All this past week, and especially today, we have been busy preparing for Advent in the monastery. Greens to arrange for the wreath, straws to cut for the crib, Office books to change for the new season of the liturgical year, for external preparations: for internal preparations, discussing what practices to do as a community, and pondering what each Sister will choose to work on to prepare her own heart to receive her Lord anew at His Birth.
We have already been singing our special “Ave” after Mass each day; now today we begin the “St. Andrew’s Novena,” which is really a prayer said 15 times every day leading up to Christmas, but it takes its name from the feast on the day this “novena” begins. It is a beautiful traditional prayer with a rhythm all its own, drawing us on into desire for the mystery of Christmas.
St. Andrew’s Novena
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 Savior Jesus Christ, and of His Blessed Mother. Amen.
Today also begins the novena for the Immaculate Conception, a day later than usual, as the feast is celebrated this year on December 9th in order to make room for the Second Sunday of Advent on December 8th. In view of the redemption which Jesus would accomplish, God gave Our Lady the unspeakably profound grace of being free from any stain of original sin from the very moment of her conception in the womb of her mother, St. Ann. In this way, He prepared the Blessed Virgin Mary to become the mother of our Redeemer, when the God the Son would take flesh in the tabernacle of her womb.
Novena for the Immaculate Conception
I salute thee, O Immaculate Queen! I greet thee, O blissful sanctuary of the Divinity! By thy Immaculate Conception, the Deity has formed for itself a Tabernacle in which to repose. I rejoice in thy surpassing splendors; and I offer, in praise and thanksgiving to the transcendent Trinity, the Blood of the August Victim slain from the foundation of the world. O Mary! temple of countless praises. O Mary, my Mother, all mine! I take refuge in thy heart. Let me dwell there, sheltered from harm and all-occupied with the worship and the love of our Savior.
Blessed be thy Holy and Immaculate Conception! Blessed be the Blood which preserved thee stainless and enriched thee with graces and privileges beyond all compare!
We hope you join us in these two prayers of preparation as we embark upon this holy season of Advent.
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