In praise of short novena prayers.

Saw this on one of my favorite Catholic/Mothers/Humor blogs,and could not resist.



Thank you to the redoubtable Mrs.Pinkerton at Dumb Old Housewives for finding and sharing this piece of cartoon brilliance.

And speaking of St. Andrews's Day, don't forget that the traditional Christmas novena starts today. It's a short and lovely little prayer:

Saint Andrew Christmas Novena

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 piercing cold. In that hour, vouchsafe, O my God! to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His Blessed Mother. Amen.

Now, in the last few years I've been seeing announcements from overly pious bloggers with too much time on their hands saying that this prayer must be said 15 (!) times a day from now until Christmas. NO! NO! NO!

Well, say it 15 times if you like.

 But I have it on good authority from a man who attended Catholic schools before Vatican II. The good sisters told the children to say this prayer once a day for a special Christmas intention.  And I will take my stand with the sisters.  There's nothing wrong with repeating prayers, and we Catholics do this, with spiritual profit, all the time (rosary, Jesus prayer, chaplet, etc.)

But!

Whereas: advent is a very busy time of year especially for us moms, making prolonged extra devotions difficult to keep up on  daily basis, and 

Whereas:The Christmas novena is such a lovely little thing that should be savored as we say it, rather than "gotten through" in quantity

Therefore: I conclude, in solidarity with full-habited pre-Vatican II nuns, that Once a Day  is Enough!

Now, go say your Christmas novena.
Once.