Pentecost novena 2025
Initial prayer
Dear Father,
Your Son invites us to gather together with Mary and the Apostles in prayer, moved with the desire to receive anew the gift of Your Spirit. Send Your Spirit, O Lord, into our hearts and minds, help us to turn to You with all our strength. Bring us together as one parish, united through the power of Your grace and the bonds of charity, so that we might better sustain each other in our journey to Heaven and share our Faith with those who do not know You.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
The birth of the Church
Christ lives in us and wants to live in us even more!
Jesus is already with you, but if you want Him to, He can increase His Presence!
Pentecost is here, and ’tis the season to choose the life of Jesus in a more personal way. That is why the Holy Spirit comes to us! So let us get ready with a powerful Novena of thirst and expectation for the Gift of God.
This Jubilee year is inviting us to live with hope, and to journey through this life as pilgrims, recognising that we can only grow if we trust in the Lord and are ready to take risks!
Yes, very clearly, the Feast of Pentecost shows us that the immediate effect of the Spirit’s arrival can be seen in how all the Apostles left the closed room where they had lived together in prayer (and in fear), and were sent—like Jesus—into the “dangerous” world of Jerusalem.
In the streets of the Holy City, Peter began to preach boldly to people of diverse backgrounds and languages—and everyone understood in their own tongue.
The risk they took was not an act of madness or recklessness—it was the Spirit of the Lord taking over their poor hearts and minds, and allowing little birds to fly like eagles.
This is where we begin our journey to Pentecost.
Are you just a little bird who can barely flap your wings? Are you afraid of the Holy Spirit? Do you lack the confidence to trust in Jesus?
Bring all of these fears and concerns to the Lord as we begin our Novena.
The Lord will open you up to His Power and Love.
Alleluia!
Those who are moved by God are
children of God
Before Pentecost, the disciples were in various states of awareness of their vocations and missions. All of the disciples had not had the same experience of the Resurrection. There were no Gospels written yet. St Paul was still Saul. Peter was not yet Saint Peter. A lot of hearts and minds were still confused.
We see that on the day of the Ascension, it is still a bit confusing to everyone. The nine days of prayer with the Mother of God in the upper room will create the expectation of the fulfilment of God’s promise. By the end of this experience, disciples in disarray will become aware that they are, in fact, the Body of Christ.
Soon, every disciple will be a Missionary Disciple, for no one could imagine living their lives apart from the Holy Spirit. Since the Spirit breathes the Life of God into our souls, we can say that each of us praying this Novena will be sent!
Today, let us simply think about that for a bit.
There are no disciples that are not missionary.
Next time you hear the words “missionary disciples”, say,
“Oh, they’re talking about me...”
When that happens, really listen closely — because the Lord is definitely seeking your attention.
This new life always begins through prayer, so let us do our best right now as we move forward one more day in our Novena.
First gift of the Holy Spirit: Fear of the Lord
Blessed are the poor: Christ is the servant King
“Holy Spirit, I am afraid and I need your presence here right now...”
The first gift of the Lord is called the Gift of Fear!
The fear of the Lord has not much to do with being scared... but rather it fosters the spiritual poverty of the little ones who are happy to rely on God.
The only fear they have is to leave the hands of God and to find themselves away from the Lord. The only security of those who live by the Gift of Fear is to continue living in the House of the Lord.
But how do we achieve that?
Pentecost teaches us that our security will not be found in the upper room where the disciples had felt safe for a while...
We are not meant to hide from the reality of our world.
When we are ready to grow, the only real security is to follow the Lamb to the Cross.
Curiously, there is no safety in our spiritual lives without the risk of following the Spirit’s lead!
It is safe to say that the Spirit will lead us to share our lives with everyone, starting with those who are already close to us and are a part of our lives.
Every new step you have taken in your life has come with some risk — since your first day at school, and at every important step in your journey, you have accepted to face many risks.
You could almost measure the importance of the decision by the risk that you faced.
In our relationship with the Lord, there are also many risks.
Since we are no strangers to them, let us turn to the Spirit of God, who is the source of our Hope and our Courage.
Let us prepare ourselves to receive the One who guides our steps to safety throughout our earthly pilgrimage!
The Gift of Wisdom
Blessed are the peacemakers: Christ is the King of Peace
Hoping and trusting in the Holy Spirit as a way of living our lives can be very challenging.
If we do accept the Spirit’s guidance, certainly we will lose control of so many things.
That does not mean that we will be “out of control”; not at all.
We will be detached from all of those goods that we love so much, including our sense of pride and of control over the events of our life.
This fundamental disposition of poverty opens us to do God’s Will and to effectively become available to experience the prayer life that oftentimes we have desired but have been unsuccessful at letting go of all those things that keep us away from prayer...
But also, we have often admired the life of Charity of the Saints and now we can effectively love our neighbours.
Let’s not make Charity a question of mere temperament. Surely, some of us have a natural disposition to be welcoming and warm, while others are more reserved and less warm.
Nevertheless, that is not what the Mystery of Charity is about.
No matter who we are, we all respond to the call to come out of ourselves in order to follow Christ and to be freed from captivity and slavery to sin.
The road of hope calls us into the adventure of being sent by God.
Where? To our own lives, but with a new set of eyes and a new heart.
This is what the Gift of Wisdom will do for us.
We will prioritise differently if we invite the Holy Spirit into our hearts.
Let’s do it then!
The Gift of Understanding
Blessed Are the Pure of Heart: Christ Is the Prophet of Truth
What does the Gift of Understanding do for us? In this Easter Season, we are reading and listening to the Gospel of St John quite a bit. As we get closer to Pentecost, the words Jesus spoke in the few hours before his arrest are presented to us every day. If you recall the Gospel of the Resurrection, you might remember that angels appeared to the women inside the tomb. The apparition of angels might be enough to convince anyone that the Lord has truly risen. When you stop to think, if angels would appear to you and deliver such a powerful message, I think you would be ready to believe and you would become an incredible witness for your brothers and sisters! But the angels don’t think that would be enough. Instead, they feel the need to send you back to the words Jesus spoke concerning his arrest, passion, death and resurrection. The Angels want the women to ‘understand’!
The Parable of the sower already indicated to us that the one who listens and understands will bear fruit! Pentecost is the feast of the harvest. There will be no fruit in God’s harvest if we don’t ‘understand’ the Word. Our Faith requires our understanding. We don’t just believe in miracles and wonders and leave it there... My Faith deepens my relationship with the Living God, which opens my heart to live in the reality of this world. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to open our hearts and mind to understand the scriptures!
The Gift of Fortitude
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice:
Christ is the Martyr
Our true strength comes from the amazing Hope that God has planted in our hearts. We are able to walk and not grow weary. He gives us wings like eagles and makes our legs strong as hind’s legs climbing up the mountain tops. Many images such as these appear in the Scriptures. So many examples of courage and determination. God’s People learn to persevere. The Son of God Himself learns obedience through suffering. The kingdom of God suffers violence... What is the strength that we have? The Holy Spirit moves us forward through the Gift of Fortitude. We can stand up and be a true witness of God’s victory over evil. We are sent into our world with the strength of the saints, who stand by Jesus at the Cross and who are witnesses of the truth, just like Him! This is a great honour, but it requires a great outpouring of Grace. That is why we do this Novena! We can all recognise the beauty of living in God’s presence but we also must know that we only go forward and persevere because we have learned to depend on the Holy Spirit! That requires the Spirit’s powerful assistance. So let us seize the day! This is the Day to ask Jesus for an increase in the Gift of the Spirit!
The Gift of Knowledge
Blessed are those who mourn: Christ is the Good Shepherd
As the Holy Spirit finds a home inside our souls, the Spirit will shape us to be conformed to Our Lord Jesus Christ. Conformity to Christ is the unbelievable holiness to which every single baptised is invited to attain through a life of humility and spiritual poverty. “May He increase and I decrease” said St John the Baptist, the Patron Saint of our Diocese! “Be perfect as my Father in Heaven is perfect,” meaning “Be merciful as my Father in Heaven is merciful!” And who is the Merciful One? The Good Shepherd! Are you ready to have the heart of the Good Shepherd? Are you ready to care for others as Jesus does? That is the question we all need to answer. If your answer is YES, then the Holy Spirit is waiting for your prayers! It is the Spirit who gives you a heart similar to Our Lord’s.
We pray now for an increase in the Gift of Knowledge. What makes Jesus weep, what makes His Heart so moved with true compassion is the knowledge He has of our situations in life as well as the heights to which we are called... such a painful contrast emerges at times. The Redeemer knows and cares about all of us. It makes Him suffer for us. And how about us? Sometimes we might think: “ignorance is bliss!” Not knowing what is happening in the lives of others gives us a pass to “enjoy” our own solitary plans and to pursue selfish dreams and petty projects. Oh, Lord let it not be! Let us open up to the Heart of Jesus!
The Gift of Piety
Blessed are the Merciful: Christ is the Merciful Lamb
If we asked the Spirit to help us know just as the Heart of Jesus knows, then you can probably guess what is coming next! Jesus treats knowledge in a different way than us. He is always looking at distributing His Mercy! Jesus knows sinners and their sins in order to be moved in His Heart so that He can act with compassion and mercy! Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy! This is called the fruit of the Gift of Piety!
To be truly pious means to truly love our Heavenly Father. The Father has sent His Son not to condemn the world but to save the world! We must ask the Spirit for the privilege of being sent to everyone who needs to know the Father in the truest and most vital of ways. Just as Jesus has forgiven us, so must we become instruments of His Forgiveness right here in Christchurch. We humbly ask the Lord to send His Spirit upon us and renew the face of the earth, through the gift of His Mercy! This time, Lord, let it begin with me… let it happen through me!
The Gift of Counsel
Blessed Are the Meek:
Christ is the One Who is Sent by the Father
“Come, Holy Spirit!” What better way to end than to join the voices of everyone inside the Church, who cry out “Maranatha!” What a wonderful grace if we can practice all of the inspirations of the Holy Spirit! And why not? What better life could we ever aim to have? To welcome the Spirit into our concrete lives we must become meek! “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth!” To inherit the earth means to allow ourselves to be conquered by Christ, and that is the meaning of Pentecost! Let your life become the harvest that God wants... This is the advice of the Holy Spirit! We are ending our novena with the last of the seven Gifts of the Spirit: the Gift of Counsel. Let us ask the Lord to lead us into the abundance of life that He has promised. Holy Spirit, we have listened to You and we have prayed for Your help. Now, let us be transformed by the renewal that Pentecost brings. Come, Holy Spirit, invisible Guest of my Soul, and help me become more docile to Your light and inspiration! Amen!
Concluding prayers
After reading the meditation for the given day, we will conclude with the following:
Praying a decade of the Rosary
The 3rd Glorious Mystery:
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost;
The fruit of the Mystery:
Charity – the Unity of the Church.
Praying "Come, Holy Spirit"
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in us the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray
O God, who did instruct the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant us in the same Spirit to be truly wise, and ever to rejoice in His consolation, through Christ, our Lord. Amen.