What do you really want for Christmas?
Can it really come in a box? Is there something more that you want? Maybe it is for healing in your marriage… for a closeness to God… for a son or daughter who has lost their way… for a loved one who is addicted to drugs or alcohol to find freedom… for inner peace… for freedom from a particular sin or temptation… for Christ to come into your heart… to really believe in God.. these are real Christmas Miracles.
You can ask God for any of these!
One popular Advent devotion always begins on November 30, the Feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle. On this day, we begin the Saint Andrew Christmas Novena, also known as the Christmas Anticipation Prayer or simply the Christmas Novena. While a novena is technically a nine-day prayer (the word comes from the Latin word for nine, novem), the name is sometimes applied to any prayer that we say repeatedly over a series of days.
In this case, Catholics pray the Saint Andrew Christmas Novena prayer 15 times each day from the Feast of Saint Andrew until Christmas. The prayer is addressed to God the Father and asks Him to grant us our request in honor of the birth of His Son on Christmas. It’s an excellent prayer to pray with children, because it heightens their anticipation of Christmas, while keeping them focused on the fact that Advent is a time of preparation, and not an extension of the Christmas season.
You can pray the text of the prayer 15 times all at once, or you can spread it out throughout the day. One convenient way to pray it is to recite it five times at each meal, or five times during your morning prayers, five times during your evening prayers, and five times at supper. Be sure, when you begin the novena, to have a particular intention or request in mind, and recall it each time you say the prayer.
Here is a good article on this from the Catholic Universe Bulletin.
Thank you Fr. Michael this will part of my daily prayer!