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 (and particularly those in our affections) 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 eschatologically endure yet imminently bear some sort of (good) fruit.

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, uniter of knots, yet not afraid of the bonds of love.

Help us and the souls entrusted to our concern (and particularly those in our affections) to prepare for Pentecost.

Today we pray for the theological virtues of faith and love, never found separate.

We believe in love.

That God is a Father and loves us first and that by this love we are capable of loving others.

We love the faith, a gift that comes without merit and transforms our small possibilities into a participation in eternal glory.

We pray for the possibility 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 Saviour 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 (and particularly those in our affections) 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

Sequence for Pentecost.

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 (and particularly those in our affections) 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.

Sixth Day

Sequence for Pentecost.

Seventh Day

Sequence for Pentecost.

Eighth Day

John 16:13-15

Sequence for Pentecost.

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.