Novena to St. Andrew

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 piercing cold. In that hour, vouchsafe, O my God! to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His Blessed Mother. Amen.

(ht: first to Margaret, now popping up all over) :)

It is piously believed that whoever recites the above prayer fifteen times a day from the feast of St. Andrew (30th November) until Christmas will obtain what is asked.

Now here's the rub. What to ask for? And I'm with Margaret - 15 times a day? I am going to forget if I don't do it all at once, but that seems a little intense, as she says. :)

So...what to ask for? I can think of a million "little things." Some of which really don't seem so little to my over-tired, hormonal mind, but really are little things in the eternal scheme of things. Although an answer to a "little thing" will go for to convince my doubting mind that God answers prayers... the "big things" are a little more amorphic. I mean, if I pray for the ability to accept my every day burdens with joy, and a year from now I'm doing that, I'm going to forget it was the prayer all along! I know myself (unfortunately). Of course, it will be great if that prayer is answered either way...

Hmmm....I have only today to think of this. Any thoughts? Anyone willing to share things YOU pray for?



ETA: I think I thought of two things, but either one might hurt others. I'm going to say what it is only to get spiritual advice from my dear readers. One is that I meet my birth mother this year (I haven't searched or anything, because I told my Dad I wouldn't. It would devistate him.) But it is very important to ME. Is it crazy to pray that she would contact me, and that my parents would never find out? And that it would go well, that she would be a nice person? I honestly don't WANT to meet her if it's going to be a thorn in my side for the rest of my life. Is there a way to pray for this while still keeping everyone's needs accounted for??

The second thing I thought of was adopting the little baby of my friend's daughter, but I don't want to pray for that for US if it means causing the pain of loss for my friend's family. Sigh.

Are these just totally selfish prayers? Am I out of line here?

For my dd's alopecia to be cured forever?

That we get our house fixed up quickly and find the perfect one for us in the perfect neighborhood at a great price? (this would be a miracle! LOL)

OK, I think I'm back where I started. Maybe I just have too MUCH to pray for. ;-)

I think one of my biggest problems is that I don't want to "mess with" what God has already planned. Too many times in my life I can look back and see how painful times were actually answers to prayer, just not the way I expected. The whole, "Watch out what you pray for, you just might get it" kind of thing.

Off to think about this a bit more...