A NEW PENTECOST – A Pentecost Novena Testimony from St. Louis

The Church’s liturgy for both the Vigil and the Feast of Pentecost are great coffers from which to draw much insight regarding Life in the Holy Spirit. These liturgies are a good reminder that what the Holy Spirit manifested to Moses and the Israelites (Exodus 12 – 14) is also available to us.

“…and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that dwells in you.” (Rom. 5:5)

If the Spirit of the One Who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the One Who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also.” (Rom. 8: 11). I was also drawn to the beautiful poetic Sequence for Pentecost. It reassures us that, “the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Spirit of God dwelling in us.”

To help us contemplate this life in the Spirit in preparation for Pentecost, the Office of Charismatic Renewal in St. Louis invited us to participate in a Novena. We were briefly instructed in the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit, enough information to whet our appetites for more. We were prepared to receive the message each evening by a short period of prayer together. All of this would have carried much greater power if more people had participated. Part of the power of the first Pentecost was the participation of more than 5000 drawn by Peter’s explanation of what had happened in the Upper Room.

Part of my heritage was being taught to call upon the Holy Spirit before beginning ANY gathering. “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of Your Divine Love; send forth Your Spirit and they shall be recreated, and You will renew the face of the earth.”

I am grateful for all the helps offered me to celebrate Pentecost both in the Church’s liturgies and in the Novena sponsored by the Charismatic Renewal Office. Hopefully this stirring up of my spirit for Pentecost will add new fire to my living out of a new Pentecost.

~Sister Marie Daugherty

How did your group/region participate in the Pentecost Novena this year?  Let us know so that we can pass it along and inspire others on how to respond to Pope Leo XIII’s desire “that throughout the whole Catholic Church, this year and in every subsequent year, a novena shall take place before Whit-Sunday (Pentecost), in all parish churches.” (Encyclical On the Holy Spirit, 13)