“Come, Holy Spirit!”
Introduction
The novena to the Holy Spirit is one of the oldest novenas in the Church. It is apostolic as we know from the Acts of the Apostles, which says: “So from the Mount of Olives they went back to Jerusalem…They went to the upper room where they were staying;…With one heart all these joined constantly in prayer, together with some women, including Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers” (1:12-14).
This novena to the Holy Spirit can be made individually, or in community or in group or in family circles, any time of the day and of the year. The fruitfulness of this novena, however, will depend on how actively the members take part in it, how devoted they are to the person of the Holy Spirit and how open they are to his inspiration and guidance. It is meant to do to us what the Holy Spirit did with the Apostles and disciples in the upper room on that first Pentecost Sunday and thereafter. For this reason it is very highly recommended to read and study, as time permits, the Acts of the Apostles, which is called the “Gospel of the Holy Spirit”.
Let us pray that this novena to the Holy Spirit, made with love, fervour and devotion, may be a profound Pentecostal experience for all of us and a new Pentecost for our Society, for our family, for our Movement and for all those who make this novena any time and anywhere.
This novena could be made in the following order:
- Sing the hymn “Veni, Creator Spiritus”
- Read the reflection of the day slowly and meditatively with some space for personal reflection
- Recite together “The Prayer for the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit”
- Pray the “Litany of the Holy Spirit”
Let us pray that the Virgin of Nazareth and the Mother of the Incarnate Word, who was present with the Apostles and disciples in prayer in the upper room, may be present with us as we make this novena.
1st day - Come, Holy Spirit, and from heaven direct on us the rays of your light.
Light is the very first creation of God. Before the light was created everything was very dark and chaotic: “The earth had no form and was void; darkness was over the deep…” (Gen 1:2)
”And God said: let there be light and there was light…” (Gen 1:3)
Jesus declared: “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12). “Light came into the world, but people preferred darkness, because their deeds were evil” (Jn 3:19).
Jesus said to St. Teresa M.C.:
“My little one, come, be my light”. In the third vision St. Teresa M.C. had, she writes:
“The crowd was in the dark, and yet I could see them”, because she had the light of Christ in her.
O my brothers and sisters, let us try to understand the sublime beauty of our call to be the light of the world! (cf. Mt 5:14)
2nd day - Come, Father of the poor; come, giver of God’s gifts; come, light of our hearts.
The Holy Spirit is the Father of the poor. Who are these poor people? Every single human being, man or woman. The really poor people are those who live without God, for without God we do not exist, without God we do not breathe, without Jesus we can do nothing. Whether we realize it or not, we can and we must say with St. Paul: “I am what I am by the grace of God”, and again: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me”. This is the simple truth, which must be lived and preached, preached and lived.
How many times down through the centuries we have heard God say: “Do not be afraid, I will be with you…”From Abraham to St. Teresa of Calcutta we can see that it is God who acted through those men and women of history and faith and who now acts through you and me! O eternal God, you call the foolish ones of this world and act through them to shame the wise:
“Now, remember what you were, my friends, when God called you…he chose what the world looks down on and despises and thinks is nothing…” (cf. 1 Cor 1:26 ff.)
3rd day - Kindly Paraclete, in your gracious visits to our souls you bring relief and consolation.
There are two kinds of consolations, human and divine; the human consolation and satisfactions we get from others’ praise and appreciation or from our own achievements of some difficult task we have accomplished. Such consolation can be ephemeral and superficial. They often may not last too long. They are mainly based on our feelings. At times we hear people say: I do not feel like praying, I do not feel like going to Church, as I do not have any desire to pray, etc.. The consolation the Holy Spirit gives is totally different. It goes beyond our feelings and emotions. Even when one does not feel like praying or doing some spiritual exercises, one does remain faithful and unremitting to one’s duties of the state of life.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux used to say: “My consolation is to have no consolation”. St. Teresa of Calcutta went through long periods of terrible aridity and lack of human consolations or satisfactions. And yet she remained faithful to her life of prayer and daily duties.
The consolation the Holy Spirit gives the world cannot give, because the world does not know. Even when we go through terrible darkness, deep down we experience peace and joy. Interior consolation and peace is a gratuitous gift of the Holy Spirit.
4th day - If they weary with toil, you bring them ease; in the heat of temptations, your grace cools them. If sorrowful, your words console them.
Our life on earth is never easy, even when we try our best to fulfill our duties, even though one works very hard, even when one is very friendly and all the time smiling, one can get tired, exhausted, discouraged, angry and upset. One can easily be tempted as we are so weak and so fragile, but then do not fall into panic and despair but invoke the Holy Spirit’s help. In the heat of temptations, his grace cools them.
It is good to remember that Jesus was tempted by the devil until his last breath on the Cross. The Gospel of Luke says: “When the devil had exhausted every way of tempting Jesus, he left him for a while to return at the opportune moment” (4:13). The last and opportune moment was when Jesus was asked to come down from the Cross (Mk 15:31-32).
5th day - Light most blessed, shine on the hearts of your faithful, even into our darkest corners; for without your aid we can do nothing good, and everything is sinful.
All of us have our innermost selves and darkest corners, where the light of the Holy Spirit alone can penetrate and brighten them. Our eyes will be opened to the wider horizons and we will see what is beyond, what is eternal and the transition from the temporal to the eternal takes place. Our hearts begin to expand too and to experience the flames of divine love, and to burn with zeal and fervor for souls.
The Apostles after the Pentecostal experience could no longer remain in closed doors as the doors of their hearts were wide open and the fear gave way to the virtue of fortitude. There came the transition from fear to fortitude, from misery to happiness, from pride to humility, from sadness to joy, from coldness to enthusiasm, from sloth to fervor. The human soul is no longer afraid to be humiliated, ridiculed, misunderstood or disheartened, instead it is not only happy to suffer but grateful to God for finding itself worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. “The Apostles went out from the Council full of joy that they were found worthy to suffer disgrace for the sake of the Name” (Acts 5:41)
6th day - Wash clean our sinful souls, rain down your grace on our parched souls and heal our injured souls.
Let us take a few verses from the famous psalm known as the “Miserere” (Ps 51), which we pray every Friday morning:
“O wash me more and more from my guilt and cleanse me from my sin…
A pure heart create for me O God, put a steadfast Spirit within me.
From my sins turn away your face and blot out all my guilt.
Give me again the joy of your help;
with a spirit of fervor sustain me,
That I may teach transgressors your ways
And sinners may return to you…
My sacrifice, a contrite spirit, a humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn”.
O Holy Spirit, wash clean our sinful souls, then rain down your grace on our parched souls and heal our injured souls. “Breathe into me, O holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy...” (St. Augustine)
7th day - Soften our hard hearts, cherish and warm our ice-cold hearts, and give direction to the wayward.
How often we meet people whose hearts have become hardened and closed to the truth because of pride and fear. Even in the Old Testament we see God reminding the people of Israel that they should not become stiff-necked, and should not continue to remain closed to truth and love.
Jesus could work no miracles at times because of the lack of openness of the Pharisees (cf. Mk 6:5). Pride and fear blind us so often, and make our hearts harder than the hardest rocks. God wants to give us a heart of flesh and not a heart of stone (cf. Jer 31:31-34). God promised a “new heart and a new spirit: “I shall remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ez 36:26-27).
Jesus sends the Holy Spirit upon us so that we can pray: “Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on us, melt us, mould us, fill us and use us…” We must allow the Holy Spirit to melt us and mould us so that he can use us as he wants, when he wants, where he wants, and how he wants without consulting us.
8th day - Give your seven holy gifts to your faithful, for our trust is in you.
These gifts of the Holy Spirit are indispensable for our growth in holiness and holy perseverance. It is enough to see how the Apostles were before receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. They remained behind locked doors, because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities (cf. Jn 20:19). The same Apostles after receiving the Holy Spirit could preach openly, boldly and without any fear. St. Peter, who was so afraid even of a servant girl before, now says:
“The God of Abraham, Isaacs and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has given divine glory to his servant Jesus. But you handed him over to the authorities and you rejected him in Pilate’s presence, even after Pilate had decided to set him free. He was holy and good, but you rejected him and instead you asked Pilate to do you the favour of turning loose a murderer. You killed the author of life but God raised him from death and we are witnesses to this…” (Acts 3:13-15).
9th day - Give us reward for our virtuous acts; give us a death that ensures salvation; give us unending bliss. Amen. Alleluia.
Here the devotee is asking for a reward. There are two kinds of reward, temporal and eternal. Many people live and work very hard for temporal reward. There is nothing wrong to work for temporal things, but the eternal reward should prevail over the temporal. Many a time the temporal reward becomes an obstacle to the eternal. It is here again we have to pray to the Holy Spirit to help us to live and work evermore for God’s glory. With all the works of mercy listed in the gospel of Mathew (25: 31-46) Jesus invites the faithful for their eternal reward: “Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you….”
Here it is good to recall the parable of the rich man who having had a good harvest from his land thought to himself:
“What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops. This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them, and I will say to my soul: ‘My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time!’ But God said to him: ‘Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; this hoard of yours whose will be then? So it is when someone stores up treasure for himself instead of becoming rich in the sight of God”(Lk 12:16-21)
The Holy Spirit helps us to store up treasure in heaven rather than on earth. We do not live for this world, but the world to come for which Jesus suffered, died and rose again and sent the Holy Spirit to help us to understand that there is nothing more important or more worth than the human soul! We must make every effort, therefore, to save our own souls and of others. “What does it profit anyone to gain the whole world and suffers the loss of his/her own soul?” (Mt 16:26)
Conclusion
Many of the saints prayed fervently for the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit everyday. Already in the book of the prophet Isaiah we have the passage that speaks of most of the gifts, such as the spirit of wisdom and insight, the spirit of counsel and power, the spirit of knowledge and fear of God (cf. Is 11: 2).
Without the help of the Holy Spirit St. Damien of Molokai, for example, would not have had the courage to venture to live with and work for the lepers of Molokai and die of the same disease. He neither lived nor worked for this world. St. Teresa M.C. and the Missionaries of Charity would not give whole-hearted free service to the poorest of the poor, to the lepers, to the crippled, the handicapped, the repulsive and others without the special assistance and continual inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit. The more we invoke his help the more perfectly we accomplish God’s will with love.
God bless you
Fr. Sebastian Vazhakala M.C.
VENI CREATOR
Veni, creator Spiritus,
mentes tuorum visita,
imple superna gratia,
quae tu creasti, pectora.
Qui diceris Paraclitus,
altissimi donum Dei,
fons vivus, ignis caritas
et spiritalis unctio.
Tu septiformis munere,
digitus paternae dexterae,
Tu rite promissum Patris
sermone ditans guttura.
Accende lumen sensibus,
infunde amorem cordibus,
infirma nostri corporis,
virtute firmans perpeti.
Hostem repellas longius,
pacemque dones protinus;
ductore sic te previo
vitemus omne noxium.
Per te sciamus da Patrem,
Noscamus atque Filium,
Teque utriusque Spiritum
Credamus omni tempore.
Deo Patri sit gloria
et Filio qui a mortuis
surrexit, ac Paraclito
in saeculorum saecula. Amen
PRAYER FOR THE SEVEN GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
O Lord Jesus Christ who, before ascending into heaven, did promise to send the Holy Spirit to finish the work in the souls of your Apostles and disciples, deign to grant us the same Spirit that he may perfect in our souls the work of your grace and your love.
Grant us the spirit of Wisdom that we may despise the perishable things of this world and aspire after the things that are eternal; the spirit of Understanding to enlighten our minds with the light of your divine truth; the spirit of Counsel that we may ever choose the surest way of pleasing God and gaining heaven; the spirit of Fortitude that we may bear our cross with you and that we may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose our salvation; the spirit of Knowledge that we may know God and know ourselves and grow perfect in the science of the saints; the spirit of Piety that we may find the service of God sweet and amiable; the spirit of Fear that we may be filled with a loving reverence towards God and may dread in any way to displease him. Make us, dear Lord, with the sign of your true disciples, and animate us in all things with your spirit. Amen.
LITANY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us
God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
God the Holy Spirit,
Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
Holy Spirit, co-equal with the Father and the Son,
Promise of the Father, most loving and most bounteous,
Gift of the most high God,
Ray of heavenly light,
Author of all good,
Source of living water,
Consuming fire,
Burning love,
Spiritual unction,
Spirit of truth and power,
Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
Spirit of counsel and fortitude,
Spirit of knowledge and piety,
Spirit of the fear of the Lord,
Spirit of compunction and penance,
Spirit of grace and power,
Spirit of charity, peace and joy,
Spirit of patience, longanimity and goodness,
Spirit of benignity, continence and chastity,
Spirit of the adoption of the sons of God,
Holy Spirit, the comforter,
Holy Spirit, the sanctifier,
Who in the beginning moved over the waters,
By whose inspiration spoke the holy men of God,
Who did co-operate in the miraculous conception of the Son of God,
Who did descend upon him at his Baptism,
Who, on the day of Pentecost, did appear in fiery tongues upon the disciples of the Lord,
By whom we also are born,
Who dwells in us,
Who governs the Church,
Who fills the whole world,
Holy Spirit, graciously hear us. we beseech you, hear us
That you write your law in our hearts,
That you shed abroad your light in our hearts,
That you inflame us with the fire of your love,
That you open to us the treasure of your grace,
That you teach us to ask for them according to your will, we beseech you, hear us
That you enlighten us with your heavenly inspirations,
That you lead us in the way of your commandments,
That you keep us to yourself by your powerful attractions,
That you grant us the knowledge that alone is necessary,
That you make us obedient to your inspirations,
That you teach us to pray, and yourself pray with us,
That you clothe us with love towards our brethren,
That you inspire us with a horror of evil,
That you direct us in the practice of good,
That you give us the grace of all virtues,
That you cause us to persevere in justice,
That you be yourself our everlasting reward,
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us, O Lord
Holy Spirit, hear us.
Holy Spirit, graciously hear us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Create in us a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in us.
Let us pray
Grant, O merciful Father, that your divine Spirit may enlighten, inflame and cleanse our hearts, that he may penetrate us with his heavenly dew, and make us fruitful in good works, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.