Description Each year starting on November 30, the feast of St. Andrew, the Church starts one of its most powerful novenas. Each day until Christmas eve, the St. Andrew Christmas Novena prayer is said 15 times, and it is piously believed that whoever recites it faithfully each day will obtain the favor they requested. That’s a big promise. This is the novena of St. Andrew, not because we are talking to St. Andrew with the prayer, but because Andrew was the first Apostle Jesus called, who then ran to get his brother Simon (Peter) and bring him to Christ. Just as Andrew guided his brother, now he guides us. A “novena” (meaning “nine”) is usually a prayer prayed for 9 days, symbolizing the 9 days of prayer of the Apostles in the Upper Room before Pentecost. But occasionally a novena means any length of time in which a prayer is repeated for a specific petition. The novena prayer is simple, repeated 15 times a day, and can be completed in, seriously, less than 5 minutes. The prayer is as follows (and will be included with the caplet) 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, I beseech Thee, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires (mention request here) through the merits of Our Savior Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen. Physical chaplets with 15 beads to help you keep count of the prayers can be found here.
