(image courtesy of CHURCHPowerPoint.com)

As contemplative monastics, our main ministry of service to the Church is that of prayer. So please join us this Pentecost as we prepare to celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles.

The novena in honor of the Holy Spirit is the oldest of all novenas since it was first made at the direction of Our Lord when he sent his apostles back to Jerusalem to await the coming of the Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost. Addressed to the third person of the Blessed Trinity, it is a plea for the light, strength and love desperately needed by our priests.

There is one prayer to be recited daily during the Novena and nine additional prayers. We will post these prayers each day as a reminder.

First Day, June 3: The Holy Spirit

We must ever stay focused on eternal salvation. Only one thing, therefore, is to be feared – sin.

Sin is the result of ignorance, weakness and indifference. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Light, of Strength and of Love. With his sevenfold gifts he enlightens the mind, strengthens the will and inflames the heart with love of God.

To ensure our salvation we ought to invoke the Divine Spirit daily for “The Spirit helps our infirmity. We know not what we should pray for as we ought. But the Spirit himself asks for us.”

Let us pray. Almighty and eternal God, who has granted to regenerate us by water and the Holy Spirit and has given us forgiveness of all sins, granted to send forth from heaven upon us the sevenfold Spirit, the Spirt of Wisdom and Understanding, the Spirit of Counsel and Fortitude, the Spirit of Knowledge and Piety and fill us with the Spirit of Holy Fear. Amen.

Pray the Our Father once, the Hail Mary once and the Glory Be seven times; then pray the Prayer of the the Seven Gifts (below).

Prayer for the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit (recited daily)

O, Lord Jesus Christ, who, before ascending into heaven did promise to send the Holy Spirit to finish thy work in the souls of thy apostles and disciples, deign to grant, in our own times, the same Holy Spirit to our bishop and priests, that he may perfect in their souls the work of thy grace and thy love.

Grant them the Spirit of Wisdom that our priests may despise the perishable things of this world and aspire only after the things that are eternal; the Spirit of Understanding to enlighten our priests’ minds with the light of thy divine truth; the Spirit of Counsel that our priests may ever choose the surest way to pleasing God and gaining heaven; the Spirit of Fortitude that our priests may bear their crosses with thee and that they may overcome with courage all the obstacles to salvation; the Spirit of Knowledge that our priests may know God and themselves and grow perfect in the science of the Saints; the Spirit of Piety that our priests may find the service of God sweet and amiable; and the Spirit of Fear that our priests may be filled with a loving reverence toward God and may dread in any way to displease him. Mark our priests, dear Lord, with the sign of thy true disciples, and animate them in all things with thy Spirit. Amen.

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