Christmas Novena

With nine days left until Christmas day it is high time to start with the Christmas novena prayers. Through them we intesify the spiritual preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus. If one starts the novenan today, the last day will be the real feast day of our Lord's birth, the 25th of December (not as is commonly held here the 24th..)

As a prayer for the Novena the following is well suited:

 

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 the piercing cold.
In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee,
  O my God,
to hear my prayer and grant my desires,
[mention your request here]
through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ,
and of His Blessed Mother. Amen.

Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory be.

For those of us who say the Divine Office the O-antiphons make their first appearance today. Of these antiphones the first one is the haunting O Sapientia, "O Wisdom, that proceeds from the mouth of the most High..."