For this Immaculate Heart Saturday, I will connect the Blessed Mother’s heart to praying a Christmas novena. It doesn’t matter which novena you pray.

How? Well, think of it: a novena is a prayer said every day for nine days. The Blessed Mother knew through the annunciation of St. Gabriel the Archangel that she was to give birth to the Messiah (So much for that idiotic song, “Mary Did You Know?) Mary may or may not have known exactly when she was to give birth, however, but we can be certain that she was in deep prayer in the days leading up to their arrival in Bethlehem. 

As it was later stated in the Gospels that Mary ‘pondered these things in her heart,’ as a very pregnant woman she knew the day of the blessed event was drawing near. Taking into consideration her foreknowledge of her unborn child’s identity, I would make the comfortable guess that in the days leading up to the birth, she was ‘deep in prayer’ and this prayer was certainly emanating from within her heart.

So, when you pray a Christmas Novena, please do it from the heart: you will be uniting your prayers intimately with Mary and possibly even sharing in Mary’s memories.

Here’s a good Novena: Christmas Novena | EWTN

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