The Christmas Novena

On this page the prayer for every night is the five offerings to the Eternal Father, printed as they stand in the Raccolta, the Church’s collection of indulgenced prayers until the reform of 1967, in its 1910 English edition (pages 64 and 65). The Raccolta gives them for the nine days before the twenty-fifth of any month, a monthly remembrance of the Birth; from December 16 to 24 they lead to the twenty-fifth itself. Each offering walks one step through the mystery: the Birth, the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem and the doors that stayed shut, the stable, the first shedding of his Blood, and the virtues of the Child. Name your intention once before you begin, and after each offering say the Glory Be (the book’s Gloria Patri).

Christmas is December 25, so the nine nights begin on December 16 and the ninth falls on December 24, Christmas Eve, the night before the feast. The 1886 English edition of St. Alphonsus Liguori’s Christmas meditations puts the count in one line: “the first day of the novena of Christmas is, therefore, the 16th of December.”

• Night 1: December 16
• Night 2: December 17
• Night 3: December 18
• Night 4: December 19
• Night 5: December 20
• Night 6: December 21
• Night 7: December 22
• Night 8: December 23
• Night 9: December 24, Christmas Eve

Between December 17 and 23 the Church sings the O Antiphons at Evening Prayer, one each evening, before and after Mary’s Magnificat; the old Catholic Encyclopedia describes them as “the antiphons for the Magnificat on the last seven days before the Vigil of the Nativity.” Nights two to eight below each give that evening’s antiphon, so the two can be prayed together, and on those nights the Gospel is the one the Church reads at weekday Mass on that date (a Sunday has its own readings).

If you miss a night, pray it together with the next one, or simply go on with the night the calendar is on. Starting late is fine as well: begin on the night you find this page.

Night one begins far from any stable, with a census ordered in Rome. “And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem: because he was of the house and family of David, To be enrolled with Mary his espoused wife, who was with child” (Luke 2:4–5). An emperor wanted his people counted, and a young couple set out on foot, she close to her time. Tonight pick the spot where the novena will live, perhaps a bookshelf, a windowsill or the corner of the table, and set the empty manger there with a candle. Nothing goes into the manger until Christmas. Say the five offerings, then the night’s prayer:

Night two stops at a family tree, on the opening page of Matthew’s Gospel. It ends: “And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ” (Matthew 1:16). Matthew does not tidy it up. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and the wife of Uriah stand in it beside kings, exiles and men no one remembers. Christ was born into a family like ours. Tonight put a photograph of your parents or grandparents beside the empty manger, the living and the dead together. Say the five offerings, then the night’s prayer:

Night three belongs to Joseph, who had already made up his mind. He meant to send Mary away quietly, so as not to shame her in public; then came the dream, and “Joseph rising up from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and took unto him his wife” (Matthew 1:24). Tonight a figure of St. Joseph, or a holy card of him, takes its place near the manger, to keep watch there until Christmas. Say the five offerings, then the night’s prayer:

Night four opens in the Temple, with an elderly priest burning incense before the Lord. Zechariah and Elizabeth had grown old asking for a child, and now the angel says: “Fear not, Zachary, for thy prayer is heard” (Luke 1:13). He could not believe it, and he was left unable to speak until the day the angel’s words came true. Tonight write down the prayer you have carried longest, fold it and slip it under the manger, light the candle, and keep one minute of silence together before anyone speaks. Say the five offerings, then the night’s prayer:

Night five is the Annunciation: Gabriel comes to Mary in Nazareth. Mary asks one honest question, “How shall this be done” (Luke 1:34), and then gives everything: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38). Tonight Mary joins Joseph beside the empty manger, as a figure or a picture of the Annunciation, and the household says one Hail Mary together, slowly. Its first words are Gabriel’s. Say the five offerings, then the night’s prayer:

Night six follows Mary as she hurries over the hills to Elizabeth. At Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth cries out that “the infant in my womb leaped for joy” (Luke 1:44). North of the equator, this is the year’s longest night. Tonight light the candle at the manger, switch off the rest of the lights, and let the children see how far one small flame reaches. Say the five offerings, then the night’s prayer:

Night seven is Mary’s own song, the Magnificat, sung in Elizabeth’s house. “He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away” (Luke 1:52–53). Tonight set a bowl or a box beside the manger and let each person drop in something for a neighbor who will go hungry this Christmas: coins, a can of food, a promise of a meal. Give it all away before New Year’s Day. Say the five offerings, then the night’s prayer:

Night eight is the naming of John, and a father’s voice coming back. Asked what the child is to be called, Zechariah writes, “John is his name. And they all wondered. And immediately his mouth was opened, and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God” (Luke 1:63–64). Tonight give every person under your roof a slip of paper with their name on it, add slips for those you hope will come home, and lay them all around the manger. Tomorrow the Child will lie among them. Say the five offerings, then the night’s prayer:

Night nine is Christmas Eve, and the road ends in Bethlehem. “And it came to pass, that when they were there, her days were accomplished, that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him up in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:6–7). The inn was full; he was born all the same. Go to Mass for Christmas: it is a holy day of obligation, and an evening Mass on December 24 fulfills it (can. 1248 §1). When you come home, or first thing on Christmas morning, let the youngest place the Child in the manger, with Joseph and Mary on either side, while everyone else keeps silent. Say the five offerings, then the night’s prayer:

“Christmas novena” names several devotions, and most of what you will meet under that name is one of these:

• The St. Andrew Christmas novena does not last nine days. It is one short prayer, “Hail and blessed be the hour…”, prayed fifteen times daily from St. Andrew’s day, November 30, to Christmas Eve. It has its own page, and it can be kept alongside this one.
• St. Alphonsus Liguori’s novena is nine discourses for meditation, one for each day from December 16, on the eternal Word made man: the great made little, the Lord made a servant, the rich made poor. He wrote them in 1750 and published them in 1758.
• Simbang Gabi, in the Philippines and in Filipino parishes abroad, keeps the same nine days at Mass: nine Masses from December 16 to 24, traditionally before dawn, the last of them called the Misa de Gallo.
• The Novena de Aguinaldos of Colombia, Ecuador and parts of Venezuela, with its considerations for each day and its gozos, is on our Spanish page. In Mexico the same nights are Las Posadas, and Brazilian families pray a Novena de Natal.

This page gives the form most households can keep: the five offerings each night, one step of the Gospel toward Bethlehem, and a prayer.

The nine nights are made for a household. On the first night you choose one spot and set the empty manger there with a candle, and each night after adds one thing to it: a family photograph, St. Joseph, a folded prayer, Mary, a bowl for the hungry, the names of everyone in the house. The manger itself stays empty, and the Child goes in last, on Christmas Eve or on Christmas morning.

With children, give each one a part: one lights the candle, one reads the line of the Gospel, one carries tonight’s figure or slip of paper to the manger, and everyone joins in the Glory Be. Ten minutes is plenty. A toddler who wanders off halfway has still been there. If a child asks about the fourth offering, it is the day Jesus was given his name, eight days after his birth (Luke 2:21), and the first time he shed his Blood for us.

Not everyone has a full table in December. If you live alone, are working through the holidays, are in a hospital bed, or are missing someone who will not be there this Christmas, the novena is just as much yours. If the empty place is a death, there are prayers for grief for these weeks as well. Say the offerings quietly, read the night’s line of the Gospel, and pray the prayer with “me” where it says “us.” One candle on a windowsill is enough of a manger.

If you can, go to one of the parish Masses in these days, a Simbang Gabi Mass among them where your parish keeps it. Nobody prays alone there, and nobody is asked why they came.