Day 7: The Shepherds

The seventh day of the Saint Andrew Christmas Novena turns to the first persons to receive the announcement of the Nativity: the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks in the fields outside Bethlehem. The Lord came into the world for all the human family, but He was announced first not to the kings or the priests of the city but to the poor men of the night watch. The Catholic devotional tradition has long observed that this priority of the poor is itself a foundational Catholic doctrine.

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.

Today's meditation

The Gospel of Saint Luke records the announcement to the shepherds in chapter two, verses 8 to 20. "And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, 'Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.'"

The shepherds in first-century Palestine were not a respected social class. They were poor, often illiterate, often itinerant; they were ritually unclean by reason of their constant contact with the smells and dirt of the flocks; they were not always accepted as witnesses in the religious courts of the day. That the angels announced the Nativity to them first, and that they responded by going to Bethlehem and adoring the Christ Child, is a Catholic statement about who is welcome in the Kingdom of God: not principally those whom the world honors, but those whom the world overlooks.

The shepherds also became the first Catholic missionaries. "And when they saw it, they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child" (Luke 2:17). They returned to their flocks, but they brought with them a message they then began to share. The first proclamation of the Gospel, in the Catholic reading of the Nativity, was made by poor shepherds, not by trained preachers.

Today's intention

Today, in addition to your principal intention, pray for those whom the Lord particularly loves: the poor of your city, the elderly Catholics in your parish whom no one notices, the immigrants who keep the watch of the difficult work that no one else wants, the homeless. Lord Jesus, born for the poor, born to be announced to the poor, hear my prayer for those who today take the place of the shepherds at Bethlehem.

Pray also that you may have something of the disposition of the shepherds: their poverty (a willingness to be small enough to receive the angelic announcement), their attentiveness (they were keeping watch, not asleep), their readiness (they went to Bethlehem at once when called), and their proclamation (they made known what they had been told).

Reflection

The Catholic spiritual writers have long observed that the shepherds are, in many ways, the proper Catholic models of Christmas. The kings and Magi will come later (Day 8 of this novena), bringing their wealth and their knowledge; but the shepherds come first, bringing only themselves, in their poverty and attentiveness. The Catholic Church has retained this priority. The Christmas Mass at Midnight is for all Catholics; but the Catholic faithful who keep a particular watch in the late hours of Christmas Eve, who arrive at the Mass simply, without elaborate Christmas preparations, are particularly the spiritual heirs of the shepherds.

The Saint Andrew Christmas Novena, prayed faithfully across its days, is a Catholic discipline of keeping watch. The fifteen recitations of the prayer each day are a kind of nocturnal vigil, a sustained attentiveness to the coming of the Lord that prepares the soul to receive Him at Christmas as the shepherds received Him in the fields.

Closing

Conclude with the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men.