On May 11, the Church celebrates Pentecost, the time the Church was officially ‘born’ when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles and Mary. It is also the birth of the Catholic devotion known as a “Novena”, or nine days of prayer. When Jesus ascended into Heaven He promised them a new Advocate would lead and guide them. This Advocate is the Third Person of the Trinity, or the Holy Spirit. During the time after Jesus’ Ascension, the Apostles and Mary spent 9 days in prayer.

The Novena begins today, and will continue once a day ending a week from tomorrow.

What I will do is today write a general prayer for the Novena, and then each day come up with a prayer for each of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit (Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, Counsel, Fortitude, Piety and Fear of the Lord). Since that would only give me 8, I decided to add a final request for the gift of sobriety. Although not one of the gifts, it would make a fitting conclusion for this Novena.

Also, in case this blogpost looks any different from previous ones, I am using a new blog editor, called “ScribeFire”. It is an add-on or extension for my Firefox browser. I no longer have to actually login to the Blogger site to post to SoberCatholic or the Four Last Things. Neat!