Dear parishioners and friends:
As the Easter season draws to a close, we know that its culmination will be another monumental event in the life of the Church and within us as Catholics—the feast of Pentecost. The Church gives us charming opportunities to prepare and celebrate all the magnificent events and mysteries in the Church—Advent prepares us for Christmas, and Lenten season for the Paschal Mystery and Easter—for unique experiences.
However, when it comes to the feast of Pentecost, which celebrates the most extraordinary outpouring and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, how we prepare for it is through a novena. To that end, in 1897, Pope Leo XIII stated the following in his encyclical on the Holy Spirit: "We ought to pray to and invoke the Holy Spirit, for each of us greatly needs His protection and His help. The more a man is deficient in wisdom, weak in strength, borne down with trouble, prone to sin, so ought he the more to fly to Him who is the never-ceasing fount of light, strength, consolation, and holiness." (Pope Leo XIII, 1897).
Sometimes, it feels like we miss the full power and usefulness of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We talk about it, but it's in passing! We don't activate its full magnificent force that broke open the doors and windows of the upper room where the disciples were located on the day of Pentecost.
That is why Pope Leo XIII introduced us to the novena of the Holy Spirit, which is nine consecutive days of prayer to the Holy Spirit for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the entire world. The miraculous and transformative power of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church and individual Christians cannot be overstated. The intention of the Novena to the Holy Spirit is to recover our baptismal contact with the Holy Spirit for empowerment and healthy Christian discipleship through authentic service, ministry, and devotion to prayer and Holy Scripture.
As the Holy Spirit builds the Church and sustains it, it becomes essential for us to pray for nine days as one Church, one body, one faith, always in unity with others in the holy enterprise of building and maintaining the kingdom of God among us. The Holy Spirit made us evangelistic to a world so lost in its material identity, to lead it to discover that our identity remains as spiritual beings created by God.
The Novena to the Holy Spirit starts on May14, 2021. We shall use the prayer format on the next page at morning Masses in our sister parishes of St. John and St. Isidore during the nine days. I urge all parishioners to follow this format each day to do their private novena at their convenience if they cannot get to Mass; it will produce incredible miracles in our personal, family, work, financial, and faith life. While the format of the prayers will remain the same, each day’s prayer will have some variations in the content. Therefore, I will send you the prayers for each day. JUST LOOK FORWARD TO IT. As Jesus said: "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So, it is with everyone born of the Spirit." You have no idea what God is planning for you!
Prayer ~ Blessing: Come Holy Spirit, restore your energizing presence in our lives, and in your Church. Amen.