Novenas and Octaves – Beautiful Prayer Traditions

The Association of the Miraculous Medal is a center of prayer for God’s children seeking their heavenly home. With your help, the Vincentian community carries out Our Lord’s commission to preach the good news to the ends of the earth. We do this by assisting the poor, celebrating the Church’s liturgy, praying for the needs of others, and seeking Our Lady’s maternal intercession every step of the way.

Among our many beautiful prayer traditions, the novena and the octave are two devotions dear to our Church, our community, and the members of Our Lady’s Association. Though the names of these devotions may sound familiar, the differences between the two may not be as clear.

The word octave means “eight.” As a spiritual devotion, an octave is a continuing celebration of a significant event. For example, the Octave of Easter begins on Easter Sunday and concludes eight days later on the second Sunday of Easter. One way to think of an octave is that the beginning event is too important to be observed for only one day.

The word novena means “nine.” Besides the extra day, a novena is different from an octave in that rather than being a “continuation” of an event, a novena is a time of “preparation” leading up to the event. As preparation, the nine days of a novena always end on the day before the actual feast day being celebrated. For example, the Christmas Novena prepares us to celebrate the Birth of our Lord, and, therefore, begins on December 16 and concludes on December 24.

You are encouraged to join Our Lady’s Association in celebrating our many beautiful novenas and octaves.