Pray For The Outpouring Of The Holy Spirit Upon Our Church

“But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.  And when he comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation: sin, because they do not believe in me; righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.”( John 16:7-14) 

In the above words Jesus gave as the chief reason of His departure and His return to the Father, the advantage which would most certainly accrue to His followers from the coming of the Holy Spirit, and, at the same time, He made it clear that the Holy Spirit is equally sent by-and therefore proceeds from-Himself and the Father; that He would complete as Intercessor, Consoler, and Teacher, the work which Christ Himself had begun in His mortal life.

In addition, the Holy Spirit leads us to Jesus:

“No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.”(1Cor 12:3).

“God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!” (Gal 4:6). 

This knowledge of faith is possible only in the Holy Spirit.  To be in touch with Christ, we must first have been touched by the Holy Spirit. He comes to meet us and kindles faith in us. By virtue of our Baptism, the first sacrament of the faith, the Holy Spirit in the Church communicates to us, intimately and personally, the life that originates in the Father and is offered to us in the Son.

“Baptism gives us the grace of new birth in God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit. For those who bear God’s Spirit are led to the Word, that is, to the Son, and the Son presents them to the Father, and the Father confers incorruptibility on them. And it is impossible to see God’s Son without the Spirit, and no one can approach the Father without the Son, for the knowledge of the Father is the Son, and the knowledge of God’s Son is obtained through the Holy Spirit.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #684)

Jesus told the early disciples “ I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:49). Evangelisation is not possible without the Holy Spirit. Jesus was guided by the Holy Spirit and he instructed the first disciples to do likewise. The Holy Spirit is the fulfillment of a promise that Jesus made; a promise that we would not be left orphans that the Holy Spirit would come and guide us.

John Paul II says in the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, “The great mystical tradition of the Church ……. shows how prayer can progress, as a genuine dialogue of love, to the point of rendering the person wholly possessed by the divine Beloved, vibrating at the Spirit’s touch, resting filially within the Father’s heart.” We are called to surrender more and more of our lives to the Power and Love of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said to St Faustina, “Faithfulness to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit , that is the shortest route to holiness. ”(Diary 291)

In 2Timothy 1:6, St Paul reminds us “For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”

The Holy Father’s mission prayer intention for June 2011 is “That the Holy Spirit may bring forth from our communities many missionaries who are ready to be fully consecrated to spreading the Kingdom of God.”

In his Encyclical on the Holy Spirit (May 1897) Pope Leo XIII declared that:

“We must pray to the Holy Spirit and bring our petitions before Him, for we have great need of His help and protection.  We are poor, weak, troubled and inclined to evil.  Hence we make recourse to Him, Who is the inexhaustible source of light, consolation, and grace.  Above an, we must beg Him for forgiveness of our sins.

In short, we must pray to the Holy Spirit with confidence and constancy that He may daily more and more illumine us with His light and inflame us with His Love.  In this way, through faith and love, we will be led to labour unstintingly to lay hold of the eternal rewards for He is the pledge of our inheritance.”

Pope Leo XIII also decreed and commanded that throughout the whole Catholic Church, “this year (1897) and in every subsequent year, a Novena shall take place before Whit-Sunday (Pentecost), in all parish churches, and also, if the local Ordinaries think fit, in other churches and oratories.

My brothers and sisters, God gave birth to the Church through the Holy Spirit and the Church cannot exist without the Holy Spirit. We are the Church and whether or not we wish to acknowledge it, the Church is charismatic by its very nature. We need the power of the Holy Spirit every day. We need to fan into a blazing flame the fire of the Holy Spirit.

It was through the power of God and the coming of the Holy Spirit that the apostles on the day of Pentecost left the secrecy of their room to confront the world with Christ’s message. It is the same for us today: we who are called to be disciples of Christ have a similar calling as we are sent out to confront the secularism of this modern world.

At the beginning of Mass we are greeted with the hope that the ‘fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.’ It is in the Eucharist that we hear the promptings of the Holy Spirit which are the essential source for the continuation and re invigoration of the faith of the Church today as it has been since the first Pentecost.

John Paul II, in his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, spoke of the Eucharist as ‘the supreme sacramental manifestation of communion in the Church’ .

Benedict XVI, in his Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, states: ‘The Spirit invoked by the celebrant upon the gifts of bread and wine placed on the altar is the same Spirit who gathers the faithful ‘into one body’ and makes of them a spiritual offering pleasing to the Father’.

The Church draws life from the Eucharist since it is the origin of her being and activity. The Holy Father continues: ‘It is significant that the Second Eucharistic Prayer, invoking the Paraclete, formulates its prayer.’

Let us pray in the name of Jesus, that God, who is rich in mercy, would overlook our shortcomings and renew His Holy Spirit in each of us and in our Church every day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiLGqyxTpR4

LET US UNITE IN PRAYING A HOLY SPIRIT NOVENA FOR OUR CHURCH

JULY 01 TO 09, 2011