Pentecost Novena

As we celebrate today the Solemnity of the Ascension, we likewise commemorate the first novena. After the Ascension the Apostles gathered together with the Blessed Virgin, praying nine days until the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Church recalls this event with a novena, especially that novena promoted by Pope Leo XIII for the reunification of Christianity. Because Pentecost is the birth of the Church, we take this occasion to implore that the full number of the faithful be brought into the "one fold". There are links below for a popular novena to the Holy Spirit (although any novena will do) and the ancient Hymn "Veni Creator" (with translation by Oratorian Fr. Caswall). Join us in prayer for the unity of the faithful, and that this Pentecost may be an occasion of great grace.

novena
Veni Creator Spiritus music
Veni Creator Spiritus mp3
Come Holy Ghost (translation by Edward Caswall, CO)

N.B. There is a partial indulgence attached to any public novena before Pentecost. If this blog community is saying it, is this novena "public"? Oh, who knows. Do it anyway.

One thought on “Pentecost Novena

  1. Tom Smith

    The Veni Creator is a beautiful hymn, but I have to say that my favorite hymn to the Spirit is the Pentecost sequence Veni Sancte Spiritus. Although not as ancient, the Golden Sequence, as it was known, is still almost 800 years old at the earliest (scholars attribute it to either ++Stephen Langton, Abp of Canterbury, or Pope Innocent III).

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