By Jay Sorgi • Posted December 4, 2025

The Catholic Church of Philadelphia is leading a prayer campaign this Advent to help lead the 83 percent of local baptized Catholics who do not participate in the sacramental life of the Church forward in their faith.

The archdiocesan Office for the New Evangelization is leading the St. Andrew Novena for the 83%, a version of the St. Andrew Christmas Novena, between now and Dec. 24.

Not only will the prayers support those seldom engaged in their faith, but the novena also will empower those active in their faith to better share the Gospel message with others.

“The novena is an opportunity for practicing Catholics to pray intentionally for their loved ones who are currently disconnected from their Catholic faith. It’s also an opportunity to pray in communion with hundreds of fellow Catholics who share the same heartfelt desire for the ‘homecoming’ of their loved ones,” said Meghan Cokeley, the director of the Office for the New Evangelization.

“By spending Advent setting our gaze on Jesus through this Christ-centered novena prayer, we open ourselves and our loved ones to the powerful graces that the infant Jesus wishes to give.”

More than 400 people have signed up to pray for loved ones through the novena campaign, according to Cokeley, who said the idea for it came to her during eucharistic adoration.

“I wasn’t looking for it and it filled me with a lot of joy, so I thought that perhaps it was Jesus who was asking for this.”

Many Catholics pray the traditional practice of the 25-day St. Andrew Novena to prepare their hearts for Christmas, but Cokeley points to particular reasons for directing this year’s prayer for the 83 percent.

It’s a time when the Catholic Church of Philadelphia is mobilizing itself through the “Trust and Hope” campaign to better reach them.

“First, the liturgical season of Advent carries with it a particular grace for reconciliation in general,” Cokeley said.

“It’s a time when we meditate on God’s great gesture of reconciliation in which he espoused Himself to the human race by becoming man. We can draw upon these powerful graces available during Advent on behalf of our loved ones who currently do not attend Mass every Sunday.”

She adds that St. Andrew, one of the 12 apostles, is one of God’s most powerful “fishers of men.”

“When Jesus first called Andrew (and his brother Peter), he said, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men,’” said Cokeley, citing the Gospel of St. Mark.

“By joining our prayer with the apostle Andrew, we are asking him to ‘go fishing’ for our loved ones and catch them for Jesus.”

Cokeley observes how many Catholics, especially around the holidays, experience heartache over their loved ones’ broken relationship with the Catholic Church, or within their own families, that disrupts their practice of the faith. She believes the novena is responding to a real need.

“In my travels around the Archdiocese, I often hear from people who ache on behalf of their loved ones who are away from the Church. I sense that it is a widespread and shared sorrow for many,” she said.

“I thought it was important to allow people to name their loved ones so that we could all pray with one another for their reconciliation with God. It’s a way to share the burden together.”

She especially encourages this prayer as a way of not only leading loved ones back, but forming our own hearts toward healing.

“Time spent in prayer is the most fruitful investment of one’s life, because it is there that the Lord shapes our feelings, purifies our desires and strengthens our vocation,” Cokeley said.

“If our relationships are broken, the first place we should go is to prayer. It is through authentic prayer that God burns away our selfishness, heals our wounds and dissolves our fear of vulnerability. This Novena is a small way that we can open ourselves to this kind of transformation.”

Cokeley encourages people who wish to participate in the Novena for the 83% to take the following steps:

– Sign up here, and if you wish, include the initials of loved ones whom you’ll be remembering in the novena. A link will be emailed to you sharing the initials of everyone being prayed for.

– Recite the novena prayer (in English or Spanish) below 15 times daily. It takes no more than 20 seconds each time, about a five-minute daily prayer commitment.

“Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires through the merits of Our Savior Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen.”

– Specifically pray for the grace of reconciliation for each person’s loved ones included in the novena.

Cokeley also adds that people who wish to be present to the lives of the 83 percent should “build relationships.” She invites people to attend one of the Catholic Church of Philadelphia’s Missionary Discipleship courses, and shares more perspective on the subject here.