How to Pray a Novena: Understanding the purpose and power of the novena

A few months ago, Nelly and her husband decided to start praying the St. Andrew's Novena together. The novena begins on November 30 (the feast of Saint Andrew) and ends on Christmas Day. It can be an intense task, as it requires praying the same prayer 15 times a day, every day. But a few days later, Nelly began to wonder what this whole ninth thing was about.

She was born and raised Catholic and had prayed a handful of novenas over most of the last few years, but despite participating in them, she had never learned much about them or why Catholics would want to pray them.

If you are like Nelly and are so curious about what the Novena is all about (even if you are not Catholic), we have done some research, and in this guide, we share it all here in case you, too, are curious about this aspect of Catholicism.