed from Oct. 10-18, beginning on World Mental Health Day and concluding on the feast of St. Luke, patron of health care. Resources are available at www.usccb.org/mental-health-novena. 

Novena Prayer:
St. Dymphna, pray for us!
St. Dymphna (seventh century) is known as a patron of persons who suffer mental and neurological disorders and illness and of mental health professionals. According to legend, she was an Irish princess who fled from her father, a man who appears to have had a mental illness. She is said to have settled in Geel, Belgium, but was ultimately found and martyred by her father. The people of Geel built a church in her honor, and many made the pilgrimage there seeking to be cured of mental illness. So many pilgrims came that the people of Geel began to open their homes to them, providing them a place to stay. Persons with mental illness could live and work in their community without stigma or discrimination. Even today the town of Geel is known as a model for community acceptance of persons who live with mental illness.

Resources

• Local parishes with support groups for caregivers and for mental health support are listed at www.oakdiocese.org/catholics-care-resources-parishes.

• Resource directory of Catholic therapists and counselors can be found at oakdiocese.org/social-services-directory.

• To make an appointment at the Order of Malta Clinic of Northern California, visit orderofmaltaclinic.com.

• Reform is a Christ-centered wellness apostolate and functional health practice rooted in Christ. Learn more at www.reformwellness.co.

• National Catholic Partnership on Disability resources available at ncpd.org.

• Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers at catholicmhm.org/