Day 1: The Christmas Anticipation Prayer

The first day of the Saint Andrew Christmas Novena begins with the prayer that is the central act of the entire devotion. Today we contemplate the words of the prayer themselves, the Catholic theological vision they express, and the discipline of praying them fifteen times in the course of a single day.

Today's prayer (recite fifteen times)

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.

The Catholic discipline is to pray the prayer fifteen times each day of the novena. The traditional division is five times in the morning, five at midday, five in the evening. Catholics who pray the prayer at family meals often include it in the grace before the meal or after the meal.

Today's meditation

The Christmas Anticipation Prayer is dense with Catholic theological content compressed into a single short text. Five elements deserve attention.

First, Hail and blessed be the hour and moment. The prayer addresses, in the second person, the hour of the Nativity. The Catholic devotional tradition has long understood that historical moments of grace can be addressed in prayer as themselves objects of veneration: the hour of the Annunciation, the hour of the Crucifixion, the hour of the Resurrection, the hour of the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The hour of the Nativity is, for the Catholic faithful, the principal hour of Advent meditation.

Second, in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary. The prayer affirms two Catholic dogmas in a single phrase: the Incarnation (the Son of God truly became man, in a real human birth), and the Immaculate Conception (the Virgin Mary, pure from all sin, was the chosen mother of the Incarnate Word).

Third, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold. The prayer locates the Nativity in time, place, and physical condition. The Catholic theological tradition has long meditated on the poverty of the Nativity: the Lord was born not in a palace but in a stable, not in summer but in winter, not at noon but at midnight. The piercing cold names the physical reality of the manger and the contrast with the warmth and dignity of any earthly birth-chamber. The Lord chose to come into our condition completely.

Fourth, In that hour vouchsafe, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires. The prayer turns from contemplation to petition. The Catholic faithful do not pray to the hour itself; they pray to the Lord through the hour, asking that the same Father who sent His Son into the world at midnight will hear our prayers in our own time.

Fifth, through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. The prayer concludes by appealing to the merits of Christ (the principal merits of our salvation) and to the merits of His blessed Mother (the secondary merits she offered to the Father in union with her Son). The Catholic doctrine of Marian mediation, treated in the Miraculous Medal Day 6 entry, is here presupposed.

Today's intention

Bring to the Lord Jesus and to the Blessed Virgin Mary today the principal intention for which you are praying this novena. Be specific. Lord Jesus, who came at midnight in Bethlehem, hear my prayer in this hour. Then begin the recitation of the prayer fifteen times, dispersed through the day.

Reflection

The Catholic spiritual tradition has long observed that the simple repetition of a single prayer is a particular grace of the contemplative life. The repetition slows the soul down, permits the prayer to descend from the lips to the mind to the heart, and over time impresses the Catholic doctrine on the affections in a way that complex prayer cannot. The Saint Andrew Christmas Novena, with its fifteen daily recitations of the Anticipation Prayer, is in this sense a brief Catholic exercise in contemplative repetition during the season of Advent.

Closing

For the broader Advent disciplines and the Catholic family customs of the season, see the Joyful Mysteries, the Angelus, and the Catholic family rites of the Advent wreath. For other novenas, see the novenas hub.