By AnnaMarie Prono

I was in the second grade, and I still remember standing in the kitchen of the red house in which we lived. My mother gave me a piece of yellow lined paper. She had written the words to a prayer on it. Thanksgiving was just over, and she told me to say the prayer 15 times every day starting on the first Sunday of Advent until Christmas Day. Part of the prayer allowed me to insert my own special request.

I thought this was an important and magical prayer, worthy of much more than yellow paper with blue lines. I rewrote the prayer on a small piece of pure white paper and drew a wreath with red and green markers above my handwritten prayer. I can’t believe that I went as far as using Elmer’s Glue to adhere my prayer onto a piece of lavender construction paper, which reminded me of the purple candles in the Advent wreath. This piece of paper traveled with me through the many moves I made into my adult life

My Advent Miracle

That year, my Great Aunt Jo-Jo was battling breast cancer. I requested that God make her better. More importantly, I believed that God would. Not long after Christmas, my aunt went into remission, but I thought she was miraculously cured of cancer as a result of this prayer. I couldn’t wait for the next Advent season and another miracle!

It was the early ’70s and Aunt Jo-Jo was the first and only person I knew to have cancer. I didn’t know much about this disease, and the remissions that can be associated with it. We had another good year with her before the cancer returned and she passed away. Now I wonder if I then questioned why God seemed to rescind the answer to my prayer.

Despite the reversal of what I thought was my miracle, I have religiously said this prayer for a specific request for more than 45 years. When mentioning what I later dubbed the “Christmas Novena,” to others, nobody else had heard about it. I never came across it in religious magazines or in church.

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At one point, I thought my mother made it up, though that was highly unlikely. However, I persisted praying every year, with great hopes for another miracle.

Recently, I looked it up on Google and discovered that this prayer is actually called the St. Andrew Novena, or St. Andrew’s Christmas Novena. Traditional novenas are said once daily for nine consecutive days, totaling nine prayers. But St. Andrew’s Novena is said 15 times a day for anywhere between 21 and 27 days, totaling 405 prayers on the high end.

St. Andrew Connection

How is St. Andrew connected to Jesus’ birth? On The Catholic Company’s website, under “Get Fed, Feed Your Faith,” I found a commentary by Lay Dominican and blogger, Gretchen Filz that shed light on this question. St. Andrew initially followed John the Baptist, and later became Jesus’ first Apostle. He is credited with bringing Peter to Jesus. And because St. Andrew was the first Apostle, his feast day – Nov. 30 – is at the start of the Church’s new liturgical year. Advent traditionally begins on the first Sunday closest to St. Andrew’s feast day.

St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland and Russia. A popular tradition associated with him is to start saying the St. Andrew Christmas Novena, also simply called the Christmas Novena.

Filz also cites that those who devotedly engage in the Christmas Novena believe that their request will be granted. This is consistent with what my mom told me when she handed me the prayer many years ago.

This prayer has long been a tradition for me. After saying the prayer 15 times a day through the Advent season, I find myself on autopilot, praying it for days into the New Year. All 15 prayers do not need to be said at once. At first, I did say all 15 in one sitting. However, as I got older and life got busier, I prayed in three sets of five prayers. If I was short at the end of the day, then I made up the missing prayers before going to sleep.

After reflecting on my first experience with this prayer, I wish my faith today was as strong as the faith of my second-grade self.

It is a beautiful prayer and a great way to contemplate and prepare for the birth of Christ. If you are looking to add more prayer time to your Advent preparations, the Christmas Novena is the way to go!

Prono, a parishioner at Our Lady of Mercy, Forest Hills, is an architect, artist and writer creating art for God.