Novena to the Holy Spirit

Novenas

Ascension to Pentecost

The first novena — nine days in the upper room.

After the Ascension, the apostles returned to Jerusalem and spent nine days in prayer with Mary, waiting. On the tenth day the Spirit came. Every novena since is an imitation of those nine days, which makes this one the original — and the one the Church urges on the faithful each year between Ascension and Pentecost.

Prayer for Each Day

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful
and kindle in them the fire of Your love.

V. Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created.
R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit
did instruct the hearts of the faithful,
grant that by the same Holy Spirit
we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Nine Days

Each day, pray for one of the seven gifts, with two days to open and close:

  1. Day 1 — For the Holy Spirit to come, as He came upon the apostles.
  2. Day 2 — For the gift of fear of the Lord: reverence, and horror of sin.
  3. Day 3 — For the gift of piety: to love God as a child loves a father.
  4. Day 4 — For the gift of fortitude: courage to do what is right at cost.
  5. Day 5 — For the gift of knowledge: to see created things as they truly are.
  6. Day 6 — For the gift of understanding: to grasp what we believe.
  7. Day 7 — For the gift of counsel: to choose rightly in hard cases.
  8. Day 8 — For the gift of wisdom: to judge all things in the light of God.
  9. Day 9 — For the fruits of the Spirit to appear in our lives, and for the Church.

The Veni Creator

Many pray the Veni Creator Spiritus daily through the novena. Praying it publicly at Pentecost or on 1 January carries a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions.

About This Novena

Pope Leo XIII asked in 1897 that this novena be prayed in every parish in the world each year, and the request has never been withdrawn. It is the one novena the Church has effectively made her own.