When I tied the knot, I was introduced not only to a very large, friendly and well knit family, but also to the Christmas Novena. Come the First Sunday in Advent every year, my husband gets a certain gleam in his eye because the Novena begins on this day, and the anticipation for Christmas takes on a very special feeling.
This prayer, according to hubby, has been said in the family ever since he was a child, and one can just imagine the nine children – teens to toddlers – clustered around their parents on a winter’s night, household chores accomplished and dinner yet to come, all reciting this little prayer which transports one to ‘Bethlehem at midnight in the piercing cold’. Recited 15 times, at a stretch, each day from the First Sunday of Advent to Christmas Eve, it brings one closer to the reality of the birth of the Holy Babe. There is an empathy with the young Mother, who was little more than a child herself, and also with the manger scene as it happened 2000 years ago!
My family by marriage has now entered its fourth generation since I joined it, and children and grandchildren have moved to different parts of the world. The Christmas Novena is a family tradition that they have carried with them – a tradition which they will pass on to future generations and new found friends. Every year, at this time, it thrills us to know that all of us, wherever we find ourselves, will be united in this special bond in our collective countdown to Christmas.
It is surprising that not many people are aware of the beauty and effect of this little prayer and it always gives me a huge lift when I get to share it. Here are the words, so that you too may experience the extraordinary anticipation leading up to Christmas:
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 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.
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