Something New To Be Renewed This Advent

As we journey through Advent, it seems that there is more and more to do even as the days are getting shorter and shorter. Would you like an opportunity to calm down and prayerfully prepare for Christmas? If you take a moment to recollect, might you discover a special intention you have for this coming Christmas, for yourself or for someone else? This Advent, IHM is offering a unique opportunity for you to calm down and prayerfully prepare for Christmas while offering your special intention to the Lord. Announcing our Advent – Christmas Novena to the Infant Jesus.

This Novena will be prayed in the church on the nine evenings before Christmas Day (see the schedule below). It will consist of music, Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, an Advent Litany with the “O Antiphons” (from Vespers), a Christmas Litany, quiet time to offer your special intention, and Benediction. I invite you to take this half hour of prayer to find some peace at the end of these busy days.

6 pm December 16 – 20, Monday – Friday
7 pm December 21, Saturday (after the Spanish Mass)  
6 pm December 22 – 23, Sunday – Monday
7 pm December 24, Tuesday (after the 6 pm Mass)
 
You can offer this time for yourself or for loved ones. And if you are praying for loved ones, you may pick up some customized cards from our gift shop and mail it to them to inform them that you are offering this Novena for them as a Christmas gift. In each card there is an envelope on which you may write the names of the people for whom you are praying. You can drop off the envelope at the Welcome Desk and we will place it on the altar during the Novena. You may also place a donation for the parish in the envelope if you’d like (to reimburse us for the cost of the card).

We will also live-stream the Novena and save it on our website so you may participate from your own location at a time that works for you. You can also send the link to anyone whom you would like to invite to join us for this Novena.

If you are hesitant because you are not sure what to expect, just give it a try one night and see. Here’s a brief excerpt from the Novena Prayer:

“Holy Child Jesus, true God and true Man… I offer you, as a gift for Your Birthday, the love of my heart: I give you my entire life, with all its joys and sorrows… I humbly ask You now to look upon me, with the love your revealed in Your birth, and graciously grant the favors I humbly ask of You, if they be for the glory of God and the salvation of me and my loved ones.”

It will be a unique opportunity to open yourself more fully to the graces of Advent and Christmas. You may find that you’re feeling more peaceful during the Holiday frenzy; and you may even notice at the end of the Novena that the days are getting longer.