With the Apostles in the Upper Room during that very first Novena as they awaited the Advocate promised by Jesus, we pray:
Come Holy Spirit! Come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Your well beloved Spouse!
Thou in toil art comfort sweet,
Pleasant coolness in the heat,
Solace in the midst of woe.
Meditation
Knowledge, as a gift of the Holy Spirit, directs the soul to judge of things, both human and divine, according to supernatural common sense and not according to the standards of the worldly-wise. Even with supernatural faith in our soul to elevate our reason, how often we detect ourselves talking of temporal gain and loss, success and failure, suffering and pleasure, purely and simply according to the principles of the worldly-minded! We fail to pierce the veil of the natural and see in suffering a blessing from God. We have come to think it folly to season our pleasures with a pinch of the pepper and salt of mortification; for example: to determine that we will not remain out later than a certain reasonable hour, when we go out for an evening of innocent pleasure. In this age of doubt, materialism, pleasure-seeking, what shall we say of the necessity of this gift to enable us to distinguish good from evil, innocent pleasure from tainted joy, truth from falsehood, the real good from the apparent good among all the things around us? Let us therefore, pray earnestly for this gift.
Prayer
Come, O blessed Spirit of Knowledge, and grant that I may perceive the will of the Father; show me the nothingness of the earthly things, that I may realize their vanity and use them only for thy glory and my own salvation, looking ever beyond them to thee and thy eternal rewards. Amen.
Knowledge, as a gift of the Holy Spirit, directs the soul to judge of things, both human and divine, according to supernatural common sense and not according to the standards of the worldly-wise. Even with supernatural faith in our soul to elevate our reason, how often we detect ourselves talking of temporal gain and loss, success and failure, suffering and pleasure, purely and simply according to the principles of the worldly-minded! We fail to pierce the veil of the natural and see in suffering a blessing from God. We have come to think it folly to season our pleasures with a pinch of the pepper and salt of mortification; for example: to determine that we will not remain out later than a certain reasonable hour, when we go out for an evening of innocent pleasure. In this age of doubt, materialism, pleasure-seeking, what shall we say of the necessity of this gift to enable us to distinguish good from evil, innocent pleasure from tainted joy, truth from falsehood, the real good from the apparent good among all the things around us? Let us therefore, pray earnestly for this gift.
Prayer
Come, O blessed Spirit of Knowledge, and grant that I may perceive the will of the Father; show me the nothingness of the earthly things, that I may realize their vanity and use them only for thy glory and my own salvation, looking ever beyond them to thee and thy eternal rewards. Amen.
Glory Be, seven times.
Sr. Marie, please pray with us and for us through the intercession of Mary to Her Spouse the Holy Spirit that we may be filled with an abundance of His gifts during this Novena. May the cause for the beatification of Sr. Marie DeMandat-Grancey be opened very soon so that more and more graces of peace, love, forgiveness, and understanding from the source of all grace, The Holy Spirit, may envelope this weary world!
Oh, Holy Spirit, beloved of my soul...I adore You. Enlighten me, guide me, strengthen me, console me. Tell me what I should do...give me your orders. I promise to submit myself to all that You desire of me and to accept all that You permit to Happen to me. Let me only do Your will. (This submission to the Holy Spirit is the Secret of Sanctity -- Cardinal Mercier)
The non-italicised portion of this Novena has been compiled by Catherine Fournier.
You may find this Novena in Honor of the Holy Spirit,
compiled in preparation for the Great Jubilee of the Millennium,
in the link enclosed in the title to this post.
You may find this Novena in Honor of the Holy Spirit,
compiled in preparation for the Great Jubilee of the Millennium,
in the link enclosed in the title to this post.
