We recently celebrated the feast of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down as a mighty wind and appeared as tongues of fire over the heads of the first disciples. Forty-two years ago, I experienced my own Pentecost, referred to as the Baptism of the Holy Spirit in charismatic circles. I’d always been a committed Catholic, enjoyed the Bible, and loved reading the lives of the saints. But my life changed radically on March 17, 1977. The Bible came alive to me in a completely new way. I fell passionately in love with Jesus Christ. I came to know the Person I had previously loved from afar. I began to experience the miraculous on a regular basis. Most treasured of all, I was filled with a sense of the Lord’s love and presence that has never left me since that day of anointing.
I love, love, LOVE the Holy Spirit. I know that He alone makes the Christian life possible, and – even more – passionate. The last few years, I’ve prayed a novena (a nine-day series of recited prayers) to the Holy Spirit, starting on the feast of the Ascension and ending on the eve of Pentecost. My desire is that He renew and empower the Church, the world, me, and all those with whom I’m connected. Unfortunately, the only novena to the Holy Spirit that I’ve been able to find is pretty disappointing.
It was apparently composed by the Spiritan Fathers in 1912. On the plus side, it’s orthodox and scriptural. On the minus side – ironically, since on the day of Pentecost, the power of the Holy Spirit multiplied the original 120 disciples to three thousand – it’s excessively individualistic. It’s about the Lord giving me the gifts of counsel, wisdom, fortitude, and the other gifts of the Holy Spirit cited in Isaiah 11:2-3a. The language is pious, somewhat vague, and blandly intellectual. Here’s a snippet:
Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom that I may despise the perishable things of this world and aspire only after the things that are eternal, the Spirit of Understanding to enlighten my mind with the light of Your divine truth, the Spirit of Counsel that I may ever choose the surest way of pleasing God and gaining heaven…
All great things, to be sure. But incredibly, there’s nothing about how the Holy Spirit swept like a tsunami through the Roman Empire in the wake of Pentecost. There’s nothing about mighty miracles, fiery preaching, radical transformation, or more-than-atomic-blast power. It’s that which transformed a group of disciples huddled in fear in the Upper Room. With that blast of wind, they became fearless soon-to-be-martyrs who preached Jesus Risen with burning words and amazed the pagans by their love for one another.
The last thing the world needs is to experience the Holy Spirit as weak and dull. He’s not a damp dud of a firecracker. He is DYNAMITE. Read Louis de Wohl’s breathtaking novelized biography of St. Catherine of Siena, Lay Siege to Heaven, if you want to see what happens when someone lets the Holy Spirit work through her with no impediment whatsoever. Watch the stunning video, “Who Is the Holy Spirit?” from the Alpha course – the link is here: https://vimeo.com/216413959 – to witness how His fire saves souls from destruction and sweeps like a hurricane through history.
So here’s a stab at a new Novena to the Holy Spirit. Thank God, I won’t need to start from scratch. The Church has a 12th century chant (called the Golden Sequence because of its rich imagery) that has formed part of the Pentecost liturgy for centuries. A verse for each day is featured in the existing novena, but the proposed new Novena would have it recited in full on each day. Some of the imagery I will use is derived from it.
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The Golden Sequence (to be recited each day of the novena)
Holy Spirit, Lord divine/Come, from heights of heav’n and on us shine/Come with blessed radiance bright
Come, O Father of the poor/Come, whose treasured gifts endure/Come, our heart’s unfailing light
Of consolers, wisest, best/And our soul’s most welcome guest/Sweet refreshment, sweet repose
In our labour rest most sweet/Pleasant coolness in the heat/Consolation in our woes
Light most blessed, shine with grace/In our heart’s most secret place/Fill your faithful through and through
Left without your presence here/Life itself would disappear/Nothing thrives apart from you
Cleanse our soiled hearts of sin/Arid souls refresh within/Wounded lives to health restore.
Bend the stubborn heart and will/Melt the frozen, warm the chill/Guide the wayward home once more
On the faithful who are true/And profess their faith in you/In your sev’nfold gift descend
Give us virtue’s sure reward/Give us your salvation, Lord/Give us joys that never end. Amen.
A NEW NOVENA TO THE HOLY SPIRIT
Day 1: Come, Holy Spirit, Light and Radiance of the Father and the Son!
Transform us from glory to glory as we gaze on the face of Jesus Risen and Glorified. Cleanse your Church from the viciousness of error and falsehood. Come, Spirit of Truth! Lead us into all truth. Make us lovers of the truth that you bring. Make us zealous in speaking and living that truth, in love.
(Here, present any particular petition for which you are offering the novena.)
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Pray the Golden Sequence.)
Day 2: Come, Holy Spirit, Fire of Love! Come, Love that flows between the Father and the Son!
Fill us with mercy and compassion. Blaze out our selfishness. Overflow in us so that we burn with the sacrificial love-unto-death with which You filled the Hearts of Jesus, Mary, and all the saints. Fill us with zeal for prayer and readiness to forgive all wrongs. Make us ministers of reconciliation. Kindle in us a love for Your Word. Set us afire so that we might set the world on fire.
(Here, present any particular petition for which you are offering the novena.)
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Pray the Golden Sequence.)
Day 3: Come, Holy Spirit, Mighty Wind!
Rush upon us, as you did on Your holy servant, David. Let Your hurricane love sweep our souls’ foundations of all that is not Jesus. Let only love, joy, peace; patience, kindness, goodness; faithful, gentleness, and self-control remain. Wake us up, sweep us off of our feet, fill the sails of our desires so that we journey with and in and through You and so at last reach safe harbor.
(Here, present any particular petition for which you are offering the novena.)
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Pray the Golden Sequence.)
Day 4: Come, Holy Spirit, Water of Life, Love, and Consolation!
Come, flood us with refreshment. Be a tsunami that drowns our sin and selfishness and raises us to a life lived for God. O Marvelous Stream that flowed from the side of the Temple of Jesus’ Body, water our desert souls. Cleanse our stagnant, tepid hearts. Well up in us with a joy that no one can take away, and let us drink in that peace that passes understanding.
(Here, present any particular petition for which you are offering the novena.)
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Pray the Golden Sequence.)
Day 5: Come, Holy Spirit, Spirit of Power!
Unleash in us the might of every sacrament we have received. Give us a new Pentecost. Strengthen us with holy boldness. Enlarge our hearts to bursting with holy desires. Drive us to step out in faith in mighty works, ablaze with confidence that the same power is at work in us that raised Jesus from the dead, filled Peter on Pentecost and Paul in his mission to the nations, and has shone forth in the glorious lives of the saints, recognized or hidden, throughout the ages.
(Here, present any particular petition for which you are offering the novena.)
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Pray the Golden Sequence.)
Day 6: Come, Holy Spirit, Consoler and Advocate!
Heal the brokenhearted, rescue the prisoner, father the poor. Break our chains, enlighten our minds, and unbind our spirits. So fill our hearts that we may console others with the same consolation with which we have been consoled. Make us lights in the darkness, encouragement to the despondent, and hope for the downtrodden. Let our faces be radiant with joy and our hearts filled with gratitude.
(Here, present any particular petition for which you are offering the novena.)
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Pray the Golden Sequence.)
Day 7: Come, Holy Spirit, Counselor and Teacher!
Help us to hear Your still, small voice. Help us to discern clearly Your leading and obey it always. Let us walk, or run, or leap as You lead. Guide us in great things and in little. Pour out on us Your wisdom, so that we know when to speak or be silent, to act or to wait. Let our speech be filled with confidence and power, as You, the Spirit of our Father, give us what to say.
(Here, present any particular petition for which you are offering the novena.)
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Pray the Golden Sequence.)
Day 8: Come, Holy Spirit, Guardian and Savior!
Save us from everlasting death. Fill the Church with a zeal for souls, so that we might dare to speak out and turn others from error and sin. Fill us with the courage to freely share the good news of salvation that has been freely shared with us. Become a fire imprisoned in our bones that we can’t keep in, so that we speak of Jesus in our going out and coming in, our rising and our lying down, in the home and in the marketplace.
(Here, present any particular petition for which you are offering the novena.)
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Pray the Golden Sequence.)
Day 9: Come, Holy Spirit, Giver of every good and perfect gift!
In Your sevenfold gifts descend. Fill us with wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. Blessed Mother, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, pray for us! Pray that by His power, the Holy Spirit may form us into Jesus, just as He formed Jesus in you. Come, Holy Spirit! Restore the splendor of the Church, that she might be found without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, holy and without blemish. Come, Lord Jesus! Hasten the day when every knee shall bend and every tongue proclaim that JESUS CHRIST IS LORD!
(Here, present any particular petition for which you are offering the novena.)
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Pray the Golden Sequence.)
