Advent Novena

This Novena is adapted from the Catholic St. Andrew Novena, typically prayed throughout Advent until Christmas. 

 

Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Daughter was born of the Mother, Light from Light, Perfection from Perfection, bringin hope and salvation as the rays of the dawn to all places and things. In that hour, vouchsafe, O Mother, to hear my prayer and grant us Your Eternal Love. Amen.

 

The St Andrew Novena, or Christmas Novena, is a prayer said 15 times a day by Catholics who so choose in anticipation of Christmas Day. Here is a good overview of the prayer in its original form.

When I first saw this prayer, the explanation for the very first words of it caught my eye. From the above linked page:

 

The opening words of this prayer—"Hail and blessed be the hour and moment"—may seem odd at first. But they reflect the Christian belief that moments in the life of Christ—His conception in the womb of the Blessed Virgin at the Annunciation; His birth in Bethlehem: His death on Calvary; His Resurrection; His Ascension—are not only special but, in an important sense, still present to the faithful today.

One of the things I love so much about Filianism (and there are many things I love about it) is that it is never tied to one specific time or place on Earth. And because it is not tied to a time thousands of years ago in a particular locale on Earth, I feel like one can feel a little bit more of the timelessness of God Herself, that the events described in Scripture really are outside time—are taking place even now.

So having the words "hail and blessed be the hour and moment" mean, in some sense, that the events we're speaking of took place, are taking place, will continue to take place eternally—was something that struck me as perfect. I had to adapt it.

The original prayer briefly sketches the story of Nativity, describing the Mystery of Jesus' virgin birth, in Bethlehem, in the cold. So I turned to the Scripture passages concerning the Daughter's birth and included the words of the Janya in verse 15 in the Holy Mythos of the Divine Maid (ECE) [1:5:15 in the New Celestial Union version]:

And a Cry issued out of the cave, saying: The holy Child is born from the most holy Mother; Light has come forth from Light, Perfection from Perfection.

The verses surrounding this quote provide much of the rest of the prayer. The previous verse reads: "And the children of earth watched the sky as the first rays of dawn crept across the heavens." Verses 10-11 read: "And she spoke, saying: This night shall a Child be born that shall be the Daughter of Light and the Princess of all the World. A Child is coming that shall carry the light of the Goddess into every part of creation; even to the most desolate of the places of darkness." With these two pieces, the dawn and the carrying of light, the novena becomes a mini version of our Mystery, of the Daughter born in this season, and of the salvation She came to bring.

The closing is left largely as-is—the original leaves space for you to include your own personal requests; you may include yours in this prayer as well after 'to hear my prayer' if you so desire. Hopefully this captures the spirit of the original and is a useful prayer to add to your Advent this year!