Novena
The Immaculate Conception Novena
Nine days with Mary Immaculate, November 29 to December 7: traditional novena prayers, with a Scripture line and a prayer of its own for each day.
Pray the Immaculate Conception novena ›
The Immaculate Conception novena is prayed for nine days, November 29 through December 7, ending the day before Mary’s feast on December 8. Each day has the same opening and closing prayers from the Raccolta of 1910, a short Douay-Rheims reading and that day’s own prayer to Mary Immaculate.
Quick facts
- Prayed to:
- Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception
- Feast day:
- December 8, the Immaculate Conception
- When to pray:
- Begin on November 29 and pray through December 7, the eve of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on December 8.
- Prayed for:
- Purity of heart and freedom from sin, with one intention of your own carried through all nine days.
The Immaculate Conception novena prayers for every day
Every day of the Immaculate Conception novena opens with the same two prayers, word for word from the Raccolta’s 1910 English edition, pages 176 and 177. The first asks the Holy Spirit for light; the second, the preparatory prayer, is said to Mary every day of the nine.
Come, O Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of thy faithful and kindle in them the fire of thy love.
℣. Send forth thy Spirit and they shall be created;
℟. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray.
O God, who hast taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit; grant us by the same Spirit to relish what is right, and evermore to rejoice in his consolation. Through Christ our Lord.
℟. Amen.
Virgin most pure, conceived without sin, all fair and stainless in thy Conception; glorious Mary, full of grace, Mother of my God, Queen of Angels and of men,—I humbly venerate thee as Mother of my Saviour, who, though He was God, taught me by his own veneration, reverence, and obedience to thee, the honour and homage that are due to thee. Vouchsafe, I pray thee, to accept this Novena which I dedicate to thee. Thou art the safe refuge of the penitent sinner; it is very fitting, then, that I should have recourse to thee. Thou art the Mother of Compassion; then wilt thou surely be moved with pity for my many miseries. Thou art my best hope after Jesus; thou canst not but accept the loving confidence that I have in thee. Make me worthy to be called thy son, that so I may dare to cry unto thee: Show thyself a mother.
Then pray the Hail Mary nine times and the Glory Be once, and go on to the reading and prayer for the day. Where the prayer says “thy son”, a woman or a girl may say “thy daughter”. The English is that of 1910, with its thee and thou, its British spelling and its own capitals.
The Raccolta lists the indulgences of its day, which belong to the discipline Paul VI reformed in 1967. The present Enchiridion of Indulgences gives a novena before the Immaculate Conception as one of its examples: a partial indulgence is granted to anyone who devoutly takes part in a novena prayed publicly, in church for instance (grant 22).
The closing prayers for every day
After the prayer of the day, the Raccolta asks for the Litany of Loreto, said or sung, or else these short versicles in Mary’s honor, which open in Latin with Tota pulchra es. The closing versicle and prayer come next, then a prayer for the Pope and one for the Church (pages 178 to 180).
℣. All fair art thou, O Mary.
℟. All fair art thou, O Mary.
℣. The original stain is not in thee.
℟. The original stain is not in thee.
℣. Thou art the glory of Jerusalem.
℟. Thou art the joy of Israel.
℣. Thou art the honour of our people.
℟. Thou art the advocate of sinners.
℣. O Mary.
℟. O Mary.
℣. Virgin most prudent.
℟. Mother most clement.
℣. Pray for us.
℟. Intercede for us with our Lord Jesus Christ.
℣. In thy conception, O Virgin, thou wast immaculate.
℟. Pray for us to the Father, whose Son was born of thee.
Let us pray.
O God, who through the Immaculate Conception of a Virgin didst prepare a worthy dwelling-place for thy Son, we beseech Thee, who by the death of that Son, foreseen by Thee, didst preserve her from all stain of sin, to grant that by her intercession we also may be purified, and so may come to Thee. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
O God, the Shepherd and Ruler of all the faithful, graciously look down upon thy servant N., whom Thou hast chosen to be the Pastor of thy Church; and grant him, we beseech Thee, both by word and example, so to direct those over whom Thou hast placed him, that together with the flock entrusted to his care, he may attain eternal life.
O God, our refuge and strength, who art the author of all holiness, listen to the pious prayers of thy Church, and grant that what we ask in faith we may effectually obtain, through Christ our Lord.
℟. Amen.
At “thy servant N.”, say the name of the Pope. In a group, one voice reads each ℣ and everyone answers the ℟. The opening words echo the Song of Songs: “Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee” (Canticle of Canticles 4:7).
November 29 to December 7
The Raccolta sets the dates itself: the novena begins on November 29, and its ninth prayer belongs to December 7, the feast’s eve. Day by day:
- Day 1: November 29
- Day 2: November 30, St. Andrew
- Day 3: December 1
- Day 4: December 2
- Day 5: December 3, St. Francis Xavier, and the first day of the Guadalupe novena
- Day 6: December 4
- Day 7: December 5
- Day 8: December 6
- Day 9: December 7, St. Ambrose, the feast’s eve
Advent always begins during the nine days or a day or two before them, since the First Sunday of Advent comes between November 27 and December 3; in some years Day 1 is that Sunday. Some parishes and groups start a day later, on November 30, and end on December 8 itself. The prayers are the same either way. If December 8 lands on a Sunday, the feast is kept on Monday, December 9 instead; in the United States the Mass obligation does not move with it.
Day 1 (November 29): Chosen before the world began
Day 1 starts with God’s plan, which is older than Mary herself: the prayer rejoices that she was chosen “from all eternity”. Paul says the same of every Christian: “As he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in his sight in charity” (Ephesians 1:4). What was done for her at once, God begins in us at baptism. Name your intention today, the one you will carry for all nine days. After the preparatory prayer and the nine Hail Marys, pray:
Behold me at thy sacred feet, O Immaculate Virgin. I rejoice with thee, because from all eternity thou wast elected to be the Mother of the Eternal Word, and wast preserved stainless from the taint of original sin. I praise and bless the Most Holy Trinity, who poured out upon thy soul in thy Conception the treasure of that privilege. I humbly pray thee to obtain for me grace effectually to overcome the sad effects produced in my soul by original sin; make me wholly victorious over them, that I may never cease to love my God.
Day 2 (November 30): Full of grace
On Day 2 the novena turns to the angel’s greeting at Nazareth: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women” (Luke 1:28). Gabriel puts those words where her name would go, and today’s prayer asks for “a portion of that same grace”. November 30 is also St. Andrew’s day. After the preparatory prayer and the nine Hail Marys, pray:
Mary, unsullied lily of purity, I rejoice with thee, because from the first moment of thy Conception thou wast filled with grace, and hadst given unto thee the perfect use of reason. I thank and adore the ever blessed Trinity, who gave thee those high gifts. Behold me at thy feet overwhelmed with shame to see myself so poor in grace. O Thou who wast filled full of heavenly grace, grant me a portion of that same grace, and make me a partaker in the treasures of thy Immaculate Conception.
From today many people also keep the St. Andrew Christmas novena, a single short prayer said many times a day until Christmas Eve. The two sit easily side by side.
Day 3 (December 1): The serpent’s head
Day 3 goes back to the first promise, made in Eden on the day sin came in. To the serpent God says: “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel” (Genesis 3:15). The victory is her Son’s, and she stands inside it from her first moment. Bring the temptation that keeps coming back, and ask for courage against it. After the preparatory prayer and the nine Hail Marys, pray:
Mary, mystic rose of purity, I rejoice with thee at the glorious triumph thou didst gain over the serpent by thy Immaculate Conception, in that thou wast conceived without original sin. I thank and praise with my whole heart the ever blessed Trinity, who granted thee that glorious privilege; and I pray thee to obtain for me courage to overcome every snare of the great enemy, and never to stain my soul with mortal sin. Be thou always mine aid, and enable me with thy protection to obtain the victory over all the enemies of man’s eternal welfare.
Day 4 (December 2): The gifts of the Holy Spirit
Day 4 asks for the virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit that the prayer sees poured into Mary’s soul. At Nazareth the angel told her: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee” (Luke 1:35). Choose one virtue you are short on, patience or courage or honesty, and ask for it by name. After the preparatory prayer and the nine Hail Marys, pray:
Mary Immaculate Virgin, mirror of holy purity, I rejoice exceedingly to see how from thy Immaculate Conception there were infused into thy soul the most sublime and perfect virtues with all the gifts of the most Holy Spirit. I thank and praise the ever blessed Trinity who bestowed upon thee these high privileges, and I beseech thee, gracious Mother, obtain for me grace to practise every Christian virtue, and so to become worthy to receive the gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost.
Day 5 (December 3): The Precious Blood
Day 5 looks from Mary to the Cross, since her preservation came from the same blood that saves the rest of us. Peter writes that we were redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled” (1 Peter 1:19), and the prayer asks that this blood not be shed for us “in vain”. December 3 is also St. Francis Xavier’s day. After the preparatory prayer and the nine Hail Marys, pray:
Mary, bright moon of purity, I congratulate thee in that the mystery of thy Immaculate Conception was the beginning of salvation to the human race, and was the joy of the whole world. I thank and bless the ever blessed Trinity who did so magnify and glorify thy person. I entreat thee to obtain for me grace so to profit by the death and passion of thy dear Son, that his Precious Blood may not have been shed upon the Cross for me in vain, but that after a holy life I may be saved.
From today until December 7 the two December novenas to Mary overlap: the Our Lady of Guadalupe novena begins now and runs on to December 11. If you keep both, say one set of prayers and then the other in a single sitting.
Day 6 (December 4): The joy of the angels
Day 6 listens to heaven: the prayer says Mary’s conception filled every angel of Paradise with joy. On the night her Son was born, an angel told the shepherds: “Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people” (Luke 2:10). Pray today for someone you love who has lost their joy. After the preparatory prayer and the nine Hail Marys, pray:
Mary Immaculate, brilliant star of purity, I rejoice with thee, because thy Immaculate Conception brought exceeding joy to all the angels of Paradise. I thank and bless the ever blessed Trinity, who enriched thee with this privilege. Enable me also one day to take part in this heavenly joy, praising and blessing thee in the company of angels, world without end. Amen.
Day 7 (December 5): Rising like the dawn
Day 7 takes its picture of the dawn from the Song of Songs: “Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun” (Canticle of Canticles 6:9). Its prayer is the sternest of the nine: it asks for a hatred of sin so whole that death would seem the smaller loss, the old resolve of the saints. It is a plea for grace, not a vow to be kept by willpower, and whoever falls again is met with mercy in confession. If there is a confession you keep putting off, settle the day and the hour now. After the preparatory prayer and the nine Hail Marys, pray:
Mary Immaculate, rising morn of purity, I rejoice with thee, and I am filled with admiration at beholding thee confirmed in grace and rendered sinless from the first moment of thy Conception. I thank and praise the ever blessed Trinity, who elected thee alone from all mankind for this special privilege. Holiest Virgin, obtain for me so entire and lasting a hatred of sin, the worst of all evils, that I may rather die than ever again commit a mortal sin.
Day 8 (December 6): Clothed with the sun
Day 8 calls Mary a sun without stain, and the vision of St. John supplies the image: “A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Apocalypse 12:1). What the prayer asks for is plain and hard: a changed heart, and a new life begun in earnest. After the preparatory prayer and the nine Hail Marys, pray:
Mary, Virgin, sun without stain, I congratulate thee and I rejoice with thee, because God gave thee in thy Conception a greater and more abundant grace than He gave to all his angels and his saints together, even when their merits were most exalted. I thank and admire the immense beneficence of the ever blessed Trinity, who hath dispensed to thee alone this privilege. Oh, enable me too to correspond with the grace of God, and never more to receive it in vain; change my heart, and help me to begin in earnest a new life.
Day 9 (December 7, the eve): Blessed among women
Day 9, the last before the feast, borrows Elizabeth’s greeting: “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb” (Luke 1:42). The prayer gives thanks that through Mary the old curse gave way to blessing. Put your intention in God’s hands now, whatever the answer turns out to be. After the preparatory prayer and the nine Hail Marys, pray:
Immaculate Mary, living light of holiness, model of purity, Virgin and Mother, as soon as thou wast conceived, thou didst profoundly adore thy God, giving him thanks, because by means of thee the ancient curse was blotted out, and blessing was again come upon the sinful sons of Adam. Let this blessing kindle in my heart love towards God; and do thou inflame my heart still more and more, that I may ever love Him constantly on earth, and afterwards eternally enjoy Him in heaven, there to thank and praise Him more and more fervently for all the wondrous privileges conferred on thee, and to rejoice with thee for thy high crown of glory.
Tonight or tomorrow, go to Mass. In the United States, December 8 is a holy day of obligation whatever weekday it falls on, and Mass on the evening before counts for it. The date for this year, the readings and the rules for other countries are on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception page.
December 8: the feast the novena leads to
On December 8 the Church keeps the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, a bright feast early in Advent. Its Mass readings never change: Genesis 3, where the woman and the serpent first meet; Ephesians 1, on being chosen before the world was made; and Luke 1, the Annunciation. So the readings of Days 1, 2 and 3 come back at the altar. The doctrine itself is explained in plain words on the Immaculate Conception page. A prayer for the day, written for this page and addressed to the Father:
Father, from the first instant of Mary’s life
your grace made her holy, a home ready for your Son.
Finish in me what my baptism began:
heal what sin has left behind,
and clear a place in my heart for Christ this Advent.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Other novenas and customs around December 8
Search for this novena online and several different texts turn up, many of them modern; this page keeps to the Raccolta’s, which carried the Church’s own approval in its day. Three neighbors are easy to mix up with it:
- The Miraculous Medal novena, November 18 to 26, before the medal’s feast on November 27. Its invocation, “O Mary, conceived without sin”, names the same mystery, and the two novenas run almost back to back.
- Lourdes, where in 1858 the woman Bernadette saw at the grotto said to her, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Its own novena belongs to February; see Our Lady of Lourdes.
- The Noche de las Velitas: in Colombia families light candles at nightfall on December 7 to open the feast. Our Spanish page has a prayer for that night and for the novena, and our Portuguese one a prayer to Nossa Senhora da Conceição, as Brazilians call her.
As a family
A family can keep the novena around one candle and a picture or statue of Mary. Give each person a part: one reads the Scripture line, one leads the nine Hail Marys, and everyone answers the versicles. With small children, an adult can read the preparatory prayer while the children wait to say its last words, “Show thyself a mother”, all together; the nine Hail Marys are theirs to count on their fingers. On December 7, light the candle early, at dusk, and set flowers by the picture for the feast.
Keeping it on your own
Many people keep this novena on their own, at a kitchen table, on a bus, in a hospital bed. Its prayers speak in the first person, “I humbly venerate thee”, so they fit a single voice. If illness or caring for someone keeps you from Mass on December 8, you are excused, and the prayer for December 8 on this page can be your feast. And if the nine days come in a hard season, make the hard thing your intention: the third day asks for courage against “every snare of the great enemy”, a fair prayer for anyone.
“I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.”
Go deeper
What is the Immaculate Conception novena?
The Immaculate Conception novena fills the nine days before December 8, the solemnity of Mary’s conception without original sin. The feast concerns Mary’s own first moment, in her mother’s womb, and not the conception of Jesus, which the Church keeps on March 25 at the Annunciation: the Church holds that God kept her untouched by original sin from the start, drawing in advance on what her Son would win on the Cross. In the Catechism’s words, she “was redeemed from the moment of her conception” (CCC 491). Pius IX declared it a dogma in 1854, though the feast is centuries older, and in the United States Mary under this title is the nation’s patroness. A novena is any stretch of nine days given to prayer for one purpose, and Christians see its pattern in the apostles, who waited for the Holy Spirit “persevering with one mind in prayer with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus” (Acts 1:14). The days before December 8 have a novena of their own in the Raccolta, the book of prayers the Church enriched with indulgences until the reform of 1967. Its 1910 English edition opens a set of five novenas for Mary’s great feasts with this one, and dates its first day November 29. That text is the one on this page, copied from the printed book: an opening prayer to the Holy Spirit, a preparatory prayer for every day, a different prayer for every day, and the closing versicles and prayers. Each day here also has a short reading from the Douay-Rheims Bible. It is a private devotion. Nobody is obliged to pray it, though the feast it leads to is a holy day of obligation in the United States.
Keeping the nine days
Start on November 29 and keep one intention until December 7. Each day takes about ten minutes. Make the Sign of the Cross and say the opening prayer to the Holy Spirit, then the preparatory prayer, which never changes. Pray the Hail Mary nine times and the Glory Be once. Read the day’s Scripture line and say the prayer for that day. Finish with the Litany of Loreto, or with the shorter versicles that begin “All fair art thou, O Mary,” and then the closing prayers. On a crowded day, the preparatory prayer, the nine Hail Marys and the prayer of the day carry the novena. If a day is missed, pick up with the day the calendar shows and keep going; nine days of prayer are an offering, not an exam. On December 8, give thanks at Mass. In the United States it is a holy day of obligation, and Mass the evening before, on December 7, counts as well.
Questions people ask
When does the Immaculate Conception novena start?
On November 29. The ninth day is December 7, the day before the solemnity on December 8, which is how the Raccolta dates it. Some groups begin on November 30 so that the novena ends on the feast day; the prayers do not change.
What is the traditional Immaculate Conception novena?
The traditional text is the one in the Raccolta, the Church’s former book of indulgenced prayers, where it opens a set of five novenas for Mary’s feasts. Each day has a prayer to the Holy Spirit, a preparatory prayer, nine Hail Marys and a Glory Be, the prayer for the day, the Litany of Loreto or the Tota pulchra versicles, and closing prayers.
Is there a different prayer for each day?
Yes. Each day has its own short prayer to Mary Immaculate that rejoices in one side of her conception and asks for one grace: victory over the effects of original sin on Day 1, a share in her grace on Day 2, courage against the enemy on Day 3, and so on to a lasting love of God on Day 9.
Is December 8 a holy day of obligation?
In the United States, yes: Mary under this title is the country’s patroness, and the obligation holds whatever weekday it falls on. Mass on the evening before, December 7, counts too. Elsewhere the rule varies from country to country, so check with your diocese.
Is it the same as the Miraculous Medal novena?
No. The Miraculous Medal novena runs November 18 to 26, before the medal’s own feast on November 27. The two are close in subject, since the medal’s invocation names the Immaculate Conception, and many people pray one straight after the other.
Can I pray it alongside the Our Lady of Guadalupe novena?
Yes. The Guadalupe novena runs December 3 to 11, so the two share five days, December 3 to 7. Say one novena’s prayers and then the other’s in the same sitting; nothing in either one stands in the way.
What if I miss a day of the novena?
Pray the day you missed alongside the following day’s, or just continue from wherever the calendar has reached. A novena trains perseverance, and a single gap does not undo it.
