Monday, first week of Advent (St. Andrew)

AMDG

Blessed St. Andrew’s Day!

You can find his story here

Today begins the St. Andrew’s Christmas “novena” (to use the word “novena” very loosely–this is a lot more than nine days!).

The following prayer is prayed 15 times per day from the feast of St. Andrew until Christmas:

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.
Imprimatur
+MICHAEL AUGUSTINE, Archbishop of New York
New York, February 6, 1897

I made a set of 15 violet beads
–strung like sacrifice beads but with a simple square knot at the end–
to help us keep track.
I found that praying 15 times a day for days on end for the same intention
has a way of purifying one’s motivation.
It feels awfully silly (or selfish, as the case may be) to pester God that often for something
if what I’m praying for really isn’t all that eternally important!

St. Andrew, pray for us!

Blessed Monday!

Readings:
Romans 10:9-18 (The Good News must be proclaimed)
Psalm 19:8-11 “The judgments of the Lord are true, and all of them are just”
+Matthew 4:18-22 (“I will make you fishers of men”)

How beautiful
the feet
that bring good news!

How welcome
fishermen
who rescue
from the murky deep
people who languish
in the slime!

What kind of fisherman am I?  
Do I scare people away or draw them in?
Is what comes out of my mouth Good News?