St. Andrew Novena!

[Basilisa Marie]

I can't believe no one's posted about this yet.  It's my personal favorite! 

 

Starting TODAY, we can say the St. Andrew Christmas Novena 15 times a day through December 24th.  It's a "prayer to obtain favors," so you can say it for any intention that is particularly dear to you.  It's a pretty special novena, for a pretty special time of year. :)   It's often piously believed that whoever says the prayer 15 times a day from now until Christmas will obtain whatever favor is asked...or at least receive an answer.  

 

The prayer:

 

 

 

 

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 piercing cold. In that hour, vouchsafe, O my God! to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His Blessed Mother. Amen.

 

 

 

[beatitude]

I hadn't heard of this custom before, but it's a beautiful prayer. Why today until the twenty-fourth? I thought a novena lasted nine days.

[Basilisa Marie]

Sometimes this is also called the "Christmas Anticipatory Prayer".  It starts on the Feast of St. Andrew (today), which is usually quite close to the first Sunday of Advent, and takes up the rest of the Advent Season.  Most of the time novenas are just said for nine days, like you said, but sometimes prayers that are repeated over any number of days are called novenas, too.