Día séptimo de la Novena de Navidad, versión en inglés

En Colombia, la celebración de la Navidad tiene un elemento distintivo: la Novena de Aguinaldos. Esta práctica, que inicia el 16 de diciembre y culmina el 24, es un período de oración y canto de villancicos que anticipa el nacimiento de Jesús. Las familias se reúnen alrededor del pesebre, compartiendo la expectativa y alegría de este evento sagrado.

(Lea también: Si está divorciado y tiene una nueva relación, ¿tendrá la bendición de la iglesia?).

Además de ser un tiempo de reflexión espiritual, la Novena es también un momento para disfrutar de la gastronomía navideña típica. Platos como la natilla y los buñuelos son comunes, sirviéndose generalmente tras el canto de los villancicos.

Reconociendo la importancia de esta tradición y conscientes de que muchos colombianos residen en países de habla no hispana, EL TIEMPO se ha esforzado por mantener vivas estas costumbres.

Para ello, ha publicado una traducción en versión inglés de la novena, permitiendo así que colombianos alrededor del mundo puedan continuar con esta práctica. Destacamos especialmente el séptimo día de la novena, que se celebra el 22 de diciembre, siguiendo las instrucciones de la Arquidiócesis de Bogotá.

(Siga leyendo: Novena de Aguinaldos: las oraciones que debe rezar todos los días hasta la Navidad).

Before starting the prayer, it is usual to start singing a carol with maracas, tambourines, or clapping to accompany the rhythm and announce the beginning of the novena.

This first part aims to bless the nativity scene before starting the Aguinaldos prayers. As it is customary in the country to install the traditional nativity scene in homes, plazas, parks, etc., the Archdiocese proposes this form before starting the novena.

Once the family is gathered, the father or mother says:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Dear family:

During these days we will frequently contemplate this nativity scene in our home and meditate on the great love of the Son of God, who wanted to dwell with us.

Let us ask God that the nativity scene placed in our home, enlivens our Christian faith in us and helps us celebrate these Christmas festivities more intensely.

Let's listen with faith to the words of the holy Gospel according to Saint Luke (Lk 2, 4-7a).

In those days, Joseph, who was from the house and family of David, went up from the city of Nazareth, in Galilee, to the city of David, called Bethlehem, in Judea, to with his wife Mary, who was pregnant. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth, and she gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger. Word of the Lord.

Lord God, our Father, who loved the world so much that you gave us your only Son born of the Virgin Mary, deign to bless this birth and the Christian community, our family, present here, so that the images of this birth help us to deepen our faith in adults and children and to live the virtues of the home in which Jesus was welcomed with love.

We ask this through Jesus, your beloved Son, who lives and reigns forever and ever.

In the end, everyone present, making the sign of the cross, says: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R: Amen.

Most benign God of infinite charity, who loved us so much and gave us your son as the best token of your love, so that, made man in the womb of a virgin, he was born in a manger for our health and remedy. I, on behalf of all mortals, give you infinite thanks for such a sovereign benefit.

In return for it, I offer you the poverty, humility, and other virtues of your humanized son, and I beg you for his divine merits, for the discomforts in which he was born, and for the tender tears he shed in the manger, that you prepare our hearts with profound humility, with burning love, and with such contempt for everything earthly, that the newly born Jesus, may have in them his cradle and dwell eternally. Amen. Pray three times Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

From the Gospel of Saint Luke 2, 3-5

And everyone went to be ed, each to his own city. Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, in Judea, because he was of the house and family of David, to be ed with Mary, his espoused wife, who was with child. Word of the Lord.

In the Apostolic Exhortation on Love in the Family n. 46 we are taught: “Human mobility, which corresponds to the natural historical movement of peoples, can turn out to be a real wealth, both for the family that migrates and for the country that receives them. Something else is the forced migration of families due to situations of war, persecution, poverty, injustice, marked by the vicissitudes of a journey that often endangers life, traumatizes people, and destabilizes families.”

That movement of the Holy Family responded to a historical reality. Today mobility calls us to be attentive to the pain of so many displaced people, to know how to make them feel that we are a pilgrim community that embraces the painful pilgrimage of so many who, like Mary and Joseph with their glorious Child, should feel that, by their side, there will always be companions on the journey who will alleviate with the strength of love all displacement and all migration with the love of the Lord who became a pilgrim, first to Bethlehem, then to Nazareth, then to Jerusalem, then to Emmaus, and always towards heaven, lovingly carrying the cross of all walkers.

Faithful and loving God: you who accompanied the pilgrimage of your beloved people, you who in your Son Jesus became a guest and pilgrim, accompany your Church that today walks with those who suffer walks with migrants, walks with the exiled and expatriates. Grant us the joy of truly being companions on the journey until we find in you our destiny, until we gather the tent of our life and are rewarded when we hear your voice that tells us “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25,35). Amen.

Let us walk in fraternal prayer with those who at this hour traverse the paths of the world. May everyone feel our loving closeness.

Let us ask for forgiveness for the times we have ignored Jesus who continues to walk in the exiled, in the displaced, in those who today continue to knock on the door of the world's indifference.

(De interés: Novena de Aguinaldos: los gozos para leer todos los días antes de la Navidad).

Sovereign Mary, for your great virtues and especially for your humility, you deserved that all a God chose you for his mother. I beg you to prepare and arrange my soul and that of all those who at this time make this novena, for the birth of your adorable Son.

Oh sweetest Mother, communicate to me something of the profound recollection and divine tenderness with which you pleased him so that we are made less unworthy to see him, love him, and adore him for all eternity. Amen. The Ave Maria is prayed three times.

Oh Most Holy Joseph, husband of Mary and putative father of Jesus. Infinite thanks I give to God because he chose you for such high ministries and adorned you with all the gifts proportionate to such excellent greatness. I beg you for the love you had for the divine Child, embrace me in fervent desires to see him and receive him sacramentally while in his divine essence I see and enjoy him in heaven. Amen. The Our Father, the Ave Maria, and the Glory Be to the Father are prayed.

, Oh sweetest Child Jesus, that you said to the venerable Margaret of the Most Holy Sacrament, and in her person to all your devotees, these words so comforting for our poor burdened and suffering humanity: "Everything you want to ask, ask for it through the merits of my infancy, and nothing will be denied to you."

Full of confidence in You, oh Jesus, who are the same truth, we come to expose all our misery to you.

Help us to lead a holy life, to achieve a blessed eternity.

Grant us, by the infinite merits of your Incarnation and your infancy, the grace of which we need so much. We give ourselves to you, oh omnipotent Child, confident that our hope will not be frustrated, and that by virtue of your divine promise, you will accept and favorably dispatch our supplication. Amen. Glory Be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit is prayed three times.

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