A Novena to the Holy Spirit
Veni, Sancte Spiritus
The Upper Room
The Novena Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful, and kindle in them the fire of thy love.
Send forth thy Spirit and they shall be created, and thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit didst instruct the hearts of thy faithful, grant that by the same Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy his consolations, through Christ our Lord.
The nine days between the Ascension and Pentecost, spent by the apostles in prayer with Mary in a room in Jerusalem (Acts 1:12-14), are the only novena whose dates are recorded in Scripture, and the origin of the novena as a form of prayer.
The Gift of Wisdom
The Novena Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful, and kindle in them the fire of thy love.
Send forth thy Spirit and they shall be created, and thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit didst instruct the hearts of thy faithful, grant that by the same Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy his consolations, through Christ our Lord.
The traditional list of seven gifts comes from Isaiah 11:2-3 in its Greek and Latin form; the Hebrew text names only six, wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and fear of the Lord, and it is the Septuagint and the Vulgate that split fear of the Lord into two to reach seven, adding piety.
The Gift of Understanding
The Novena Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful, and kindle in them the fire of thy love.
Send forth thy Spirit and they shall be created, and thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit didst instruct the hearts of thy faithful, grant that by the same Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy his consolations, through Christ our Lord.
Thomas Aquinas gives the classic theological account of the seven gifts in the Summa Theologiae, treating them as permanent dispositions that make a soul responsive to the Holy Spirit's own promptings, distinct from the theological and cardinal virtues.
The Gift of Counsel
The Novena Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful, and kindle in them the fire of thy love.
Send forth thy Spirit and they shall be created, and thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit didst instruct the hearts of thy faithful, grant that by the same Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy his consolations, through Christ our Lord.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church restates the traditional list of seven gifts at paragraph 1831, citing Isaiah directly and naming the Holy Spirit as the one who completes and perfects the virtues of those who receive them.
The Gift of Fortitude
The Novena Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful, and kindle in them the fire of thy love.
Send forth thy Spirit and they shall be created, and thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit didst instruct the hearts of thy faithful, grant that by the same Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy his consolations, through Christ our Lord.
The sacrament of Confirmation is traditionally understood to strengthen these same seven gifts in a Christian already baptized, which is why the rite's own prayer asks God to send the sevenfold Spirit upon the person being confirmed.
The Gift of Knowledge
The Novena Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful, and kindle in them the fire of thy love.
Send forth thy Spirit and they shall be created, and thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit didst instruct the hearts of thy faithful, grant that by the same Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy his consolations, through Christ our Lord.
The New Testament's Greek text lists nine fruits of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23; the Latin Vulgate's version has twelve, adding modesty, continency, and chastity from a longer textual tradition that later became standard in the West.
The Gift of Piety
The Novena Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful, and kindle in them the fire of thy love.
Send forth thy Spirit and they shall be created, and thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit didst instruct the hearts of thy faithful, grant that by the same Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy his consolations, through Christ our Lord.
The Greek word for the Holy Spirit's title in John's Gospel, parakletos, has no single English equivalent and has been translated Advocate, Comforter, and Counselor in different versions of the text, each catching part of what the word originally meant: one called alongside to help.
The Gift of Fear of the Lord
The Novena Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful, and kindle in them the fire of thy love.
Send forth thy Spirit and they shall be created, and thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit didst instruct the hearts of thy faithful, grant that by the same Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy his consolations, through Christ our Lord.
Pentecost takes its name from the Greek for fiftieth, since it falls fifty days after Passover; the timing is not a coincidence, since the feast the apostles were already keeping that day was Shavuot, the Jewish Feast of Weeks, itself fifty days after Passover.
Pentecost
The Novena Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful, and kindle in them the fire of thy love.
Send forth thy Spirit and they shall be created, and thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit didst instruct the hearts of thy faithful, grant that by the same Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy his consolations, through Christ our Lord.
The list of nations in Acts 2:9-11, whose people each hear the apostles in their own language, is often read as a deliberate reversal of the scattering of languages at Babel in Genesis 11.
The Veni Sancte Spiritus that opens each day, with its versicle and collect, is the traditional prayer to the Holy Spirit, of ancient and disputed authorship (variously attributed to Pope Innocent III, King Robert II of France, and others) and long in universal liturgical use. What follows each day is a fact about the seven gifts, the fruits, or the history of Pentecost itself, one per day.
