Novena for Pentecost II

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Our Lady of the Holy Spirit,
pray to Jesus for me.




First Day

We pray together to you blessed Virgin, untier of knots, yet not afraid of the bonds of love.
Help us and the souls entrusted to our concern, especially those for whom we have the greatest affection, to prepare for Pentecost.
Today help us to begin our pilgrimage to Pentecost in hope.
We pray for one another to hope for the miracle of changed hearts and minds, to believe change is possible and to live accordingly.
We pray for the hope we need to get busy living.
We pray in hope that all the paradox we are living will one day be brought to meaning.
We pray in hope for our relationships - that found through and founded in the Relationship of Being, they will endure for all ages and also bear good fruit in our own day.
Virgin of hope, help us to hope! Amen.
From St. Augustine s. 266.2
Well, we are certainly now celebrating the solemnity of the coming of the Holy Spirit; because on the day of Pentecost, which has already begun, there were in one place a hundred and twenty souls, among whom the apostles and the mother of the Lord, and others of both sexes, praying and waiting for what Christ had promised, that is, the coming of the Holy Spirit. Their expectant hopes were not in vain, because the one who made the promise was not deceitful; what they were waiting for arrived, and found the vessels for its reception clean and purified. There appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, which also settled on each one of them; and they began to speak with tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:3-4).
Each individual was speaking in all tongues, because the Church that was going to exist in all tongues was being foretold. One individual was the sign of; all tongues in one individual, that meant all nations in that unity. Those who were filled were speaking; those who were empty were astonished; and what is more reprehensible, they were astonished and finding fault. They were saying, you see, These men are drunk, and full of new wine (Acts 2:13). What a stupid and dishonest criticism! A drunken man doesn't suddenly learn a foreign language; on the contrary, he loses the power to speak his own. All the same, Truth was in fact speaking through these ignorant and dishonest critics. These people were indeed already full of new wine, because they had become new wineskins. The new wineskins, though, greatly astonished the old wineskins, who with their criticisms were not made new, and neither were they filled. But their criticisms were eventually silenced, and as soon as they gave their ears to what the apostles were saying, and to their explanation of what was happening and their preaching of the grace of Christ, their consciences were pricked by what they heard; their consciences being pricked, they changed their attitudes; their attitudes being changed, they believed; by believing they were made fit themselves to receive what had astonished them in others.
Sequence for Pentecost.

Second Day

We pray together to you blessed Virgin, untier of knots, yet not afraid of the bonds of love.
Help us and the souls entrusted to our concern, especially those for whom we have the greatest affection, to prepare for Pentecost.
Today we pray for the theological virtues of faith and love, never found separately from each other.
We believe in love,
and that God is a Father Who loves us first and by Whose love we are capable of loving others.
We love the faith, a gift given to us without merit that transforms our small realities into a participation in eternal glory.
We pray for the power to share the gift of faith in crucified love with joy.
From Chrysostom CPG 4343.2
I would gladly ask you to please tell me why you are waging such a war against the divinity of the Holy Spirit, or rather against your own salvation? Why do you not deign to remember these words of the Savior to his disciples: "Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit?" Do you not see the dignity? Do you not see a perfect resemblance? Do you not see an indivisible Trinity? Do you dare to add to the commandments of your Divine Master? Do you not know that a man who would dare to add or subtract a few words to the prince's dispatches, a man who, however, has the same origin and nature as they themselves, would suffer an extreme penalty, and nothing could save that person from punishment? If we fear a man in this way, what forgiveness can we expect for men who undertake to alter the words of the Savior, and who refuses to listen to the Incarnate Son of God, and his announcement by St. Paul, who cried with a loud voice: "The eye has not seen, ear has not heard, the spirit of man has not conceived what God has prepared for those who love him?" (I Cor. 2:9).
From Augustine s.266.8.
However, let's see the real meaning of scripture; it may have some advice for us, perhaps, which will become clear to a better understanding. "The just man, he says, will correct me out of mercy." Even if he beats me, he loves me; the one who rebukes me respects me; the flatterer takes me in. The first is showing compassion, the second getting round me. The rod of the one who beats me is hard, the oil of the one who fawns on me soft. In fact all flatterers anoint the head, failing to heal the heart. Love the one who rebukes you, beware of the one who flatters you. After all, if you love the one who rebukes you with the truth, and beware of the one who flatters you with deceit, you can say what was sung: "The just man will correct me out of mercy, but let the oil of the sinner, that is the compliments of the flatterer, not fatten my head" (Ps 141:5).
A fat head is a big head; a big head is a proud head. Better a healthy heart than a big head. But a heart is made healthy by the rod of rebuke; a head made big by the oil of the sinner, that is, by the agreement of the flatterer. If you've made your head big, beware of your head becoming top-heavy, and toppling you over the precipice.
Well, I rather think I've spoken enough for the time at our disposal on this one verse of the psalm, with the Lord helping me, and secretly building up your hearts.
Sequence for Pentecost.

Third Day

We pray together to you blessed Virgin, untier of knots, yet not afraid of the bonds of love.
Help us and the souls entrusted to our concern, especially those for whom we have the greatest affection, to prepare for Pentecost.
Today we pray to experience Pentecost as a celebration of first fruits.
Help us always give the first fruit of our presence, attention and prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord.
Help the first fruits of our friendships be growth in faith.
We have sown with many tears, Lord let us reap with joy and bring you the sheaves of our papers, projects and people.
On this Ascension day let us remember that the first fruits of human nature have ascended, and let us fix our hearts upon the hope of heaven, the fullness of fruitfulness.
From Chrysostom CPG 4343.1.5
We observe the exchange practiced by God in his love. He received the first fruits of our nature and gave us in return the grace of the Spirit. […] the first fruits of a purified [human nature] Christ presented up there; he sent us in return the Holy Spirit. […] Here's why I am now without fear: it is because our premises are there. That is why, although I hear of a worm that has no end, a fire that is not quenched, other punishments and other cruelty, I'm not afraid, now, or rather, I fear, but I do not despair of my salvation; for if God had not poured out his greatest wealth for our cause, the first fruits of our kind would not be up there. Before that day, when we look to the sky and were considering the intangible powers, we perceive our baseness compared with the powers above; Now, however, whenever we want, we look up there to heaven, to the throne itself, to see our original nobility, for it is from there that we have also our beginnings. And similarly, the Son of Man will come from heaven to judge us.
Sequence for Pentecost.

Fourth Day

We pray together to you blessed Virgin, untier of knots, yet not afraid of the bonds of love.
Help us and the souls entrusted to our concern, especially those for whom we have the greatest affection, to prepare for Pentecost.
Today we pray to enter into the mystery of Pentecost as the New Covenant.
The Jews celebrate both the “Giving of the Torah” and the covenant with Abraham happening on Pentecost.
Help us to believe in the promises of the Lord in these events and to live them as fulfilled by the New Law of Love on Pentecost.
Allow us to live our lives and providential friendships in continuity with this narrative and not outside it.
From Augustine s. 270.3
[…]the Holy Spirit came, so that the law might be fulfilled by grace. The law, you see, without grace, is the letter that kills. "For if a law, he says, had been given that could bring to life, justice would certainly have come from the law. But scripture locked all things up under sin, so that the promise from the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe" (Gal 3:21-22). That's why "the letter kills, but the Spirit brings to life" (2 Cor 3:6). Not so that you should fulfill something other than what you are commanded by the letter; but the letter by itself makes you guilty, while grace both sets you free from sin and enables you to fulfill the letter. So it is that grace achieves the forgiveness of all sins and the "faith which works through love" (Gal 5:6).
So don't assume that the letter was condemned, because it said, "The letter kills." What that means, you see, is that the letter makes people guilty. A commandment is given, you are not helped by grace; straightaway you find yourself not only not putting the law into practice, but also guilty of transgression. For where there is no law, there is no transgression (Rom 4:15). So the law was not being criticized when it said, The letter kills, but the Spirit brings to life, as though to condemn the former and praise the latter; but, the letter kills, the law by itself without grace. Let me give you an example. By the same manner of speech it says,"Knowledge puffs up." What's the meaning of "knowledge puffs up"? Is knowledge condemned? If it puffs up, it would be better if we remained uneducated. But since he added, "but charity builds up" (1 Cor 8:1), just as where he added "but the Spirit brings to life," he gave us to understand that the letter without the Spirit kills, while with the Spirit it brings to life and gets the letter fulfilled; in the same way knowledge without charity puffs up, charity with knowledge builds up. So the Holy Spirit was sent, so that the law might be fulfilled, and what the Lord himself had said might come about, "I have not come to undo the law, but to fulfill it" (Mt 5:17). He grants this same power to those who believe, grants the same to the faithful, grants the same to those to whom he sends the Holy Spirit. The more capacity anybody has for the Spirit, the greater facility he acquires in keeping the law.
Sequence for Pentecost.

Fifth Day

We pray together to you blessed Virgin, untier of knots, yet not afraid of the bonds of love.
Help us and the souls entrusted to our concern, especially those for whom we have the greatest affection, to prepare for Pentecost.
Today we pray for the gift of unity, reflecting on the predominant and mysterious sign of Pentecost: the gift of tongues.
Man's history is full of towers of Babel and walls of war built by pride.
We pray that we may overcome these obstacles allowing ourselves to be reconciled and gathered in the Church.
We pray for the courage to use the gift of language to know and speak the Gospel, and not to be afraid of the truth.
From Augustine s. 271
The glad day has dawned, brothers and sisters, on which holy Church is resplendent in the faces of the faithful, and warm in their hearts. This day that we are celebrating, of course, is the one on which the Lord Jesus Christ, glorified after the resurrection by his ascension, sent the Holy Spirit. That, after all, is what was written in the gospel, when he said, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink; whoever believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from his breast"; the evangelist went on to explain, and said, "But he was saying this about the Spirit, whom those were going to receive who would believe in him. For the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified (Jn 7:37-39)." So it remained, once Jesus was glorified when he had risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, for the Holy Spirit now to be given, sent by him as it had been promised by him; and that indeed is what happened.
The Lord, you see, spent forty days with his disciples after the resurrection, and then ascended into heaven; and on the fiftieth day, which we are celebrating today, he sent the Holy Spirit, as it is written, that "there came suddenly a sound from heaven, as if a violent gust was bearing down; and there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, which settled upon each one of them; and they began to speak in all tongues, as the Spirit gave them to utter (Acts 2:2-4)." That gust was purging their hearts of worldly chaff; that fire was consuming the straw of ancient lusts; those tongues they were speaking in, filled by the Holy Spirit, were prefiguring the Church of the future through the languages of all nations.
I mean, just as after the flood the ungodly pride of men built a high tower against the Lord, and the human race was deservedly divided by languages, so that each nation would speak its own language and thus not be understood by the others; so in a similar way the devout humility of the faithful has brought to the unity of the Church the variety of their different languages; so that what discord had dissipated charity might gather together, and the scattered members of the human race, as of one body, might be attached to their one head, Christ, and so reunited, and fused together into the unity of the holy body by the fire of love.
And so it is that those people have absolutely no share in this gift of the Holy Spirit, who hate the grace of peace, who do not hold on to the fellowship of unity. Yes, they too may come flocking to the solemnity of this day, may hear these readings in which the Holy Spirit was promised and sent; but their hearing them brings judgment on them, not reward. What good, after all, does it do them to perceive with their ears what they turn from in disgust with their hearts; and to celebrate the day of one whose light they hate? You, though, my brothers and sisters, members of the body of Christ, seedlings of unity, sons and daughters of peace, keep this day joyfully, celebrate it without anxiety. Among you, after all, is being fulfilled what was being prefigured in those days, when the Holy Spirit came. Because just as then, whoever received the Holy Spirit, even as one person, started speaking all languages; so too now the unity itself is speaking all languages throughout all nations; and it is by being established in this unity that you have the Holy Spirit; you that do not break away in any schism from the Church of Christ which speaks all languages.


Sequence for Pentecost.

Sixth Day

We pray together to you blessed Virgin, untier of knots, yet not afraid of the bonds of love.
Help us and the souls entrusted to our concern, especially those for whom we have the greatest affection, to prepare for Pentecost.
Today we pray, with you, dear Virgin, for the gift of intimacy with Christ.
We pray to experience his tenderness and the joy that is like the “new wine” Christ made for you at Cana.
The desire of our human bodies is union in love, leading to fruitfulness and belonging - help us to find fulfillment in the mystery of eucharistic chastity.
Let the logic of “this is my body given up for you”, allow us to participate even now in the marriage feast of heaven, made possible by Pentecost.
From Augustine (s. 267.2)
They were jeering, and they were saying something true. [“They are full of new wine”.] Wineskins, you see, were filled with new wine. You heard about it when the gospel was read: "Nobody puts new wine into old wineskins (Mk. 2:22"); the carnal person does not receive the things of the Spirit. Being carnal means being old, grace means newness.
From Augustine s. 267.3
Now is being fulfilled what was then being promised. We have heard, we can see. Hear, daughter, and see (Ps 45:11); the queen herself was being addressed. Hear, daughter, and see; hear the promise, see the fulfillment. Your God hasn't deceived you, your bridegroom has not deceived you, the one who gave his blood for your dowry hasn't deceived you. The one who found you ugly and made you beautiful, found you unclean and made you a virgin, has not deceived you. It's you that were promised to yourself; but promised in a few people, fulfilled in many.
From Chrysostom CPG 4536.3
Did you wish to be a bride? He became your bridegroom. He who has the bride, is the bridegroom. You wished, and he became a husband for you. For I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. You were a harlot, and became a virgin. What new and incredible things! Among the outsiders, marriage dissolves virginity, but among the spiritual [it] receives a harlot, and makes [her] more chaste than a virgin. Explain, heretic, how the harlot is a virgin! I am unable to elaborate, but I hold fast to [it] by faith. The grace of the Spirit brought about all these things.
Sequence for Pentecost.

Seventh Day

We pray together to you blessed Virgin, untier of knots, yet not afraid of the bonds of love.
Help us and the souls entrusted to our concern, especially those for whom we have the greatest affection, to prepare for Pentecost.
Today we pray for confirmation in faith on Pentecost.
Just as the Apostle Peter changed to a man of conviction with the Holy Spirit's power, help us not to fear the Cross.
As Peter gained insight to see what was happening to him in the light of the Scriptures, help us to interpret our lives according to this same paradigm.
Renew in us the sacrament of confirmation we received which made us children of the New Law.
From Chrysostom (CPG 4343.1, 2)
Indeed, when the sun appears, the shadow dissipates, the beasts hole up in dens, murderers, thieves and robbers of graves and start running towards the mountain tops: Similarly, when Peter appeared and his voice was heard, the shadow of error dissipated, the devil ran off the demons took flight, diseases of the body were destroyed, diseases of the soul healed, all evil was dispelled and virtue was brought to the earth.
From Chrysostom CPG 4536
I do not speak hesitantly, but to close the mouth of the heretic. For this reason, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. What words? You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against her. On this rock. He did not say, on Peter. For he built his church not on the man, but on faith. What was that faith? You are the Christ, the son of the living God. He called the church a rock, because she receives waves and is not rolled. And because the church undergoes trials but is not vanquished.
From Augustine s.266.7
While Peter was proclaiming the good news, Cornelius and all his people with him, that is Gentiles, believed; and suddenly, before they were baptized, they were filled with the Holy Spirit. What answer can human obstinacy give to that? Not only before hands were laid on them, but even before baptism itself did the Holy Spirit come; because he was able to, not because he had to. He came before the baptismal washing, in order to settle the argument over circumcision. You see, the fault-finders or the less intelligent could have said to Peter, “You did wrong, giving the Holy Spirit.” But lo and behold it's been fulfilled, lo and behold it's been demonstrated, what the Lord said: "The Spirit breathes where he will (Jn 3:8)." Look, it's been fulfilled, look, it's been demonstrated how true what the Lord said is: "The Spirit breathes where he will."
And yet the proud heretic is not yet breathing out the spirit of arrogance. He's still saying, “It's mine; don't receive it from him, but from me.”
You answer, “I want to know what is God's.”
From Augustine s. 270.2
"Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you", because you have told me; you have said something, hear something; you have made a confession, receive a blessing; so:"And I tell you: you are Peter"; because I am the rock, you are Rocky, Peter — I mean, rock doesn't come from Rocky, but Rocky from rock, just as Christ doesn't come from Christian, but Christian from Christ; "and upon this rock I will build my Church" (Mt 16:17-18); not upon Peter, or Rocky, which is what you are, but upon the rock which you have confessed. I will build my Church though; I will build you, because in this answer of yours you represent the Church.
Sequence for Pentecost.

Eighth Day

We pray together to you blessed Virgin, untier of knots, yet not afraid of the bonds of love.
Help us and the souls entrusted to our concern, especially those for whom we have the greatest affection, to prepare for Pentecost.
Today we pray to see Pentecost as a pattern, a design: the resolved equation of the new creation.
We enter into the mystery of numbers, of seven times seven plus one, the three of the Trinity and the ten of the law.
We look to the beauty of nature's first fruits and Fibonacci numbers to see the promise of the new world to come.
From Chrysostom CPG 4536.7
For the word of God is more powerful than his heaven. For heaven is a work of the word. God said, "Let there be heaven." And the word became a work. Nature ran, and nothing impeded it. For he is Master of nature, both to make and to change such as this. I, who set up heaven, built her, but I did not assume a body for the sake of heaven, but so that you may learn that the Church is more honourable than heaven and angels and all of creation. For this reason heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
From Augustine s. 270.3,5
But as we learned from the sacred books, he completed forty days with his disciples after the resurrection, showing them the reality of his risen body, going in and coming out with them, eating and drinking, in case they should think it was a kind of pretense. But on the fortieth day, which we celebrated ten days ago, in their sight he ascended into heaven, with the promise that in the same way as he was going, so he would come; that is, he was going to judge in the same human form as he had been judged in. It was his wish to send the Holy Spirit on a different day from when he ascended; not after a mere two or three days, but after ten days. This point obliges us to investigate and ask questions about certain obscurities of numbers.
Forty days contain four times ten. This number, it seems to me, presents us with a significant symbolism. I'm speaking as a man to men and women, and I'm rightly called an interpreter of the scriptures, not an asserter of my own opinions. So this number forty, containing four times ten, signifies, so it seems to me, this age which we are now acting our parts in and passing through. We are in fact being acted on and passed along by the parade of the seasons, by the instability of affairs, by the going and coming, in fleeting snatches, as in a kind of stream, of things that don't last. So it's this age that is signified by this number, because of the fourfold seasons of the world which make up the year; also the fourfold cardinal points of the world, known to everybody, and often mentioned by sacred scripture: from east and west, from north and south (Lk 13:29).
So it's through these fourfold segments of time and throughout the fourfold quarters of the world that the law of God is being preached, like the number ten. That's why the decalogue was the first thing to be impressed upon God's people. The law was established, after all, in ten commandments; for the good reason that there seems to be a sort of perfection or completion in this number ten. When you count, I mean, you go up to this number, and then go back from one up to ten, and again back to one. In the same way hundreds, in the same way thousands; in the same way over and above that, the forest of numbers grows endlessly in folds of ten. Thus the complete law found in the number ten, and the law preached through the fourfold world, being four times ten makes forty. Now we are taught, while we are leading our lives in this world, to abstain from worldly desires; this is signified by the forty day fast known to everyone by the name of Lent. This has been enjoined on you by the law, this by the prophets, this by the gospel. That's why, since the law commanded it, Moses fasted for forty days; since the prophets did, Elijah fasted for forty days; since the gospel did, the Lord Christ fasted for forty days.
So ten days being completed after the forty days, the number ten just once, the number ten singly, not four times over, the Holy Spirit came, so that the law might be fulfilled by grace. The law, you see, without grace, is the letter that kills. […] But the Holy Spirit is usually indicated in the holy scriptures by the number seven, not the number ten; the law by ten, the Holy Spirit by seven. That the law is indicated by ten, you know; that the Holy Spirit is represented by seven, I am reminding you of. First of all in the book itself, at the beginning of the book which is entitled Genesis, the works of God are listed. Light is made, the sky is made, which is called the firmament between waters and waters; the dry land is laid bare, the sea separated from the land, the land is given the fertility to produce all plants; the greater and lesser lights are made, the sun and moon and the other stars; the waters produce their broods, the earth its own; man is made to the image of God; God completes all his works on the sixth day. In none of all these works listed and completed was sanctification mentioned. God said, Let light be made; and light was made; and God saw the light that it was good (Gn 1:3-4); it didn't say, God sanctified the light. Let the firmament be made; and it was made; God saw that it was good (Gn 1:6); and it didn't say that the firmament was sanctified. So with everything else, not to labor the obvious, right up to what was made on the sixth day, when after man has been made to the image of God, the total is summed up,nothing is said to have been sanctified.
We come to the seventh day, on which no work was done, but God's resting is suggested, and God sanctified the seventh day; the first mention of sanctification is on day number seven. It can be looked for in all the passages of scripture, and first found here. Where God's rest is mentioned, our rest too is being suggested. God, after all, didn't find it hard labor, so that he needed a rest; and then, as though congratulating himself for a day off after hard work, sanctified the day on which he was permitted to have a holiday. That's a crude, literal-minded way of thinking. What's being suggested to us is rest after all our good works, just as God's rest was suggested after all his good works. God, you see, made all things, "and behold they were all very good. And God rested on the seventh day from all his works which he had made" (Gn 1:31; 2:2). Do you want to rest too? First make works that are very good.
The sabbath was given to the Jews to be observed literally, like the other things, as rites symbolically signifying something deeper. A particular kind of vacation, you see, was enjoined on them; mind you carry out what that vacation signifies. A spiritual vacation, I mean, is tranquility of heart; but tranquility of heart issues from the serenity of a good conscience. So the person who really observes the sabbath is the one who doesn't sin. This, after all, is the way the command was given to those who were commanded to observe the sabbath; "You shall perform no servile work (Lv 23:7). Everyone who commits sin, is the slave of sin "(Jn 8:34).
[…] It would take too long, and is quite beyond my strength even if not your eagerness, to mention all the testimonies about the number seven, where it refers to the Holy Spirit. So that must be enough.
Sequence for Pentecost.

Ninth Day

We pray together to you blessed Virgin, untier of knots, yet not afraid of the bonds of love.
Help us and the souls entrusted to our concern, especially those for whom we have the greatest affection, to prepare for Pentecost.
On this last day of our novena to prepare for Pentecost we pray for the capacity to live paradox.
We see the crucifix everyday of our lives and know that contradiction is the destiny of each man and woman who witnesses to the truth in joy.
We pray to know peace in rejection and we pray to be a support to one another as we each live passionate chastity, wrath in peacemaking and experience victorious defeat.
Let us always smile through tears and come to the scaffold with a song, knowing nothing is greater than the Love of God poured out in the Spirit.
We beg for this Spirit, amen.


From Chrysostom CPG 4343.2, 4
To appreciate the day, you must have experience of the night. Experience of the contrary is always the best teacher to teach us and make us feel the importance of the benefits we enjoy.


From Chrysostom CPG 4536
But Christ did the opposite, he sent the sheep to the wolves, and the sheep did not become prey, but the wolves changed to the gentleness of the sheep. […] For they were not wolves by nature, but by choice.
[…]The fishermen went about [in] the whole world. They received it when it was ailing, and lead [it] back to health. They received it when it was rebelling, they guided [it] towards good order, not throwing spears, not shooting arrows, not hurling missiles, not having an abundance of money or rhetorical words. Instead, they were stripped of clothes and clothed in Christ - poor and rich, deprived of money, yet possessing the kingdom. Alone and not alone, without people, but with their own Master. For I, he said, "am with you until the end of the age."
From Augustine s. 272 augm., 2
A lamb, you see, was found from the goats and the sheep, because our Lord Jesus Christ was born according to the flesh of the seed of David (Rom 1:3), and so derives his origin from both sinners and just men. You will find in the ancestry of the Lord, according to the genealogies which the evangelists set out, both many sinners and also just men; that's why he also called such people, namely sinners, because it was also by such that he came.
After all, he gathers the just and sinners together into his Church; he is going to send on the just to the kingdom of heaven, and separate the sinners who persevere in sins and wickedness. And yet he came in order to bear our sins, in such a way that he did not disdain to derive his origin from sinners.

Sequence for Pentecost

Come, Holy Spirit, come,
And from Your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine.
Come, Father of the poor,
Come, source of all our store,
Come, within our bosoms shine.

You, of comforters the best,
You, the soul's most welcome guest,
Sweet refreshment here below.
In our labors, rest most sweet,
Grateful coolness in the heat,
Solace in the midst of woe.

O, most blessed Light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours
and our inmost being fill.
Where you are not, we have nought,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.

Heal our wounds, our strength renew.
On our dryness, pour your dew.
Wash the stains of guilt away.
Bend the stubborn heart and will,
Melt the frozen, warm the chill,
Guide the steps that go astray.

On the faithful, who adore and confess You,
Evermore in Your sevenfold gift descend.
Give them virtue's sure reward.
Give them Your salvation, Lord.
Give them joys that never end.
Amen. Alleluia!

A prayer adapted from St. Thérèse

Merciful Father, in the name of our lovable Jesus,
the Virgin Mary, St. Thérèse, and all the saints,
I ask you to set us all on fire with Your Spirit of love.
Grant us the grace of making You deeply loved.