Feast of St. Andrew and Advent Devotions

Today is the Feast of St. Andrew. One of the first apostles to be called by Jesus, and in fact is the one who introduced Peter to Jesus, Andrew was a fishermen, brother to Peter and martyr. Following our Lord's Ascension into heaven, he preached throughout Asia Minor, along the Black Sea in areas now known as Russia and Greece. He was put to death in Greece by being crucified on a cross that was in the shape of an X where he hung for 2 days before he died. He is the patron of Russia, Romania and Scotland (the latter's national flag depicts and X shape known as "St. Andrew's Cross"), fisherman, unmarried women and women who wish to become mothers.

Aside from celebrating the feast of this remarkable man and close friend of Jesus Himself, the feast of St. Andrew is also an opportunity to begin two powerful novenas as we look forward to the birth of our Savior.

The first is the Christmas Anticipatory Prayer, also known as the St. Andrew Novena since it begins on his feast day. If you do nothing else this Advent with your spouse and children, please consider making this simple devotion part of your daily (nightly?) family prayers.

Though not strictly a novena (which as it's name implies is usually only 9 days in duration) this prayer is traditionally recited fifteen times a day from now until Christmas Eve. It's a powerfully efficacious novena in it's own right but it's also a wonderful tool to prepare yourself and your children during Advent. In reciting the words of the prayer repeatedly, meditating on them and allowing them to wash over you, it heightens the anticipation as we await Christmas.

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 the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, 
I beseech Thee, O my God, 

to hear my prayer and grant my desires, 

[here mention your request] 

through the merits of Our Savior Jesus Christ, 

and of His blessed Mother. Amen.

I have mentioned this before but I vividly remember reciting this novena as a child with my father leading the family each evening during Advent. Now that my dad is gone from this earth, it is one of my most cherished memories and I can still hear his voice in the melodic, rhythmic, poetic words of the prayer. It is because of my memories of this novena that I am eager to create such memories for my own children.

The second Advent devotion that begins today is the Novena to the Immaculate Conception. Now, forgive me but for the sake of clarification, this feast on December 8 celebrates not the conception of Jesus in Mary's virginal womb but rather the Immaculate Conception of Mary herself in the womb of St. Anne, who was advanced in age and thought to be barren. "Immaculately conceived" refers not to the physical manner in which St. Anne became pregnant but rather that Mary was preserved from the stain of Original Sin, thereby making her a pure vessel through which the Savior would enter the world. Mary benefitted from Christ's Passion and Death a whole generation before it physically occurred. 

"The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin." (Catechism of the Catholic Faith, 491).

Bartolome Estaban Murillo's Immaculate Conception

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is a great Solemnity in the Church and since Mary, Conceived without Sin, is the Patroness of the United States, it is also a holy day of obligation here in the US. As a means of preparing for this great feast, it has long been customary for Catholics, in an effort to model Our Lady's piety, to pray this novena making it yet another wonderful tool to prepare our hearts and homes for the coming of the birth of our Lord.

A quick google search will reveals dozens if not hundreds of different novenas to the Immaculate Conception but this one posted by Jennifer Miller at Family in Feast and Feria is the one we will be praying this year.