"COME HOLY SPIRIT, FILL THE HEARTS OF YOUR FAITHFUL AND KINDLE IN THEM THE FIRE OF YOUR LOVE..."

This Thursday, we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension. On the fortieth day after Easter, we remember Jesus being taken up to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father (Mark 16:19, Luke 24:51, and Acts 1:2,9).

Before He went, Jesus told the disciples that He would send The Holy Spirit to guide them on their appointed mission. Jesus instructed the disciples to devote themselves to prayer.

After Jesus ascended into heaven, the disciples went, from what Tradition tells us is Mount Olivet, back to Jerusalem and the Upper Room. It is there that they waited and prayed for nine days, until The Holy Spirit descended upon them with the gifts they needed to carry out the work for which Jesus had chosen them. It is from these nine days in the Upper Room that the popular devotion of novena arose.

A novena is nine days of public or private prayer requesting special graces. This Friday, many of us will follow in the prayer-steps of the first disciples and begin the Novena to The Holy Spirit in anticipation of the Feast of Pentecost.

Won't YOU join us?
NOVENA TO THE HOLY SPIRIT