general novena question

[catholicschoolmom]

I was lurking through and came across the recent Novena that started yesterday and will continue until Shrove Tuesday.... I am sorry I missed out on yesterday's start, which leads me to my question.  If you want to do a Novena, and you miss the first day, can you "catch up"?  Or is it too late?    I will be saying the remaining days, but I was just wondering if there were any 'rules'.    Thanks

[Steven]

    I would look at it in two ways:  On the one hand, if there are certain conditions attached to a prayer, then they should be followed to the best of your ability.  That being said, however, God cares about your disposition and your sincerity, and isn't keeping a logbook on the conditions so as to say, "Oops!  He said the Infant of Prague novena 1 minute late this hour.  I'm going to ignore his prayer now due to this."

    As far as answering your question fully, I'll leave that to the others here who can do so better than I can.

    In Christo Rege,
        -Steven

[SaintSebastian]

What Steven said. I would just say an extra one to catch up. It's one thing if you blow off a day of a novena because you're too lazy to pray, it's quite another to honestly forget or not know when it is supposed to start.

[catholicschoolmom]

thanks so much..  and Steve, I love your avatar... The Angelus... my grandmother had that hanging in her kitchen --- seeing it on FE warmed my heart