There Christmas Novena it is celebrated in the previous nine days, that is, starting from December 16th to the 24th. It includes various texts that aim to help the faithful prepare spiritually for the celebration of the birth of Jesus.
Until Vatican Council II it was celebrated in Latin, after the Council translations were prepared in various languages.
In general, novenas are popular celebrations which over the centuries have accompanied the “official liturgies”. They are included in the great list of “pious exercises”.
«The pious exercises», states J. Castellano, «developed in the Western piety of the Middle Ages and the modern era to cultivate the sense of faith and devotion towards the Lord, the Virgin, the saints, at a time in which the people remained far from the sources of the Bible and the liturgy or in which, in any case, these sources remained closed and did not nourish the life of the Christian people».
The historical origins
The Novena was performed for the first time in a house of Vincentian missionaries in Turin at Christmas 1720 in the church of the Immaculate which was located next to the Ecclesiastical Boarding School that the missionaries managed for the training of the clergy.
Among the most esteemed missionaries of the Convitto was the father Carlo Antonio Vacchetta (1665-1747), who was “master of sacred ceremonies and prefect of church and singing”. He was a friend and frequenter of the missionaries’ house Blessed Sebastiano Valfré.
Both had a particular pity towards the humanity of Jesus and propagated his devotion by inviting the faithful to contemplate and adore the mystery of the Incarnation and Nativity of Christ.
It is in this environment that is particularly attentive to liturgically living the Mystery of Jesus, the Incarnate Word, that the Christmas Novena was written and sung for the first time.
Tradition attributes the writing of the lyrics and music to Father Vacchetta.
Thanks to the popular missions carried out by the Vincentians, the Novena was spread in Piedmont, and from here throughout Italy. The diffusion was facilitated by the charm of his singing and the simplicity of the melody.
What favored its devotion and diffusion was Gabriella Marolles delle LanzeMarchioness of Caluso. This, who had lived a carefree youth, and had married first to Carlo Agostino of Sale delle Lanze, and then to the Marquis of Saluzzo, remained widowed, and came to live near the house of the Vincentians in Turin, chose her superior, Father Domenico Amosso, as her spiritual director. And while attending the church of the Immaculate Conception, she was particularly moved by the functions of preparation for Christmas, for which she established in her testamentary provisions that the aforementioned Novena be made “every year and in perpetuity”.
The meaning
The prophecies of the birth of Jesus were taken from passages of the Old Testament and particularly from the prophet Isaiah.
In them not only is the profound messianic desire of the Old Testament expressed with the desire for God to be present on earth, but the supplication for the coming of Jesus, the eternal Present in the history of men, is sung in an expressive manner.
There are various metaphors that fuel the joy of waiting in the Novena: Jesus will come as light, as peace, as dew, as sweetness, as novelty, as a powerful King, as a universal ruler, as a child, as a just Lord.
The Novena wants to inspire an attitude in the believer: to stop and adore Him.
The traditional form
The Christmas Novena, although not an “official” prayer of the Church, constitutes a very significant moment in the life of Christian communities.
Precisely because it is not an official prayer it can be performed according to different customs, but an undisputed “primacy” goes to the traditional novena, in the well-known Gregorian melody born on the Latin text but also widespread in the Italian version edited by the Benedictine monks of Subiaco.
